Dramatic scenes have played out in the NSW Supreme Court as Chris Dawson furiously shook his head and his twin brother muttered ‘bulls***’ after the former footy star was found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette.
Just after 3pm on Tuesday, after some 4.5 hours of Justice Ian Harrison reading out his reasons, the teacher and former high school teacher was found guilty of his wife’s 1982 murder.
There were gasps in the courtroom and Dawson, 74, was seen shaking his head very slightly after the verdict was read out.
Justice Harrison ordered the court officers to take Dawson into custody as they clicked a pair of handcuffs onto his wrists and led him away.
‘Mr Dawson, it’ll be necessary for you to be taken into custody,’ Justice Harrison said.
‘You have to go.’
The family of Lynette Dawson has been asking for years about her disappearance and whatever the verdict on Tuesday, they still hold out hopes of her remains being found
Chris Dawson arrives at the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday to hear the verdict from Justice Harrison on his trial for the murder of his wife Lyn in 1982
Justice Ian Harrison found it was beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson (above with Chris Dawson on her wedding day) did not leave her home in Bayview voluntarily
His twin brother Paul swore under his breath and was heard complaining about never having been called as a witness as he spoke about a woman – saying ‘I told her’.
Dawson appeared to limp as he was handcuffed and taken into custody.
He will be locked up at Silverwater Correctional Centre while awaiting sentencing.
In his decision, Justice Ian Harrison said that potentially losing JC in early 1982 was a motive for murder: ‘I am satisfied he resolved to kill his wife’, and that there was also the financial motive of potentially losing his investments.
‘The evidence does not reveal how he killed Lynette Dawson, nor where her body is now,’ he said.
He said that the accused told a series of lies about his wife still being alive after her disappearance and about him missing her afterwards.
Lynette’s brother Greg Simms said his sister had been ‘betrayed by the man she loved’.
‘This is a milestone in our journey of advocating for Lyn, however the journey is not complete, she is still missing,’ he said outside court after the verdict was handed down.
‘We still need to bring her home, we’d ask Chris Dawson to find it in himself to finally do the decent thing and allow us to bring Lyn home and show her the dignity she deserves.’
Lyn’s brother Greg Simms and his wife Merilyn are seen outside court on Tuesday
Despite finding that he was not satisfied Dawson ’caused any of the bruising on Lynette’ or that he ‘was physically violent towards her’, Justice Harrison found him guilty of murder.
He was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette is dead, that she has not been seen or heard since on or around January 8, 1982 and that she did not leave her home voluntarily.
He was also satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Dawson ‘had a possessive infatuation with’ the schoolgirl babysitter, JC.
At 10am on Tuesday morning, NSW Supreme Court judge Ian Harrison SC had entered court 13A at Queens Square in Sydney amid tense anticipation from both the accused’s supporters and Lyn’s siblings.
The 74-year-old accused sat up the front with brother Peter, with twin Paul and other supporters in the back of the court.
In the front row, Lynette’s family sat wearing pink in honour of the mother-of-two.
Lyn Dawson’s sister-in-law Merilyn and brother Greg Simms arrive in her favourite colour of pink at the court on Tuesday
Reading through his written reasons for his verdict, Justice Harrison described some of the evidence in Chris Dawson’s defence during the trial as ‘fanciful, absurd and lies’.
‘I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt Lynette Dawson never telephoned Christopher Dawson after 8 January 1982 and … that she did not leave her home voluntarily,’ Justice Harrison said.
Dawson was described during a summary of the crown case by His Honour as ‘an unfaithful and violent man’.
‘I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead and that she died on or about 8 January 1982 and that she did not voluntarily leave her home,’ he said.
‘She was not mentally unstable, she adored her children…she was still hopeful. She was still talking in affectionate terms about her unfaithful husband.
‘That she would step from her husband’s car … and decide to evaporate forever is not a reasonable possibility. The proposition is ludicrous.’
For more than four hours, Chris Dawson sat ramrod straight in court listening to Justice Harrison describe his defence case as full of lies, and ‘ludicrous’ propositions.
Lynette Dawson (above with Shanelle) had found it hard to conceive and doted on her two daughters to Chris Dawson, who were four and two when she vanished in 1982
The judge described the evidence of the schoolgirl babysitter JC, with whom Chris Dawson had an affair as mostly reliable, and that her account of being groomed for a sexual relationship as believable.
He said that Dawson’s contention that his sexual relationship with JC did not recommence in 1982 until April of that year ‘cannot be true’.
‘She had been swept up … and was confused and conflicted,’ he said and found that JC’s evidence had not been corrupted by her subsequent divorce from him years later.
Chris Dawson had left his Sunshine Coast home in Queensland to fly to Sydney for the verdict, after spending the last seven weeks on bail while Justice Harrison deliberated on his decision.
Murderer Chris Dawson (above) at his Sunshine Coast home on Sunday before he flew to Sydney to face the judge’s verdict of his guilt or innocence in the murder of his first wife, Lynette
The trial heard Chris Dawson was ‘besotted ‘ with JC, the schoolgirl babysitter who became his second wife and testified at his trial about his controlling behaviour
The verdict is also momentous for the family of Lyn Dawson, who have invested so much time and effort in seeking justice for the 33-year-old mother of two young girls who vanished without trace on January 8 or 9, 1982.
Lyn’s sister, Pat Jenkins, her brother, Greg Simms, and the missing woman’s niece Renee Simms and nephew David Jenkins have had their lives on hold for the 10-week trial, the weeks since as Justice Harrison has deliberated and, indeed, the empty decades since Lyn vanished.
Chris Dawson was arrested and charged with Lyn Dawson’s murder in late 2018, pleaded not guilty to the charge and always maintained his innocence.
He was found guilty on August 30, 2022.
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