Dawson says case for murder a ‘joke’
CHRIS Dawson yesterday shook his head as a court heard how he told his wife Lynette at a marriage counselling session the day before she disappeared: “If this doesn’t work I’m getting rid of you”.
The unwitting star of the record-breaking podcast The Teacher’s Pet could be heard in Sydney’s Central Local Court saying loudly “That’s a joke” as the prosecution outlined its case for murder against him for the first time since his arrest last week.
The gloves came off during Dawson’s fiery $1.5 million bail hearing as Crown prosecutor Craig Everson slammed his older brother, lawyer Peter Dawson, for feeding the media storm surrounding the case by making “outlandish” claims that serial killer Ivan Milat may have killed Lynette.
Dawson’s lawyer, Greg Walsh, told the court he would have preferred those comments had not been made but he said the scales had to be balanced against an “orchestrated campaign’ to present Dawson as guilty.
Mr Everson described the crown case that thrice-married Dawson, 70, murdered his first wife between 9pm on January 8, 1982, and 7am on January 9, 1982, as strong.
“The case against the accused ... is based upon strong circumstances,” Mr Everson said. Dawson, 70, a former rugby league star and school sports teacher, has maintained Lynette, the mother of their two children, had telephoned him, used her Bankcard and was seen a number of times after she walked out on the family and disappeared from their Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Mr Everson said the evidence was that she had not collected her last pay from the Warriewood childcare centre where she worked.
She left her contact lenses at home and did not turn up for her $138 pre-paid appointment at the optometrist for new ones.
“Her clothes were left behind,” he said.
“She didn’t drive. She didn’t have a licence. She never left an Australian point of international departure.
“She has never been to a doctor. She hasn’t changed her name.
“She was a registered nurse and she has not maintained her nurse’s registration.”
Mr Everson said Dawson had been “persuasive” in convincing Lynette’s family, including her brother Greg Sims who was a serving police officer and their mother Helena Sims, that she was still alive after she disappeared on January 9, 1982.
But he said the family did not know what Dawson had said at that counselling session.
Nor did they know he moved his teenage lover, Joanne Curtis, into the family home two days after Lynette went missing.
She went on to become his second wife but they had a bitter divorce. She is the main crown heard.
Nor did the family know that years earlier Dawson had approached a man with criminal convictions and asked him “how he might go about getting rid of his wife”, Mr Everson said.
And they did not know about the cards he sent Ms Curtis, his former student from Cromer High School, including the one at Christmas 1981 which read: “To my darling Joanne. Our first real Christmas together. Know I love you more each day.”
In Dawson’s corner, Mr Walsh criticised what he said were “inadequacies” in the police investigation.
“This is a far from strong crown case. It is based on circumstantial evidence,” he said.
He said the police had witness, the court never investigated the reported telephone calls from Lynette, nor the use of her Bankcard nor the reported sightings.
He said Dawson should get bail and hadn’t tried to interfere with witnesses even though it was almost three decades since Lynette went missing and despite the massive publicity of the podcast which has been downloaded 31 million times around the world.
He said Pater Dawson and his wife were prepared to lodge a surety of $750,000 and that Dawson himself would match that surety with a Queensland home worth over $1 million.
Magistrate Robert Mr Williams adjourned the case to 2pm on Monday and remanded Dawson in custody to then.