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

[Morrisa]

Nocookies

The Teacher’s Pet: Chris Dawson and the curse of justice delayed

It can happen to teachers anywhere. They’re out in public and run into someone from the past, from school. It happened to Chris Dawson midair on Thursday.

High above the ground, in seat 30A in the far back corner of a Boeing 737-800, Dawson saw a flash of recognition pass over the face of a flight attendant.

“Your brother taught me at school,” he said as he served Dawson a breakfast quiche and can of Coke.

A brief conversation confirmed that Dawson’s twin, Paul, taught the attendant on Sydney’s northern beaches. Back then, the Dawson twins were not only teachers but celebrity footballers, turning heads wherever they went with their identical muscular builds, blond hair and confident auras.

“That’s lovely,” Dawson replied, according to a witness to the exchange.

snip

Since his calm arrest at his Gold Coast investment property

Dawson, whose main home is in Coolum on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, wants to wait at the home of one of his brothers in Sydney while the wheels of justice turn. Bail is almost never granted on the most serious crime in the book; the risk is too high of flight or interference with witnesses.

Dawson’s age and clean criminal history will be in his favour. He’ll say there’s no risk of reoffending. His strongest argument may be that he’s had almost 37 years to flee, and never did.

But then, he’s also never been charged with murder before.

snip

Senior legal observers tell Inquirer they expect that in the months ahead Dawson will apply for a permanent stay of the proceedings so he never faces trial.

The prosecution, to be led by the DPP’s deputy senior crown prosecutor, Craig Everson, will have powerful counter-arguments.

snip

If a permanent stay is rejected, Dawson may seek a temporary one to delay the prosecution for years, until a jury’s memories have dimmed. Delay could certainly be tempting for Dawson if he’s successful in securing bail.

BBM-You've got to be kidding me

 

[Trooper]

I notice also in that article that Homicide squad commander Detective Superintendent Scott Cook did not know there was a conflict of interest with Lloyd Babb.
"Cook didn’t know, until it was revealed in the podcast series, that Babb had declared a conflict of interest and could have nothing to do with the case because Dawson was his rugby league coach at Sydney’s Asquith Boys High School. Babb had been school captain, and Dawson a teacher there. Responsibility for the sensitive Dawson matter had been quietly transferred to a deputy within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

That must have been done so very very quietly, that even the resident mice and the resident cat in the DPP missed it entirely. There must have been a solid reason for it to be done very very quietly. These things are normally gazetted and registered, it's not a big deal, it's done often enough, the doing of it isn't the issue, the secrecy of doing it certainly is an issue.

Babb knowing Chris Dawson from schooldays is not a terrible conflict, transferring the matter is the better judgement, but secretly doing so, that's weird, and what could be the reason for that? …


'Responsibility for the sensitive Dawson matter had been quietly transferred to a deputy within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions'

 

[Trooper]

The thing about Peter. Could it have been his idea? in the beginning?. ' oh boys, women run off all the time, no one can find them, look at my MIL '..

He, Peter, would have been such a tremendous asset in this whole event. . Steering away police enquiries, coaching Chris, leaning on detectives, meetings with the DPP, and , I think, being very instrumental in getting Chris , and by default, Paul inserted into other schools and other school systems ( Catholic Education Authority ) without penalty , or publicity. Chris couldn't have got away with it without Peter, much less the backup from Paul . He had it made, really.

 

[TootsieFootsie]

A pity mobile phones were not really around much yet in 1982, apart from the odd big brick ones you might see in a few tv series.

I remember you could buy those fake plastic car phones, meant to impress others, I guess.

So no way then to track movements that way.

Also the lack of CCTV back then. I imagine non existent at that time.

 

[SouthAussie]

How long is an Acting Crown Prosecutors term?

Apparently, a term for an Acting Crown Prosecutor cannot be for more than 12 months. (Can be reappointed, though.)

(3) A person may not act or be appointed to act under this section for a period of more than 12 months at a time
CROWN PROSECUTORS ACT 1986 - SECT 13 Acting appointments


While a Crown Prosecutor's term is 7 years or less. (Can be reappointed.)

(2A) A Crown Prosecutor is to be appointed by the Governor for a term of 7 years or for such shorter term as may be necessary to ensure that the person’s term of office extends to (but not beyond) the date on which the person reaches the age of 72 years. A Crown Prosecutor is eligible (if otherwise qualified) for reappointment.
https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/inforce/95daa83d-4d7a-4d65-c1da-e6874446772d/1986-208.pdf

 

[SouthAussie]

I recall one of the transactions being at a "Katies" clothing store, but don't recall a second purchase. Doesn't prove it was Lyn though.

The other purchase was Just Jeans in Narrabeen. (As was Katies.)

The Australian published Chris Dawson's handwritten statement back in June.
He wrote the statement in 1982.

It wouldn't surprise me if Lyn's bankcard had been used by the young babysitter/lover to make the purchases. I think she was pretty snowed by Dawson at the time.

Narrabeen is only 15mins from Lyn's former home in Bayview. If Lyn ran away to join a cult, why would she be shopping so close to her former home soon after she 'ran away'. Where was this cult located? Did the cult allow individual shopping for oneself?

The statement:
https://theaustralianatnewscorpau.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/chris-dawson-compressed.pdf

 

[Morrisa]

The other purchase was Just Jeans in Narabeen.

The Australian published Chris Dawson's handwritten statement back in June.
He wrote the statement in 1982.

It wouldn't surprise me if Lyn's bankcard had been used by the young babysitter/lover/wife to make the purchases. I think she was pretty snowed by Dawson at the time. Perhaps something like ... "She left us. Go ahead and use her bankcard. Buy some new jeans and whatever you want. Not too much, though. I will have to pay the bill."

The statement:
https://theaustralianatnewscorpau.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/chris-dawson-compressed.pdf

Awesome SA. Do you happen to have the language expert analysis on this statement too?

 

[SouthAussie]

Awesome SA. Do you happen to have the language expert analysis on this statement too?

I do. Though I cannot reproduce the whole article here. Hopefully, it makes sense without the many parts that I have had to keep out to try to meet WS standards.


Key points (by former NSW detective Paul Curby, specialising in analysis):
1. Instead of commencing the story with a history of he and Lyn, he starts the story and he titles it: Antecedent report. And he talks about possible contacts. He talks about things that he’s purportedly done, but doesn’t give the history of he and Lyn until two-thirds of the way into the statement, which I think is meaningful. ….. Lynette Dawson…. She appears really as a title, not a person.

2. He’s just said ‘all girlfriends’, ‘work colleagues’, and the people he hasn’t contacted, he hasn't given them names.
There appears to be deception present in that. If someone doesn’t name people, it’s that they don’t want you to know who they are.
.... subconsciously because he’s not committed to a story, he’s subconsciously omitted the pronoun ‘I’. A lack of that pronoun is an indicator of deception.”

3. He talks about placing an advertisement in The Telegraph to appear on the 26th of March ’82. And then he uses ….. redundant information, that it appeared a day late on the 27th of March ’82. There is no real reason for anyone to put that in the statement ….. It’s like it’s a filler. How does that help, that the advertisement appeared a day late?”

4. The religious organisation isn’t mentioned, it was not named, it seems like a filler. Remembering that this story he’s written, we haven’t even got to the part yet where Lyn’s gone quote unquote missing.

5. He doesn’t say ‘My wife Lyn’, he just says Lyn. And instead of using the word ‘and’, his language has changed in that he uses a plus sign. Now there’s no synonyms in statement analysis like this. If he’s gone from using the word ‘and’ to changing it to a plus sign, that’s meaningful ….. indicating that there is some distance between their relationship already.

6. Some people will say ‘we wanted to resolve our differences in our marriage’ and heal. He doesn’t say that. He says hoping to resolve our difference. There is one issue that’s on his mind that he’s articulated. We just don’t know what that is.

7. Daughters and daughter has now changed to ‘the girls’ and there is no ‘our’ in it, meaning that his girls are shared with his wife Lyn. This to me looks like, at this stage, Lyn may be deceased.

8. .... he says he dropped her off at Mona Vale but doesn’t give a time. It’s highly deceptive, this whole paragraph - the changes in language, the times, the omission of a critical time. Because dropping her at Mona Vale would have been the very last time that he saw her that day. And why would you not give that time to the police, who you’re seeking help to find her.

9. .... you don’t ring the Baths. You ring a person at the Baths. The Baths can’t answer the call. It’s a person. You’d expect that in a truthful statement if Lyn did in fact ring him at that location, his sentence would read something like: ‘Lyn rang me at the Baths about 3pm’. And because there is no pronoun in there, it’s omitted, it’s an indicator to me that it’s deceptive.

10. The friends aren’t properly introduced into the story. That puts me on the alert…… he would know who the friends are. No mention of it anywhere in the story. And that’s consistent that they’re not properly introduced, which to me is indicating that this is deceptive.


Nocookies
The Australian - November 30, 2018

 

[DRT]

I just remembered the other sighting of Lyn Dawson was by Chris when he showed his beautiful daughters a random lady on Antiques Roadshow.
Does this TV show clip prove Lyn Dawson was alive?
Of course she must be wearing a wig because her hair texture is not the same. Lyn's hair has a natural wave to it whereas the lady on Antiques Roadshow doesn't, but they are both female.

 

[Jennifer17]

I just remembered the other sighting of Lyn Dawson was by Chris when he showed his beautiful daughters a random lady on Antiques Roadshow.
Does this TV show clip prove Lyn Dawson was alive?
Of course she must be wearing a wig because her hair texture is not the same. Lyn's hair has a natural wave to it whereas the lady on Antiques Roadshow doesn't, but they are both female.

And, as if a woman wanting to disappear would willing put herself on a much watched TV show.

 

[DRT]

And, as if a woman wanting to disappear would willing put herself on a much watched TV show.

And of course she needed a passport to leave the country and that would be recorded.

 

[SouthAussie]

And of course she needed a passport to leave the country and that would be recorded.

Kay (episode 6 of the podcast) said that Chris (and Paul) told her that Lyn had gone to live with a cult in the Blue Mountains.

Which - if true

- makes the stories about Lyn using her bankcard in Narrabeen, and the 'sighting' in Naraweena as reported to Lyn's mother , and the 'sighting' by Sue Butlin in Gosford, seem very unlikely. These places are not in the Blue Mountains.

I can certainly see why the inquests found that Lyn was murdered by a person close to her, Chris Dawson.

I would love to know what Joanne Curtis-Dawson has revealed to the police. She seems to have come good about this whole matter, since working in a women's refuge and making good friends there. I guess we will find out, in time.


The one-time teenage lover of schoolteacher Chris Dawson will be the police’s star witness in the potential trial against him for the alleged murder of his wife.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Joanne Curtis, who moved into the family’s Bayview home two days after Lyn Dawson, 33, went missing in 1982, has revealed fresh information which led to Dawson’s arrest on the Gold Coast yesterday.

They now believe her body is buried in a lonely bush grave.
“They corroborate Joanne’s evidence,” a senior police source said of the fellow witnesses.
We’re for Sydney | Daily Telegraph
Daily Telegraph - December 6, 2018

 

[Estelle]

Murder case against Chris Dawson hinges on detectives proving he created alleged 'false leads' | Daily Mail Online

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.

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.'

This story has probably been serving the Dawson family quite well since 1982 to squash any idea that a mother of two young children is capable of disappearing herself and not contacting anyone.

Somewhere in the world? She could not have had a passport (or money) to go anywhere! That means she would still be in Australia and have known about all this due to the publicity unless she died.

If I was one of the detectives on this case, I would want to interview Peter Dawson's first wife about this and know the name of her mother to check the story out. I don't just accept things without corroboration and usually detectives don't either.

So is this just a story? Or is it true? It's easy to make up a story if the people are now dead or you are divorced and hope your first wife does not find out that you are telling it. Has Hedley or detectives followed this up?

So if it is true, and occurred before Lynette "disappeared", it certainly must have given the Dawson boys the idea that people would surely be open to believing that Lynette could have left for good. One other woman has done it, so why not Lynette?

"It does not happen all the time" as Mr Walsh said. What does he think we are, naive?

 

[Oz Jen]

Hi K-Mac, not sure why the claim of 27 million downloads annoys you?
My DIL told me today she previously had no interest in the case but downloaded the series during the week.
I get what you're saying but + or - a few mill downloads, it's still a lot.
(Can't reply to quote for some reason - apologies)

 

[Oz Jen]

Katies purchase: not sure that would be Joanne's chosen style - more Sportsgirl or House of Merivale and Mr John, unless pressured to adopt an older style.

 

[DRT]

This story has probably been serving the Dawson family quite well since 1982 to squash any idea that a mother of two young children is capable of disappearing herself and not contacting anyone.

Somewhere in the world? She could not have had a passport (or money) to go anywhere! That means she would still be in Australia and have known about all this due to the publicity unless she died.

If I was one of the detectives on this case, I would want to interview Peter Dawson's first wife about this and know the name of her mother to check the story out. I don't just accept things without corroboration and usually detectives don't either.

So is this just a story? Or is it true? It's easy to make up a story if the people are now dead or you are divorced and hope your first wife does not find out that you are telling it. Has Hedley or detectives followed this up?

So if it is true, and occurred before Lynette "disappeared", it certainly must have given the Dawson boys the idea that people would surely be open to believing that Lynette could have left for good. One other woman has done it, so why not Lynette?

"It does not happen all the time" as Mr Walsh said. What does he think we are, naive?

I am sure that Peter's MIL didn't leave her wedding rings behind and other valuables. It is also possible that she left notification that she was going. Just because a child doesn't know the details doesn't mean her father didn't. If they could trace the details of her mother searching via a family tree she obviously wasn't avoiding being found.

The first name you are after is in this article.

PressReader.com - Connecting People Through News

 

[k-mac]

Hi K-Mac, not sure why the claim of 27 million downloads annoys you?
My DIL told me today she previously had no interest in the case but downloaded the series during the week.
I get what you're saying but + or - a few mill downloads, it's still a lot.
(Can't reply to quote for some reason - apologies)

hey jen
because they are implying that '27 million' number equates to 27 million people have now bias against CD so he cant possibly be put to trial because everybody knows this 'travesty called truth'

moo

 

[k-mac]

Then there's people like me (and I would think there's plenty of others too) who have never heard of Teacher's Pet until now and have absolutley no idea what it is or what it is about...

exactly blue bottle!
that's my point
yes the poddy is infamous but its not THAT infamous that CD cant get a fair trial.
cry me a river

 

[SouthAussie]

Katies purchase: not sure that would be Joanne's chosen style - more Sportsgirl or House of Merivale and Mr John, unless pressured to adopt an older style.

Yes, you have a point. Perhaps a gift for someone else? Or just a purchase to try to create a false impression of Lyn still being alive?

I just read somewhere (can't find the link at the moment) that Chris liked Joanne to dress as a teenager. Wanted her to stay a teenager.

I also read this ....

“She (Joanne) talked of Chris having a voracious sexual appetite and she could not say no to him. Also that he liked role-playing with dress-ups in the bedroom, which she didn’t like but he forced upon her.
Asked whether one of Mr Dawson’s demands was for Ms Curtis to dress up as a schoolgirl, Ms Cook confirmed: “Yes. Which I thought was strange.”
Nocookies
The Australian - July 12, 2018

 

[DRT]

Kay (episode 6 of the podcast) said that Chris (and Paul) told her that Lyn had gone to live with a cult in the Blue Mountains.

Which - if true

- makes the stories about Lyn using her bankcard in Narrabeen, and the 'sighting' in Naraweena as reported to Lyn's mother , and the 'sighting' by Sue Butlin in Gosford, seem very unlikely. These places are not in the Blue Mountains.

I can certainly see why the inquests found that Lyn was murdered by a person close to her, Chris Dawson.

I would love to know what Joanne Curtis-Dawson has revealed to the police. She seems to have come good about this whole matter, since working in a women's refuge and making good friends there. I guess we will find out, in time.


The one-time teenage lover of schoolteacher Chris Dawson will be the police’s star witness in the potential trial against him for the alleged murder of his wife.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Joanne Curtis, who moved into the family’s Bayview home two days after Lyn Dawson, 33, went missing in 1982, has revealed fresh information which led to Dawson’s arrest on the Gold Coast yesterday.

They now believe her body is buried in a lonely bush grave.
“They corroborate Joanne’s evidence,” a senior police source said of the fellow witnesses.
We’re for Sydney | Daily Telegraph
Daily Telegraph - December 6, 2018

A lot of Joanne's evidence was covered in the first and second inquest.

A 2003 article gives a good clue to what she might say.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-charming-devil-and-his-missing-wife-20030302-gdgcvm.html