New details of Chris Dawson trial after suppression request rejected
In the first day of trial, detailed allegations have emerged surrounding Chris Dawson, the footballer-turned-high-school teacher, and that he allegedly wanted to hire a hitman to murder his wife Lynnette.
73-year-old Dawson arrived in Sydney from the Sunshine Coast on Sunday night ahead of his trial in the NSW Supreme Court, where it was determined that details from the trial are not private, and can be revealed. Judge Ian Harrison rejected an application from lawyers for both the defence and crown to have the case suppressed under blanket non-publication orders.
Lawyers applied to have the entire trial, including the verdict, suppressed and argued the reporting could prejudice further court proceedings in the coming months.
The judge-alone trial is expected to go for six to eight weeks where Crown prosecutor Craig Everson will allege Dawson killed Lynette, who vanished in January 1982.
The 33-year-old disappeared from the family’s home at Bayview, on Sydney’s northern beaches, leaving behind her two children.
In his opening address, Mr Everson told the court the couple were both just 21 when they got married in 1970 but were not able to have children around the same time as Mr Dawson’s twin brother, Paul. This caused a “level of animosity” from Mr Dawson to his wife, Mr Everson said.
On the way home from a trip to the Gold Coast with his teammates from the Newtown Jets in October 1975, Mr Dawson allegedly asked Robert Silkman if he “knew someone who could get rid of his wife”.
Five years later, the court heard Mr Dawson developed a sexual relationship with a student at the high school where he was a teacher and he became “infatuated with her”.
“He repeatedly asked her to marry him,” Mr Everson said.
In December 1981, the court heard Mr Dawson valued the house he shared with Lynnette at Bayview before the next day leaving his family and moving to Queensland with the student to “start a new life”.
The pair returned to Sydney four days later and the court heard the student ended the relationship in December 1981. Mr Dawson begged her to call him as she went on holiday with friends the following month.
“The crown alleges that on or about the 8th of January 1982 the accused alone or with the involvement of another person murdered Lynnette Dawson,” Mr Everson told the court.
“Then later he disposed of her body at an unknown location.”
It is the crown case that Mr Dawson was “motivated to kill Lynnette” by his desire to have a relationship with the student. A week later he brought the student back to his house and told her “Lynette was gone and wouldn’t be coming back”, the court heard.
However, Mr Dawson allegedly told friends and family his wife had left him with the children and had called him a few times, before reporting her missing six weeks later.
Mr Everson told the court the student is expected to give evidence that Mr Dawson told her he contemplated getting a hitman against his wife, but “decided against it because innocent people would be hurt”.
The trial continues.
Image: Channel 9