Allegations that Chris Dawson misled detectives by creating a series of ‘false leads’ to show his wife had left him will form the basis of the prosecution’s case.
A source close to the investigation told The Australian the decision to charge Dawson came after detectives allegedly found inconsistencies in his stories.
The prosecution will first need to ‘close off all the holes and systematically dismantle this story that Lyn just walked out of his life,’ the senior source said.
Dawson has always maintained his former wife Lyn Dawson walked out on him and their two daughters, Shanelle and Sherryn, on Saturday January 9, 1982.
Over the years, the former first grade rugby league player has made several claims of unconfirmed sightings and which suggest Lyn is alive and well.
Chris Dawson (pictured left) has been charged with the murder of his wife Lyn Dawson (pictured right) in 1982
Fresh allegations that Chris Dawson (pictured) misled detectives by creating a series of ‘false leads’ to show his wife had left him will form the basis of the prosecution’s case
Outside court this week, his lawyer Greg Walsh said there was evidence that Lyn had been ‘observed by a number of people’ after her disappearance in 1982.
‘Unfortunately, two of those people are deceased,’ Mr Walsh said.
‘One of the witnesses who died, her daughter gave evidence at the second inquest, and she said that “my mother told me [and] if she was here today, she’d say she saw Lyn Dawson after her disappearance”.
‘Another witness also gave evidence to that effect.’
Dawson also claimed that he once saw Lyn appear on an episode of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow – despite the British TV show being filmed in Padstow, Cornwall.
Other claims by Dawson about his former wife include his repeated allegation she left their home at Bayview on Sydney’s Northern Beaches to join a religious cult.
Dawson has also claimed his former wife called him to say she was staying with friends and family on the New South Wales Central Coast.
He even alleged that she used her bankcard twice – despite the fact there were no statements to back up his claims.
Mr Walsh said the defence would rely on ‘two very important Bankcard transactions on Lyn’s bank account in the weeks after her disappearance’.
The fresh allegations come less than day after his lawyer revealed one of Dawson’s close relatives had disappeared 22 years before his wife Lynette did, proving ‘these things do happen’.
Chris and Lyn Dawson (pictured on their wedding day) had two daughters aged four and two when she disappeared in 1982
The 70-year-old was driven from Sydney Airport to the Sydney Police Centre in Surry Hills
Mr Walsh made the remark outside Sydney’s Central Local Court this week after Dawson’s older brother Peter said his mother-in-law had disappeared.
Peter, 72, told The Daily Telegraph his former mother-in-law went missing in the 1960s, but it was later revealed she fled to New Zealand, where she remarried.
Mr Walsh said the fact that the woman disappeared for all that time, only to reappear proves sometimes people just decide to leave and walk out.
‘It happens all the time,’ Mr Walsh said.
Peter, a former barrister who practices as a solicitor, said that after his first wife’s parents split up when she was a child, she would visit her mother with her siblings at a boarding house in Narwee, in southern Sydney.
Dawson’s brother said one day in about 1960, his first wife – who was aged nine at the time – was told by someone at the boarding house that her mother was gone.
Chris Dawson (left with his children and one-time lover Joanne Curtis) was taken to Gold Coast airport on Thursday morning so he could be flown to Sydney, where he was charged with the murder of wife Lyn Dawson
The woman simply vanished, until it was later revealed she had fled to New Zealand, which didn’t require a passport to do so in those days, he said.
‘She did not contact her family, did not contact the kids, did not contact her husband,’ Mr Dawson said.
‘We don’t know where Lyn is. I hope she is living happily somewhere in the world.’
Outside court this week, Mr Walsh said his client would be pleading not guilty to the murder of Lynette and ‘strongly asserts his innocence’.
News of the bizarre coincidence comes just days after detectives investigating the murder of Lyn said they had zeroed in on the exact time they believe she was killed.
The 70-year-old was charged with Lyn’s 1982 murder shortly after he landed in Sydney on Thursday morning following his extradition from Queensland.
Dawson faced Sydney Central Local Court via video link on Thursday.
Chris Dawson is pictured arriving in Sydney after he was extradited from Queensland following his arrest on Wednesday morning
Dawson is seen stepping off the plane before he was handed over to Australian Federal Police officers in Sydney just before 10am
Outside court Dawson’s barrister Greg Walsh told reporters there was evidence, including bank transactions, that Lyn was seen after she went missing in 1982.
Mr Walsh said a number of witnesses corroborate the story, although two have since died.
‘One of the witnesses who died, her daughter gave evidence at the second inquest, and she said that ‘my mother told me (and) if she was here today, she’d say she saw Lyn Dawson after her disappearance’,’ he said.
Peter Dawson, 72, said his former mother-in-law went missing in the 1960s, but it was later revealed she fled to New Zealand, where she remarried.
He said ‘two very important bank card transactions made two or three weeks after her disappearance.’
Those bank transactions, he insists, were never investigated thoroughly.
‘[That] would have indicated that probably she was alive,’ he said.
‘While it seems most unusual that a lady, with the greatest respect of Lyn Dawson, would disappear and not have any contact with her children … it has happened.’
When asked by magistrate Robert Williams if he was Christopher Dawson, the accused replied ‘Yes. Yes, I am sir’.
He was told his case would be adjourned until next Friday, to which he replied ‘Thank you’ after shaking his head slightly.
Police allege that Mrs Dawson was killed some time between 9pm on January 8 and 7am on January 9, 1982.
The charge sheet states: ‘That Christopher Michael Dawson on or about 8 January 1982 at Bayview in the State of New South Wales did murder Lynette Joy Dawson.’
Mr Walsh, told the court the matter was ‘quite big’ and asked that a bail application be set down for December 14.
Dawson did not apply for bail, and it was formally refused.
After extradition was granted on Wednesday Dawson was taken to Gold Coast’s Coolangatta Airport and walked across the tarmac by a New South Wales Police officer prior to his flight to Sydney.
Dawson was earlier walked across the Coolangatta, Queensland tarmac by a New South Wales police officer on Thursday morning, before boarding the flight to Sydney
Television footage showed the former school teacher sitting in the back of a car next to a police officer as they travelled to the airport, before he was seen peering out the window of the Qantas aircraft
He was pictured peering out the window of the Qantas aircraft during the flight, before he was handed over to Australian Federal Police officers in Sydney just before 10am.
‘We’ve been waiting for 36 years for something like this to happen,’ Ms Dawson’s niece Renee Simms told Network Ten on Wednesday.
‘For it to finally happen it almost doesn’t seem real yet to me.’
Fresh statements from at least two witnesses led to Dawson’s arrest on Wednesday, almost 37 years after Lyn vanished on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The new evidence helped police ‘tie pieces of the puzzle together’, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said.
Joanne Curtis, pictured with with her school teacher lover Chris Dawson’s children Shanelle and Sherryn, provided police with information that led to his arrest over the alleged murder of his wife Lyn
Among the witnesses was Joanne Curtis, the teenage lover who moved in with Dawson two days after Lyn disappeared, The Daily Telegraph reported.
A former babysitter for the Dawsons, Bev McNally, is another new witness who has given statements to police, along with a third woman who recently met with detectives for the first time.
The unnamed witness, a former northern beaches schoolgirl, had a close relationship with Mr Dawson, his twin brother Paul and Ms Curtis, and kept diaries about her school days, according to The Australian.
‘They corroborate Joanne’s evidence,’ a senior police source said.
Fresh statements from at least two witnesses led to Dawson’s arrest on Wednesday
The new evidence helped police ‘tie pieces of the puzzle together’, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller (pictured centre) said
Dawson’s family said in a statement they had no doubt he’d be found innocent.
‘We are disappointed at the decision of the DPP as there is clear and uncontested evidence that Lyn Dawson was alive long after she left Chris and his daughters,’ brother Peter Dawson said, according to the Seven Network.
Ms McNally said Dawson’s arrest made for a ‘happy day, but also a sad one’.
‘It feels surreal… His daughters have had their world re-shattered. We have to feel for them too,’ she told the Manly Daily.
Ms McNally said she spoke to Shanelle Dawson, daughter of Chris and Lyn, on Tuesday night and had texted her on Wednesday morning.
‘She’s coping. She was trying to prepare herself but nothing prepares you for this,’ Ms McNally said.
Ms Dawson’s body has never been found.
Police now believe she was buried in bushland in Sydney’s north, despite a recent excavation of her former Bayview home as detectives searched for evidence.
Chris Dawson (left) was arrested on the Gold Coast on Wednesday and charged with Lyn Dawson’s murder on Thursday
Former babysitter Bev McNally (pictured) will also be a new witness in the case
Allegations that Dawson was violent towards Lyn emerged when he appeared in Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
The court heard there had been evidence of domestic violence.
The new revelations come after the daughter of Dawson and Ms Curtis spoke about the effect on her family of her father’s arrest.
Kristen Dawson was born a year after Dawson married his former student Ms Curtis two years after his wife Lyn disappeared.
Before now she had never spoken publicly about her now 70-year-old father.
Kristen, now aged in her 30s and with two young children of her own, still lives on Sydney’s northern beaches near her mother and not far from where Chris and Lyn Dawson once made their home.
Chris Dawson’s daughter Kristen, pictured with her mother Joanne Curtis, still lives on Sydney’s northern beaches not far from where Dawson’s wife Lyn disappeared in 1982
Former school teacher Chris Dawson, 70, was extradited to New South Wales from Queensland on Thursday following his arrest a day earlier
On Wednesday she and her husband took their two children swimming as her father was being extradited from Queensland.
‘It’s a really hard time for us at the moment,’ she told Daily Mail Australia from her doorstep.
Chris Dawson, who played rugby league for the Newtown Jets in the 1970s, met Ms Curtis at Cromer High School, where she was a student and he taught PE.
He began having sex with her when he was 32 and she was 16.
Ms Curtis was soon engaged as babysitter for the Dawsons’ two daughters and moved into their family home at Bayview in 1981.
‘It’s a really hard time for us at the moment,’ Chris Dawson’s daughter Kristen (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia from the doorstep of her Sydney home. Kristen has two children of her own
While it is unclear just how much Mrs Dawson knew of her husband’s relationship with Ms Curtis, there was tension within the household.
The affair was no secret at Cromer High and neighbours had seen the schoolgirl swimming topless in the family’s pool.
For a short period Ms Curtis moved in with Dawson’s twin brother Paul and his wife Marilyn who lived in the same street with their three young daughters.
Paul had also been a Newtown Jets footballer and was a school teacher at nearby Forest High.
On January 9, 1982 Lyn Dawson (pictured) made plans to meet her mother at Northbridge Baths, where her husband worked as a lifeguard. She did not arrive and is presumed to be dead
On January 9, 1982 Mrs Dawson made plans to meet her mother at Northbridge Baths, where her husband worked casually as a lifeguard.
Dawson told police he dropped his wife off at a Mona Vale bus stop about 7am but Mrs Dawson, 33, did not arrive at the baths.
Instead, Dawson took a phone call at the baths which he said was from his wife who told him she was taking a break and needed to be on her own.
Ms Curtis was on holiday with family and friends at South West Rocks on the NSW mid north coast when she says her older lover called her on January 9 or 10.
She told police Dawson said: ‘Lyn’s gone. She’s not coming back. I need you now. Come and live with me and the girls at Bayview.’
Ms Curtis believed it was the next day that Dawson arrived by car to collect her.
She moved back into the Dawson family home as his lover and effectively became mother to his children, four-year-old Shanelle and two-year-old Sherryn.
Ms Curtis, who wore Mrs Dawson’s clothes as well as taking her place in the marital bed, told police in 1998 the situation was ‘very strange for everyone.’
She married Dawson at their home in Gilwinga Drive on January 15, 1984 with Paul and Marilyn as witnesses.
Dawson gave Ms Curtis one of his missing wife’s rings to wear for the ceremony. He was 35 and she was 19.
The couple later sold the Bayview property and moved to Queensland where they had Kristen in 1985.
Lyn Dawson was a devoted mother whose family say would never have left her two children. At left is Lyn with husband Chris and daughter Shanelle. Lyn pictured with Shanelle at right
Joanne Curtis declined to speak to Daily Mail Australia when recently approached at her home. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t speak to reporters,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’ She lives near her daughter Kristen
During the pair’s short marriage Dawson allegedly treated Shanelle and Sherryn as princesses and largely rejected Kristen.
‘He was even more possessive of me and regretted Kristen,’ Ms Curtis told a coroner in 2003. ‘He wanted me to himself. He just wanted her out of the way.
‘I did as I was told. He chose what I wore. If I was going somewhere, he would have to approve it.
‘He was violent. There were some times when I locked myself in one of the bedrooms and he would try to break the door down.’
When Ms Curtis eventually left the marriage on February 1, 1990 and moved back to Sydney she went to police with her suspicions Mrs Dawson was buried on the property at Bayview.
Subsequent searches have failed to find Mrs Dawson’s body.
Ms Curtis told police she left Dawson because she was frightened and desperately unhappy living with him.
‘He was always possessive but once our daughter was born I think he felt a rivalry there with her,’ she said.
‘He didn’t like sharing me, he wanted me to stay in the confines of the property and not go and see people, so I didn’t have any associations until our daughter was two when I took her to playgroup, and I found out how other women had marriages.
‘I thought ours was just normal, in that he made all the decisions and I just followed them, his orders…
‘Then when I realised that there was something very strange about our relationship and he, he was getting more violent, and he would be violent in front of our daughter.
‘He would send the other two away, and there was all sorts of control, games he was playing, he used to start singing to me too, like he did to his former wife, and, you know, there were times I felt physically threatened.
‘I feared for my life at that point and I made the decision to leave, because I was scared and I was desperately unhappy.’
Asked if Mr Dawson had ever asked her to do anything ‘out of the normal’ sexually, Ms Curtis said: ‘Well, yeah, you know… do this and you can have this.
‘Yeah, I mean, yeah, you know. If I wanted a pair of shoes, well, you know, you have to pay for it type of thing.’
Dawson was arrested at the home of his twin brother at Biggera Waters on Queensland’s Gold Coast on Wednesday morning.
Chris Dawson, 70, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with wife Lyn’s murder a day later
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