Chris Dawson’s schoolgirl wife allegedly told her best friend on the Gold Coast that he had ‘murdered his first wife’ and urged her ‘go to police’ if she ‘didn’t make it out’.
The chilling warning was heard on Tuesday at the resumption of the high-profile Dawson murder trial after a week-long break due to an outbreak of Covid.
Toni Melrose-Mikeska became friends with the former babysitter turned Chris Dawson’s second wife at Dreamworld in 1987 when ‘JC’ and her young daughter attended her performances as Coo-ee the Gumnut Fairy.
JC and her daughter attended her performances every week and the little girl even had her own mini gumnut fairy costume made.
The trial heard that JC told Ms Melrose-Mikeska about ‘mental abuse’ and that Dawson had a ‘short fuse temper’.
But she hadn’t really discussed her marriage to Dawson until the night she left him when she stayed at Ms Melrose-Mikeska’s Southport home before escaping to Sydney with her daughter.
‘She said “I’m heading back to Sydney” and she was going to go to the police and she said if she doesn’t make it, I was to go to police and tell them some information she’ relayed to me,’ Ms Melrose-Mikeska said via video link from Tweed Heads.
Former Dreamworld star Toni Melrose-Mikeska (above) told the murder trial on Tuesday that Dawson’s schoolgirl second wife had left the marriage with a warning that if she didn’t make it to Sydney to tell police ‘ he murdered his first wife’
Ms Melrose-Mikeska befriended JC and her young daughter when they attended almost every performance by her at Dreamworld where she played (above, centre) the character of Coo-ee the Gumnut Fairy
JC (above with her baby daughter and Lynette Dawson’s two daughters) did not open up about her marriage to Dawson until she left, except to say he had a bad temper and told her what to do and to wear ‘baggy’ clothes
She said JC had described a visit to a pub by Dawson to meet a man and hand over an envelope shortly before his first wife Lyn disappeared.
On the night in Southport after leaving Dawson, JC had told Ms Melrose-Mikeska, ‘ I think he murdered his first wife’.
Thereafter, she said, JC would stay with her when she brought her daughter with Dawson up for ‘visitation rights’ stays with him.
She said after each visit, the daughter would cower from her mother and ‘cling to me like a koala’.
‘(JC”s daughter) was scared of her, (JC) found it quite traumatic.
‘She was scared of everything, she wouldn’t go near (JC). It would take me a good day or two to (make her) feel comfortable enough, she said.’
Under cross-examination by Dawson’s barrister Pauline David, Ms Melrose-Mikeska said JC’s daughter would return from the access visits with her father, ‘a different child … she loved her mum, she absolutely adored her mum … but not when she was returned’.
Chris Dawson’s murder trial heard on Tuesday that he made his schoogilr second wifge wear ‘baggy’ clothes and she had to get his permission to play women’ sport at night
Ms Melrose-Mikeska also described how a ‘very controlling’ Dawson had to check out a women’s indoor cricket venue before JC was allowed to play night games there at her invitation.
‘I remember going on first day to indoor cricket and Chris came and we waited in the foyer and he scouted around the venue just to check it out to give her permission to play,’ she said.
‘The reason why it sticks out after all these years is it was really not normal.’
She said when JC was married to Dawson she always wore ‘baggy T-shirts and baggy shorts’ and had told her that ‘Chris didn’t like her wearing anything that was too revealing or close-fitting’.
The trial heard how a 16-year-old schoolboy finished his paper run to cycle to the home of JC (above at the trial) to ask her out in a set up by Chris Dawson, but when he arrived the teacher was ensconced with the schoolgirl and he left embarrassed about the ‘ruse’
The trial also heard from a former schoolmate of JC’s who wanted to ask her out but was thwarted by what appeared an elaborate ‘ruse’ by Chris Dawson.
Then a 16-year-old schoolboy RH, who testified from prison where he is serving six years for embezzlement, said he had worked ‘with Chris to get to a point to asking JC out by arranging for him to be at her place where I could meet her inadvertently and ask her out’.
But when he got off his bike after his paperboy run and knocked on JC’s door, Chris answered and he could see JC behind him, and ‘the message was received loud and clear’ and he rode off in confusion ‘and embarrassment’.
He later saw JC sitting on Dawson’s knee in the PE teacher’s room and when he approached Chris, who had previously been a trusted mentor, Dawson closed the door.
Chris Dawson is accused of murdering his wife Lynette (above the couple together in the 1970s) in January 1982 when she vanished and has never been heard of again
Twins Chris and Paul Dawson (left) in a Levi’s jeans ad when both brothers were football stars, teachers and models and Chris (right) arriving at his murder trial at the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney
The trial has resumed after being put on hold for a week when the crown prosecutor contracted COVID-19.
Justice Ian Harrison agreed to delay the trial last Tuesday after being told barrister Craig Everson SC had returned a positive test for the virus.
Dawson, 73, is accused of killing his wife Lynette Dawson and disposing of her body in January 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with one of his former students, known as JC, while holding onto assets including the family home in Bayview, Sydney.
He has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
The crown’s witnesses have attempted to paint Dawson as a violent, controlling and abusive husband, with testimony emerging that Mrs Dawson had been seen variously with a black eye, and bruises around her throat and on her arms and thigh.
Witnesses have said they saw him shove his wife’s face into the dirt, swing her into a doorframe, and demean her with insults such as ‘fatso’.
Speaking from the witness box, JC claimed she drove with Dawson to a building somewhere south of the Sydney Harbour Bridge where he tried to hire a hitman to get rid of his wife.
She said she was moved into the Dawson family home in January 1982 where she was treated as a housekeeper, babysitter and sex slave.
Former schoolgirl JC at her wedding to Chris Dawson in 1984, aged 19, wearing a wedding ring made from the diamonds of Dawson’s first wife Lynette’s wedding and eternity rings
The schoolgirl JC who became the Dawson’s babysitter and then after first wife Lynette disappeared, Chris Dawson’s teen bride, went to police after her own marriage to him broke down
JC and Dawson married in 1984 and separated in 1990.
The court has also heard Dawson allegedly threatened a high school student who asked JC out, and had told conflicting stories about his wife’s whereabouts after her disappearance.
Dawson’s legal team has argued the witnesses’ testimony has been contaminated because they had talked about the case with each other and had listened to The Teacher’s Pet podcast about the mystery surrounding Mrs Dawson, arguing it was broadcast with an assumption that her husband was guilty.
They have also argued that because these events happened four decades ago and memories have faded over time, the testimony given now is not an accurate portrayal of what happened.
Dawson claims JC’s allegations are lies spurred by a bitter custody battle which occurred after their 1990 break-up.
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