Deceased/Not Found Australia - Lynette Dawson, 34, Sydney, Jan 1982 *husband guilty* #5

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https://www.2gb.com/fuing--wife-killers-phone-tap-spray-on-hedley-thomas/

Because of the language in the hotlink you will need to go to 2gb.com to source this. There is an audio recording of Chris Dawson from a phone tap cursing Hedley Thomas.

But who had the last laugh Chris?

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Just back from the bookshop and they had all 3 of the relevant books :

Hedley's book 'The Teacher's Pet.'
Shanelle's book 'My Mother's Eyes'
and Rebecca Hazel's book 'The Schoolgirl, Her Teacher and His Wife.'

Purchased Rebecca Hazel's book and will be straight into it tonight. Might ask a relative to gift me Shanelle's book for Xmas.
 
Just back from the bookshop and they had all 3 of the relevant books :

Hedley's book 'The Teacher's Pet.'
Shanelle's book 'My Mother's Eyes'
and Rebecca Hazel's book 'The Schoolgirl, Her Teacher and His Wife.'

Purchased Rebecca Hazel's book and will be straight into it tonight. Might ask a relative to gift me Shanelle's book for Xmas.
Bought Rebecca's yesterday and am halfway through!
 
I'd be pretty happy to see MD face criminal charges for her involvement too.

Airing her dirty laundry just isn't satisfying enough :rolleyes:
It is impossible to believe that she didn't know almost everything. However I'm not quite ready yet to believe that she knew about Lyn's murder and helped cover it up. Perhaps she did, perhaps she didn't. Without that I'm not sure that she is guilty of anything, apart from being a vile person (IMO). Haven't they bequeathed a lovely legacy to their descendants? :(
 
Nearly puked when I read this in Rebecca Hazel's book :

Lyn told Pat that any money from the second jobs Chris and Paul had, was kept in a separate account called the 'Twinnies Account' and that was money their wives couldn't touch.

Remember how controlling Chris was of the finances? In order to have a credit card, Lyn had to have her monthly statement sent to where she worked, so Chris didn't see it. Yet there was our money (Chris & Lyn) and his money (the Twinnies Account). Just another example of Chris' coercive control and he continued it into his second marriage with JC.
 
Nearly puked when I read this in Rebecca Hazel's book :

Lyn told Pat that any money from the second jobs Chris and Paul had, was kept in a separate account called the 'Twinnies Account' and that was money their wives couldn't touch.

Remember how controlling Chris was of the finances? In order to have a credit card, Lyn had to have her monthly statement sent to where she worked, so Chris didn't see it. Yet there was our money (Chris & Lyn) and his money (the Twinnies Account). Just another example of Chris' coercive control and he continued it into his second marriage with JC.
Can someone tell me, is this type of domestic violence punishable by law in Australia? Or, the only choice that the victim has would be to wake up to it all, and leave?
 
Can someone tell me, is this type of domestic violence punishable by law in Australia? Or, the only choice that the victim has would be to wake up to it all, and leave?
I'm not a lawyer but domestic violence (physical) is assault and a charge could be laid without the person leaving but they would need to be a witness and unless the person got charged was on remand in custody while awaiting trial I can't imagine there would be a good outcome for the victim, so in practice I don't think it occurs too often. Police wouldn't pursue assault charges without the victim agreeing. There is also coercive control legislation in some states of recent time.

 
Bought Rebecca's yesterday and am halfway through!
The more I read, the angrier I get that the police treated Lyn's disappearance as a missing person's case for so long. To make matters worse, Chris Dawson was the only person the police were liaising with because he was the legal next of kin. In error, Chris Dawson even remained the police's next of kin contact after he had divorced Lyn.

Talk about amateur hour! Little wonder the murderer was able to avoid his day in court for so many decades. A farce the police force need to ensure they never ever duplicate.
 
The more I read, the angrier I get that the police treated Lyn's disappearance as a missing person's case for so long. To make matters worse, Chris Dawson was the only person the police were liaising with because he was the legal next of kin. In error, Chris Dawson even remained the police's next of kin contact after he had divorced Lyn.

Talk about amateur hour! Little wonder the murderer was able to avoid his day in court for so many decades. A farce the police force need to ensure they never ever duplicate.
Investigative journo's are earth angels.

100s of other cases need a Hedley Thomas deep dive.....

the 70s and 80s should be scared!
side eyeing it all!
 
The more I read, the angrier I get that the police treated Lyn's disappearance as a missing person's case for so long. To make matters worse, Chris Dawson was the only person the police were liaising with because he was the legal next of kin. In error, Chris Dawson even remained the police's next of kin contact after he had divorced Lyn.

Talk about amateur hour! Little wonder the murderer was able to avoid his day in court for so many decades. A farce the police force need to ensure they never ever duplicate.
It is infuriating to read of this absolute refusal to even consider any other point of view other than Chris Dawson's. Her own family's point of view was discarded, over and over. They never believed it, never absorbed Dawson's yarn about Lynn and the venture into some praying shindig, Lynn's mum rode the rails of Sydney's network for years hoping to see her , knowing Lynn didn't drive.

No police woman was put on the case to see things from a different perspective, and there were police women back then. The prevailing view, at the time was along these lines... no fault divorce had just been bought into law, against all the posturing of churches, conservatives, etc as to it's correctness, divorce being a social disgrace.

One of the reasons for this was that women, those mercurial creatures, bereft of all integrity would just up and leave house and hearth, desert husbands and children without a backward glance, ( men would never do this, apparently ) , if divorce was made easier for women to achieve. They would be back anserwers, disobedient, layabouts smoking and drinking and not cooking the evening meal, and ironing shirts.

And Dawson was able to hitch himself and his murdering habits to this bandwagon, among many women who 'disappeared', Lynn was portrayed as this kind of ditzy, flighty creature taking off on a whim with some religious chancer.

Have things changed much?.... The disappearing wife is still an active myth, .. she ran off with a truck driver, she went to NZ, she 's gone back to her family in Croatia, etc...... Her body eventually turns up in a bin in the garage, or in a suitcase in the bush, or exposed by wind in the desert.......
 
I have started with Shanelle’s book but I will get all three. I bought on kindle and audible because I feel it’s really her story to tell first. So far she’s written it really well.
How is Shanelle's book going? Good read?

I am in the last chapter of Rebecca Hazel's book and it is a gem. Particularly in relation to JC, who you really get to know because Rebecca spent so much time with her and visited so many of the key locations with her.

There was an open night at Cromer High School decades after JC left Chris Dawson and Rebecca attended with JC. They stopped at some photos on the wall and JC said : 'There's my daughter, she was a prefect here.'

Rebecca couldn't believe, with all of what went before, that JC's daughter had also gone to Cromer High and either could I.
 
@Cliff Hardy yes I have finished it. It was a pretty sad story unfortunately and I really feel for her. It was a good read though.

She did talk about the memories she has mentioned already in more detail, but also a few more that I hadn’t read anywhere before that also do make Chris look guilty so it was interesting, and also heartbreaking, to see over time how she came to her views. She talked about her experience being hypnotised which I found interesting.

It is interesting JC sent her daughter to Cromer. I’ll read that book next.
 
So, we have justice, all be it delayed, for Lynette - with Chris Dawson currently serving 24 years for her murder and justice for JC - with Chris Dawson sentenced to 3 years for carnal knowledge, one year of which to be served in addition to the 24 years he is already serving.

BUT....what about the unfinished business :

JC is rightfully attempting to get compensation from the NSW Government for the Education Department's negligence in allowing teacher Chris Dawson to groom and commit carnal knowledge with her on their watch. Outrageously, they are claiming that because she was 'consenting' there isn't a case for them to answer. Consenting? A 16 year old student being prayed on by a 32 year old teacher, much of it during school hours, on their watch??

Did Chris Dawson act alone in the murder and/or disposal of Lynette's body? Or did he have an accomplice or perhaps more than one, who is yet to face justice??

Where is Lynette's body? Chris Dawson knows but will he ever divulge that information? Is there a possibility that someone else who might know where Lynette's body is, an accomplice, might eventually come clean??
 
In her most recent interview with Hedley, Shannelle says she believes 'someone apart from Chris knows the truth.'

Hardly a startling claim when you consider twins Chris and Paul have probably never kept a secret from each other their entire lives. Plus Paul is married. Then there's Chris' other brother Peter, who represented him at both inquests and took the unusual step of instructing not just Chris but also Paul and Marilyn not to attend them.

Shannelle went on to say : 'perhaps at some point someone will want to ease the burden on themselves.'
 
Just came across Shanelle being interviewed on ABC radio's Conversations.

You can listen back to episodes, which I'm going to do as I missed a bit.

When it goes up, it will be on this page. They usually put them up fairly quickly after they've gone to air.

 
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ABC Conversations. Shanelle Dawson: the daughter's story​


 

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