Australia Australia - Lynette Dawson, 34, Sydney, Jan 1982 *Arrest* #2

[DRT]

What's the source for you saying Joanne is a psychologist, please?

The source is a 22 February 2003 article. "Until we find the truth it's not over." by Kara Lawrence

"Joanne Curtis, now a psychologist who works to help battered women, told The Daily Telegraph that she has a responsibility to help establish the truth."

 

[JLZ]

The source is a 22 February 2003 article. "Until we find the truth it's not over." by Kara Lawrence

"Joanne Curtis, now a psychologist who works to help battered women, told The Daily Telegraph that she has a responsibility to help establish the truth."

Thank you. I knew she worked with battered women but I couldn't remember or find a reference to her being a psychologist. That takes a lot of study and training. I guess her situation with parents and with Chris really stuffed her up as far as secondary school studying went.

 

[DRT]

I wonder if Joanne did some in-between study, to help her get into Uni, as she apparently left high school with a really poor result.
And it sounds as if she didn't go to Uni directly from high school. Perhaps some years later - as you say, after her divorce?


"Instead of Joanne having to go back and maybe stack shelves at Coles because she's just left high school with a really poor HSC... instead of having to go back and live with her stepfather who's a violent drunk, suddenly she's been handed the keys to this amazing house up on the hill at Bayview" - statement by Hedley Thomas to Mamamia.
(Article on July 20, 2018, titled Why Australia is obsessively arguing about the actions of 16-year-old Joanne Curtis )

I have been reading articles on this case since the start of the podcast. There was one article where I read that Chris was helping Joanne with her University Studies which shocked me as much as you. From memory of articles she was studying part time when she was making police statements about the case.

 

[Cliff Hardy]

I have been reading articles on this case since the start of the podcast. There was one article where I read that Chris was helping Joanne with her University Studies which shocked me as much as you. From memory of articles she was studying part time when she was making police statements about the case.

I get the feeling - in his strange way at least - that Chris Dawson may genuinely loved Joanne, and that when she left him he may actually have been as heartbroken as he claimed.

 

[sosocurious]

Thank you. I knew she worked with battered women but I couldn't remember or find a reference to her being a psychologist. That takes a lot of study and training. I guess her situation with parents and with Chris really stuffed her up as far as secondary school studying went.

Could not find a person of that name registered.

Psychology Board of Australia - Registration

 

[Jennifer17]

I get the feeling - in his strange way at least - that Chris Dawson may genuinely loved Joanne, and that when she left him he may actually have been as heartbroken as he claimed.

Of course he was. He was a bit older then and was not going to pull any more 16 year olds.

 

[DRT]

Could not find a person of that name registered.

Psychology Board of Australia - Registration

The article I read was from 2003, 15 years ago. I don't actually think it is relevant to this case anything to do with Joanne now. The relevance to Joanne is during her period with Chris.

I don't feel the need to spread mis-information about this case or any other case. There is enough interesting information out there.

 

[sosocurious]

The article I read was from 2003, 15 years ago. I don't actually think it is relevant to this case anything to do with Joanne now. The relevance to Joanne is during her period with Chris.

I don't feel the need to spread mis-information about this case or any other case. There is enough interesting information out there.

I agree.
I am just thinking that in those years that Joanne was with Chris, he was controlling. I am just finding it hard to believe that he would have been OK with her going to Uni and socialising with those her own age and bettering herself. w
imo

 

[Estelle]

Apparently, according to the podcast, the girls who worked in the kiosk are still trying to work out if any of them answered that phone call. The presumption being that the call would have come into the kiosk, and the kiosk worker would have had to get Chris to come to the phone.


Maya frequented Northbridge Baths at the time Lyn Dawson disappeared, and would often help out in the kiosk. She recalls seeing Chris Dawson there regularly, and that he was friendly and good-looking. Maya and her friends are exchanging emails now, trying to work out who might have answered the kiosk phone that Saturday, 36 years ago, when Chris Dawson said Lyn called to say she needed some time away. - Maya Sydney (podcast episode 6).

Nocookies
The Australian - December 5, 2018

This is important as it is the first time that Chris maintained that Lyn was still alive and if a female voice was heard, it was not Lyn - probably Marilyn.

 

[tmar]

Yep, she ticked all the predictor's boxes as far as pretty, young vulnerable victims go.

Remember too, Chris Dawson started grooming Joanne when she was still in year 11. What a creep!!

There is a case here on Websleuths, where a 50 year old teacher, groomed a 15 year old student.
They ran off together!!!
Later found.
She also had a bad home life.
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/tn-mcet-15-abducted-by-teacher-in-maury-county-13-march-20

 

[SouthAussie]

This is important as it is the first time that Chris maintained that Lyn was still alive and if a female voice was heard, it was not Lyn - probably Marilyn.

All carefully orchestrated. Having his friend Phil Day meet him at the pool, having Helena meet him at the pool. A couple of witnesses to his receiving the call from "Lyn" saying that she was going away (sans her last paycheque, her contact lenses, her daughters, her bankcard, her clothes, her jewellery ..... )


The detail that convinced a judge Lyn Dawson didn't abandon her children.
The judge said there was several factors that contributed to his consensus that she didn’t plan on leaving.

“She didn’t collect her last pay cheque… she left her contact lenses at home… her clothes were left behind, all of them,” Senior crown prosecutor Craig Everson told the court yesterday.
Mamamia - December 15, 2018

 

[SouthAussie]

There is a case here on Websleuths, where a 50 year old teacher, groomed a 15 year old student.
They ran off together!!!
Later found.
She also had a bad home life.
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/tn-mcet-15-abducted-by-teacher-in-maury-county-13-march-20

I think these girls are looking for some consistent love and security - perhaps even a father figure who can help them get their life under control - until they get a little older, or suffer abuses from these men.

 

[SouthAussie]

This is important as it is the first time that Chris maintained that Lyn was still alive and if a female voice was heard, it was not Lyn - probably Marilyn.

Just another thought about this ... I believe that this call happened while Joanne was away holidaying with her friends at South West Rocks.

I wonder if Chris had Joanne call him at the pool, she said that he had her call him a lot because she was breaking away from him.

I am wondering if the call was one of the many calls Joanne made to him while she was away, at his insistence, because he claims it was an STD call - and I believe, back in the day, you could tell when a call was an STD call. The pips that happened before the call connected. Something Chris might have hoped the kiosk girls remembered and could vouch for.

 

[DRT]

Just another thought about this ... I believe that this call happened while Joanne was away holidaying with her friends at South West Rocks.

I wonder if Chris had Joanne call him at the pool, she said that he had her call him a lot because she was breaking away from him.

I am wondering if the call was one of the many calls Joanne made to him while she was away, at his insistence, because he claims it was an STD call - and I believe, back in the day, you could tell when a call was an STD call. The pips that happened before the call connected. Something Chris might have hoped the kiosk girls remembered and could vouch for.

Good point as far as Joanne. I do wonder if the kiosk girls would have recognised Lyn's voice. Don't know how often she went to the baths. Maybe Chris's part time job was only in school holidays. More than likely only the summer.

I would be interested to know when his shift at the baths started. The reason I say this was Lyn had arranged to meet her Mum at the baths at 3pm. We all know Lyn didn't drive. If Mona Vale was the nearest bus stop, then she would have needed a ride to the bus stop.

The 2 things that get me about that day that haven't been mentioned are:
Chris must have brought the 2 girls aged 2 and 4 to the baths with him. He was working so couldn't fully watch the kids and work at the same time. Around water you need constant supervision for kids. I am guessing his shift must have perhaps been at earliest 2pm for that reason. If it was earlier Phil might have been brought there to assist with the kids. Also you wouldn't want the kids to be too long in the sun. The Slip Slop Slap campaigns began airing the TV in 1981 in Australia.

If Lyn was going to meet her mother at the pool she would have gone with Chris. She wouldn't have caught to buses to Lane Cove and then caught another to Northbridge Baths. It's really surprising she didn't buy anything on her credit card that day at Lane Cove.

 

[Estelle]

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp...d/news-story/1fa8663ee9a4eeae352a673cafd7dbf7

Joanne was studying her HSC in 1981 when invited to live with Chris

Joanne Curtis Timeline

1980 Joanne and Chris Dawson used to meet at the Time and Tide Hotel, just 700m from her school. In 1980 while in Year 11 at the age of 16, Joanne Curtis began an affair with CD. He gave her driving lessons, and they began having weekly sex. “(We) sometimes went to a Manly park … just to have sex, every week.”

In 1981, while in Year 12 and doing the HSC, Joanne moved into the Dawson family home at Bayview near Newport in Sydney’s northern beaches, as full-time babysitter, escaping her own home life.

1982 Joanne moves into house with Chris after Lyn "disappears"
Ms Curtis wanted to enrol in a TAFE Child Care Certificate course, but because it was full she studied a secretarial course three days a week.
But looking after Chris Dawson’s children, “it was made very difficult for me to do it”.

Chris Dawson asked his twin Paul’s wife Marilyn to look after the girls until the eldest, Shanelle, went to school. Ms Curtis, who described Marilyn Dawson as “kind” towards her, said her sister-in-law was the only person she saw for years.

In December 1984, Chris and Joanne moved to Queensland and built a house in the street next to the one that twin Paul Dawson lived in with his wife. By that time, Ms Curtis had given birth to her and Chris’s daughter, Kristen.

“He was even more possessive of me and rejected Kristen because he wanted me to himself,” Ms Curtis told the Coroner’s Court.

“He wanted the girls [Shanelle and Sherryn] to look after Kristen while we spent time together.”

Behind the two metre wall of their new house which Ms Curtis’s described as a compound she told the court she did “as I was told”, even wearing what Chris Dawson told her to.

“There was conflict around my ability to look after Sherryn and Shanelle,” she told the court.

“He wanted me to be their mother.

“It was very confusing because I didn’t feel like their mother, I felt like the mother of my own child.

“It was impossible to do what he wanted.

“He would stand over me in front of them and if I didn’t treat them as little princesses … if I disciplined them in any way he would yell.

“He objected to me speaking to them in anything but a sweet voice.”

Ms Curtis said ensconced in the new house during her daughter’s infancy, “I didn’t leave the compound”.

“We had a six foot fence and I only saw Marilyn for years.

“When Kristen got old enough to go to play group I took her down.

“His reaction to me going to play group was severe.

Schoolgirl’s ‘dog’s life’ with accused

 

[Jennifer17]

Joanne Curtis Timeline

1980 Joanne and Chris Dawson used to meet at the Time and Tide Hotel, just 700m from her school. In 1980 while in Year 11 at the age of 16, Joanne Curtis began an affair with CD. He gave her driving lessons, and they began having weekly sex. “(We) sometimes went to a Manly park … just to have sex, every week.”

In 1981, while in Year 12 and doing the HSC, Joanne moved into the Dawson family home at Bayview near Newport in Sydney’s northern beaches, as full-time babysitter, escaping her own home life.

1982 Joanne moves into house with Chris after Lyn "disappears"
Ms Curtis wanted to enrol in a TAFE Child Care Certificate course, but because it was full she studied a secretarial course three days a week.
But looking after Chris Dawson’s children, “it was made very difficult for me to do it”.

Chris Dawson asked his twin Paul’s wife Marilyn to look after the girls until the eldest, Shanelle, went to school. Ms Curtis, who described Marilyn Dawson as “kind” towards her, said her sister-in-law was the only person she saw for years.

In December 1984, Chris and Joanne moved to Queensland and built a house in the street next to the one that twin Paul Dawson lived in with his wife. By that time, Ms Curtis had given birth to her and Chris’s daughter, Kristen.

“He was even more possessive of me and rejected Kristen because he wanted me to himself,” Ms Curtis told the Coroner’s Court.

“He wanted the girls [Shanelle and Sherryn] to look after Kristen while we spent time together.”

Behind the two metre wall of their new house which Ms Curtis’s described as a compound she told the court she did “as I was told”, even wearing what Chris Dawson told her to.

“There was conflict around my ability to look after Sherryn and Shanelle,” she told the court.

“He wanted me to be their mother.

“It was very confusing because I didn’t feel like their mother, I felt like the mother of my own child.

“It was impossible to do what he wanted.

“He would stand over me in front of them and if I didn’t treat them as little princesses … if I disciplined them in any way he would yell.

“He objected to me speaking to them in anything but a sweet voice.”

Ms Curtis said ensconced in the new house during her daughter’s infancy, “I didn’t leave the compound”.

“We had a six foot fence and I only saw Marilyn for years.

“When Kristen got old enough to go to play group I took her down.

“His reaction to me going to play group was severe.

Schoolgirl’s ‘dog’s life’ with accused

I have such sympathy for Joanne. He groomed her from the age of fifteen and she did not know what a normal relationship was, given her home life.
It is to her credit that she dragged herself out of that and made something of herself.
This could have ended very differently if she had not been brave enough to leave.
I wish her all the best.

 

[Estelle]

Just another thought about this ... I believe that this call happened while Joanne was away holidaying with her friends at South West Rocks.

I wonder if Chris had Joanne call him at the pool, she said that he had her call him a lot because she was breaking away from him.

I am wondering if the call was one of the many calls Joanne made to him while she was away, at his insistence, because he claims it was an STD call - and I believe, back in the day, you could tell when a call was an STD call. The pips that happened before the call connected. Something Chris might have hoped the kiosk girls remembered and could vouch for.

That's an interesting theory.

 

[Estelle]

Good point as far as Joanne. I do wonder if the kiosk girls would have recognised Lyn's voice. Don't know how often she went to the baths. Maybe Chris's part time job was only in school holidays. More than likely only the summer.

I would be interested to know when his shift at the baths started. The reason I say this was Lyn had arranged to meet her Mum at the baths at 3pm. We all know Lyn didn't drive. If Mona Vale was the nearest bus stop, then she would have needed a ride to the bus stop.

The 2 things that get me about that day that haven't been mentioned are:
Chris must have brought the 2 girls aged 2 and 4 to the baths with him. He was working so couldn't fully watch the kids and work at the same time. Around water you need constant supervision for kids. I am guessing his shift must have perhaps been at earliest 2pm for that reason. If it was earlier Phil might have been brought there to assist with the kids. Also you wouldn't want the kids to be too long in the sun. The Slip Slop Slap campaigns began airing the TV in 1981 in Australia.

If Lyn was going to meet her mother at the pool she would have gone with Chris. She wouldn't have caught to buses to Lane Cove and then caught another to Northbridge Baths. It's really surprising she didn't buy anything on her credit card that day at Lane Cove.

This does not match what I have read about that day. I have never heard of Lane Cove being mentioned. Wasn't it Chatswood?

Lyn's mother lived at Clovelly so would not have arrived with Chris. Did she arrive with Phil?

Mona Vale is a long way from Northbridge. I grew up at Northbridge and these baths are not near public transport.

I read that there is a cafe at Northbridge Baths and Lyn was going to meet her mother there at 12 noon for lunch.

The phone call came in at 3pm but Phil and Lyn's mother would have already been there. Lyn's mother would have minded the girls.

 

[Estelle]

I agree.
I am just thinking that in those years that Joanne was with Chris, he was controlling. I am just finding it hard to believe that he would have been OK with her going to Uni and socialising with those her own age and bettering herself.
imo

IMO Lyn would have enrolled as a part-time correspondence mature student at University of New England in Psychology. So no need for Controlling Chris to worry about her fraternising with young people her own age.

 

[DRT]

This does not match what I have read about that day. I have never heard of Lane Cove being mentioned. Wasn't it Chatswood?

Lyn's mother lived at Clovelly so would not have arrived with Chris. Did she arrive with Phil?

Mona Vale is a long way from Northbridge. I grew up at Northbridge and these baths are not near public transport.

I read that there is a cafe at Northbridge Baths and Lyn was going to meet her mother there at 12 noon for lunch.

The phone call came in at 3pm but Phil and Lyn's mother would have already been there. Lyn's mother would have minded the girls.

I made a mistake. It was Chatswood. I went to Sydney a long time ago and went to both those suburbs so my fingers were typing the wrong thing.

None of it really makes sense. Why would Lyn go shopping in the morning when she was meeting with her mum later.