Chris Dawson has been found guilty of murdering his wife 40 years ago. Photo / Gaye Gerard, NCA Newswire
Chris Dawson has sensationally been found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette more than 40 years ago, but her family says Australia's most famous cold case can't reach its conclusion until her body is found.
After a marathon 4.5 hour judgment delivered inside courtroom 13A of the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Ian Harrison found that Dawson spun a web of lies that demonstrated a consciousness of guilt and said he had "resolved to kill his wife".
Dawson pleaded not guilty to the murder of Lynette, who disappeared from their Bayview home on Sydney's northern beaches in the summer of 1982, and fought the allegations during his 10-week trial earlier this year.
But Justice Ian Harrison on Tuesday found him guilty after accepting the Crown prosecution's argument he killed his wife and disposed of her body so he could be with the family's teenage babysitter.
"The only rational inference that the circumstances enable me to draw is that Lynette Dawson died on or about 8 January 1982, as the result of a conscious and voluntary act committed by Dawson with the intention of causing her death," Justice Harrison said.
Dramatic scenes played out in NSW Supreme Court as the judge read out his verdict.
There were gasps in the courtroom, and Dawson shook his head very slightly as his twin brother Paul muttered "bulls***".
Hundreds of people had arrived at the Supreme Court to watch on, with many forced to watch proceedings in an adjoining courtroom where a video feed was set up.
In the adjoining courtroom applause rang out as two corrective services officers handcuffed Dawson before leading him away.
He will make a bail application on Thursday to be released while he awaits sentencing proceedings.
Outside court, Lynette's brother Greg Simms hugged NewsCorp journalist Hedley Thomas and the former lead detective Damian Loone.
"This verdict is for Lyn," an emotional Simms said.
"Today her name has been cleared. She loved her family and never left them of her own accord.
Simms read a statement in which he called on Dawson to reveal where Lynette's body was buried.
"Lyn's journey is not complete. She's still missing," Simms said.
"We need to bring her home. We would ask Chris also to find it in himself to allow us to bring her home for a peaceful rest. Finally show her the dignity she deserves."
The family thanked Thomas, creator of the Teacher's Pet podcast, from "the bottom of their hearts" for bringing evidence to light.
Simms also said: "We have always said that she would not have left her two children. She would have contacted her mother first."
Twin Paul and wife Marilyn were greeted by an intense media pack as they left the courthouse on Tuesday.
There was a scuffle as the couple made their way through Hyde Park, in Sydney.
Dawson, 74, was found to have killed his wife in January 1982, just weeks after he had unsuccessfully attempted to run off with his former student to start a new life in Queensland.
The former teacher and rugby league player's defence had argued he had neither the opportunity nor the motive to kill the mother of his two children.
Lynette disappeared in January 1982 - her body has never been found and she never contacted her friends or family, including her two children.
The 33-year-old nurse was last seen on Friday, January 8, 1982, when she spoke to her mother Helena Simms on the phone.
The Crown prosecution alleged she was killed either on Friday evening or early the following morning.
Justice Harrison described it as "ludicrous" that she would spontaneously walk away from her life and children with only the clothes on her back.
He found there was scant evidence she had money of her own to "fund her new life".
He also said the evidence of her strong bond with her children was "completely at odds with the proposition" that she voluntarily left her home.
Justice Harrison said she did not take clothes, personal items or jewellery and it was unlikely she would have left without "even a change of underwear".
"I do not accept as reliable that she voluntarily abandoned her home."
Dawson told detectives during a police interview in 1991 that he had dropped off his wife at a Mona Vale bus stop and it had been planned she would meet him later that afternoon.
However, she did not arrive at the Northbridge Baths, where Dawson worked as a part-time lifeguard.
He had claimed Lynette phoned him at the baths to say she needed time away before ultimately telling him during another call that she would not be returning.
However, Justice Harrison said that Dawson's report of receiving a phone call at the Northbridge Baths on the afternoon of January 9, 1982 was a "lie".
Central to the case was JC, one of Dawson's former students who became the couple's live-in babysitter in 1981.
JC told the court that during this time she would have sex with Dawson while Lynette was asleep.
The Crown prosecution argued Dawson killed his wife because he was "besotted" with JC and wanted "unfettered access" to her.
In late 1981, Dawson and JC packed his car full of their clothes and belongings and set out for Queensland to start a new life.
The court heard he left a note for Lynette saying: "Don't paint too dark a picture of me to the girls."
But JC forced Dawson to turn the car around before the border after she grew ill and told him that she missed her family.
In early 1982, she travelled to South West Rocks to holiday with her friends and family.
She said during her stay she received a phone call from Dawson who told her: "Lyn's gone, she's not coming back."
JC and Dawson went on to marry in January 1984 before separating in acrimonious circumstances a little over six years later.
In 1990, she made several damaging allegations against Dawson, including claims of domestic violence and that he had once contemplated hiring a hitman to kill his wife.
JC told the court of one occasion in 1981 during which she alleged Dawson drove her to a building somewhere south of the Harbour Bridge.
"He said 'I went inside to get a hitman to kill Lyn, but then I decided I couldn't do it because innocent people would be killed, could be hurt'," JC said during her testimony.
Justice Harrison said it was "unlikely" that Dawson would have divulged to JC such a plot.
"I am not satisfied that he ever said to Ms Curtis that he contemplated hiring a hitman to kill Lynette Dawson but he changed his mind."
Dawson's defence had relied on five claimed sightings of Lynette in the two years following her disappearance.
The Dawsons' former Bayview neighbours, Peter and Jill Breese, both claimed they had independently seen Lynette working a Curl Curl hospital in June 1984 - more than two years after she disappeared.
Ray Butlin, a Dawson family friend, said before her death, his wife Sue had told him of seeing Lynette at a Central Coast roadside fruit barn where she worked.
Dawson's brother-in-law Ross Hutcheon told the court he saw her while driving along Victoria Rd in Gladesville about three to six months after she disappeared.
Elva McBay said she attended a parade for Prince Charles and Princess Diana on March 28, 1983, when she saw a woman who looked like Lynette run dangerously in front of a motorcade.
The defence's star witness, Paul Cooper, said he had a chance meeting with her at a pub at Warners Bay, in the Lake Macquarie region, in early 1982.
However, Justice Harrison described Hutcheon's sighting as a "fabrication" and said it "flies in the face of human experience" that he would not have told his brother-in-law of the sighting earlier than 2018.
He said all the other claimed sightings were "not genuine" or unreliable.
"I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead," Justice Harrison said.
Outside court, Dawson's solicitor Greg Walsh said that his client would appeal against the verdict.
He also said that he had cognitive and physical problems and it would be improper to send him to jail.
"He's been diagnosed with dementia," Walsh said.
"Jail will be much harder for him … he's got problems with his hips and knees too."
The conflict is nearing its seventh day.