Saturday 2 July 2022 04:45 PM The six crucial facts that could convict Chris Dawson of murdering his wife 40 ... trends now
The fate of ex-football star Christopher Dawson hangs on six crucial factors which will determine his future as either a free man or a convicted murderer likely to die in jail.
With his seven-week murder trial now drawing to a close, the 73-year-old accused wife killer's life will soon be in the hands of one man: NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison SC.
The venerable judge has ruled the trial with a firm hand but a reasonable touch, sometimes turning to humour, self deprecation and the absurdities of the human condition.
Crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC closed his case on Thursday and Chris Dawson's defence team Pauline David and Greg Walsh will say on Monday whether the accused himself will take to the witness box to give evidence.
Dawson, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Lynette, is not required to testify and in doing so would open himself up to cross examination by Mr Everson and his assistant prosecutor, Emma Blizard.
Nevertheless, the former PE teacher - whose legal counsel fought a battle right up to the High Court to try and prevent his murder trial from proceeding - is about to face one of two sharply contrasting futures.
If Justice Harrison finds Dawson not guilty, the former PE teacher can return to his third wife and Sunshine Coast home, and resume his retirement, albeit in reportedly declining health.
Should His Honour find Dawson guilty, he will be incarcerated in a NSW prison, disgraced and discredited as a four-decade-long liar, and subject to pleas by those who loved Lyn Dawson about the location of her body.
Is Lynette Dawson dead, or was she still alive after January 8, 1982 is one of the matters of contention in the case - with the defence claiming there were 'sightings' and the Crown saying Lyn is dead
The testimony of the schoolgirl who became Chris Dawson's second wife, JC (pictured with the then young daughters from his marriage to Lyn and her own daughter) is a crucial part of the case against him if the judge finds it sound
Christopher Michael Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering 33-year-old Lynette Dawson and disposing of her body in January 1982 so he could allegedly have an unfettered relationship with his babysitter, former student and future teenage bride, JC.
His defence includes that Lyn left her marriage of her own accord and abandoned her two young daughters, then aged four and two.
Dawson's defence lawyers will close their case, probably this coming week.
It is then anticipated Justice Harrison will take some weeks to consider complex legal questions he is eminently equipped to resolve before delivering his verdict.
These are some of the factors which legal counsel and His Honour have flagged as central to the case during the trial.
The defence has argued long and hard that Lynette Dawson could live on a commune, or in a cult, but the crown contends the devoted mother would not have left behind her two beloved daughters
#1 IS LYNETTE DAWSON DEAD?
The defence has argued long and hard that Lynette Dawson could still be alive, or at least was alive after she vanished from her marital home at 2 Gillwinga Drive, Bayview around January 8, 1982.
This is because - despite two coroner's inquests finding Lynette Dawson is dead and was murdered - if the prosecution cannot establish this beyond a reasonable doubt, then there is no case for a murder.
Chris Dawson's barrister made much of four different 'sightings' of Lynette after January 1982, at locations including on the NSW Central Coast, near Gladesville Hospital, and inside Rockcastle Hospital, now South Pacific Private in Curl Curl.
The Crown contends three were cases of mistaken identity, and one was possibly invented by the accused's late brother-in-law.
But Dawson's lawyer argued there was 'willful blindness' and deliberate failure by police to conduct any investigation in an impartial manner.
Pauline David said detectives had an 'intentional refusal' to consider evidence Ms Dawson was alive and a 'significant and very serious contravention of the obligations of the police officers' had dominated the case.
The Dawson twins can be heard on telephone calls played during the trial railing against media, Lyn's family and the schoolgirl for suspecting Chris of murdering his first wife
Pauline David (right) with Dawson outside the Supreme Court made a blistering attack during the trial on police, podcaster Hedley Thomas and the possible poisoning or seduction of witnesse
Part of this relates to phone calls Chris Dawson said he received from Lyn, on the day she disappeared and for up to six weeks afterwards.
The alleged time his wife kept ringing him varied according to different accounts Dawson gave over decades to Lynette's mother, her siblings, his family, police and even a tradie in late 2018, three months before he was charged with murder.
In indignant cross-examination, Ms David quizzed detective after detective as to why they hadn't chased up the first phone call Dawson said he received from Lyn.
This was to the Northbridge Baths on Saturday, January 9, 1982, where Helena Simms and her granddaughters waited in vain for their beloved daughter, 'my Lyn', and devoted mother, who was never to return.
Lyn left behind wardrobes full of clothes, her wedding and eternity rings, nursing badges, her mother and siblings - and two children she was devoted to, had commissioned portraits of and, for the elder girl, was excitedly planning her first day of school.
The trial heard that 'proof of life' checks on Lynette's bank accounts, tax file, Medicare, nurse's registration or other could show she was alive.
Lynette Joy Dawson, it would seem, is dead.
Two different witnesses testified they saw Chris either in a terrible argument with Lyn Dawson or pushing her face into the mud that once surrounded the swimming pol of the marital home at Bayview (above)
#2. THE MOTIVE AND THE BRUISES
While the Crown does not have to prove motive, it is one of the layers in building a circumstantial case, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle or as prosecutor Craig Everson has put it, 'the strands in a cable'.
But are alleged bruises on Lynette Dawson proof her husband wanted to kill her?
The trial has heard much legal debate about tendency and circumstantial evidence, with prosecutor Craig Everson SC contending they do prove the accused had an animus against her and a motive to kill her.
Mr Everson has told the court Dawson had three 'coexistent' and compelling motives.
'One of them was to get rid of Lynette Dawson. The second one was to bring in (Mr Dawson's second wife JC).'
The third was to avoid the financial consequences of going through a divorce.
Greg Walsh (above with his client Chris Dawson) argued that evidence about bruises and black eyes seen on Lynette Dawson was in doubt and 'so tenuous, so imprecise, so speculative' it was of no probative value
These motives, Mr Everson argued, shows Dawson had three tendencies: an animosity towards his wife, that he had contemplated using a third party to kill her, and that he wanted the school student JC he was having an affair with to be his wife and the mother to his children.
But the relevance of trial testimony about bruises and black eyes seen on Lynette to show a tendency for violence by the accused toward her has been debated by both Crown and defence, and indeed the judge, during the trial.
Different witnesses gave evidence of seeing Lynette at a shopping centre, outside her husband's school, at work, at a tennis game, and at home, with a black eye, bruises around her throat or on her arms and thigh, or crying and upset.
Mr Everson said witnesses' accounts of seeing Lyn with black eyes, and bruising on her arms and legs was a 'small piece of a larger mural of circumstances'.
'The unexplained bruising from those people is just simply a fact to be taken into account as a strand in the cable,' he said.
He cited the case of Adelaide woman
