Australian found guilty of murdering his wife and exchanging student in 1982, crime solved after podcast

The case has remained unsolved for over 40 years.

By the end of August this year, the New South Wales Supreme Court judge, Australia, found 74-year-old Chris Dawson guilty of murdering his wife, Lynette.

This Friday (12/02), the sentence was announced: 24 years in prison – with the right to parole after 18 years. The judge agreed that he would die behind bars.

However, Chris’s lawyer stated that his client will likely appeal the decision.

A former professional rugby player, Chris lived in the city of Sydney with himself and his two children.

They were a seemingly normal family until he disappeared without a trace in January 1982. Lynette was 33 at the time.

Chris left rugby in the late 1970s and became a physical education teacher at a public school on Sydney’s North Beaches.

And right during the lectures, he fell in love with Joanne Curtis, one of the young students referred to as JC in the recent trial.

unfaithfulness

JC was just 16 when Chris fell in love with her, according to details revealed in both the trial and the 2018 research podcast that uncovered the case. Teacher’s Pet????????

Joanne was part of a dysfunctional family where violence and alcohol were part of her daily routine.

Despite being twice her age and married, the teacher had a close relationship with the young woman. Chris kept the teenager in his home as a nanny and formed a secret relationship with him.

According to JC’s testimony during the trial, the two secretly had sex while Lynette was asleep or showering.

In Judge Ian Harrison’s assessment, Chris Dawson was obsessed with the young man his wife saw as a “backup.”

Just three days after Lynette disappeared, the young student moved in with the Dawsons permanently.

Loss

The judge said that in the months before his wife disappeared, Chris’s desperation grew as his divorce plans failed and JC threatened to end the case.

According to the magistrate, “When love turned into a sexual relationship, Dawson was faced with the harsh reality that she could not stay married and yet maintain an increasingly intense relationship with the young man”.

“The prospect of losing her caused him distress, disappointment, and overwhelmed him so much that Dawson decided to kill his wife,” the judge said.

Chris Dawson denies killing Lynette and has always claimed that Lynette left him and their two children, possibly to join a religious group.

Police have not found a single trace of Lynette since her disappearance in the 1980s.

Chris claimed that his wife called him days after he disappeared to say he needed a break from their relationship.

He assured that the initial call was followed by others, but there is no evidence of this. Therefore, the judge believes this version is a lie.

The husband’s defense also claimed that at least five people saw the missing woman alive after January 1982.

This did not convince the judge, who regarded the events as errors of perception by the alleged witnesses.

In 1984, two years after Lynette’s disappearance, Chris Dawson and Joanne Curtis were married and had a daughter. The couple divorced in 1993.

podcast

Two investigations into Lynette’s disappearance in 2001 and 2003 concluded that she had been killed by a “known person”.

But prosecutors didn’t see enough evidence to prosecute until journalist Hedley Thomas investigated the incident on a podcast.

Winner of Australia’s highest journalism award, the Walkley, Teacher’s Pet It has amassed over 60 million downloads and reached #1 on the Australian charts. The show also received high ratings in the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

The impact of the podcast and its content on the public played a major role in Chris’ arrest and murder charge in 2018.

Judge Harrison criticized the “unstable view” of the case and held that this had affected the evidence presented by some of the witnesses heard in the past.

The mayhem created by the podcast even delayed the start of the trial.

The defense even tried to stall the case, arguing that the program’s impact had deprived the defendant of the opportunity for a fair trial.

Finally, considering that people other than the judge would be more influenced by the public, it was decided that the trial should be conducted with a judge rather than a popular jury.

decision

Announcing his 24-year sentence on Friday, Judge Ian Harrison said Dawson’s crime was “arrogant brutality” that was “neither spontaneous nor inevitable”.

He was convicted on August 30, 2022, after a three-month trial that included evidence and testimony from several witnesses.

While none of the evidence was conclusive on its own, after considering it as a whole, the judge decided that Chris Dawson’s guilt was “convincing”.

The judge rejected the defendant’s statement that Lynette Dawson had left the house voluntarily.

She assessed that the victim had “idolized her children and husband” and that all her property remained in the family home after her disappearance.

“Even contact lenses were found in a blue container,” he said.

Also, since Lynette’s disappearance, none of her friends and family have heard from her or heard of any indication that she may be living anywhere in the world.

Taking the circumstantial evidence as a whole, the judge stated that Chris killed his wife “without question” and disposed of the body.

After the verdict, the suspect was handcuffed and left the room shaking his head in dissatisfaction.

Family

Lynette Dawson’s family members in court reacted to the decision with tears.

Brother Greg Simms said the court’s decision only confirmed what he had known for years.

“She loved her family and never left them of her own free will. But that trust was betrayed by a man she loved,” Simms told the press, visibly impressed.

He also spoke of the body that was never found, and of Chris Dawson, who he encouraged “to finally do the right thing” and “let us bring Lynette home and let us rest in peace and give her the dignity she deserves”.

– This article was originally published on in September 1, 2022 https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62751316