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Chris Dawson is staying in jail · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, Here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, June fourteenth.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Green activists delayed more than a dozen colon gas projects
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  Speaker 1: by taking court action, even though their legal cases have
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  Speaker 1: been unsuccessful. That's prompted the resources sector to demand the
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  Speaker 1: federal government's speed up approvals and stop giving taxpayers money
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  Speaker 1: to the Environmental Defender's Office. That stories live now at
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  Speaker 1: The Australian dot com dot au. Christopher Michael Dawson will
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  Speaker 1: stay in jail. He has lost an appeal against his
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  Speaker 1: conviction for the murder of his wife, Lynnette. That case
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  Speaker 1: was made famous by our podcast The Teacher's Pet and
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  Speaker 1: has ended in another humiliation for Dawson. Today the moment
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  Speaker 1: Lynn's family found out Dawson would stay in jail and
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  Speaker 1: what his next move might be. Hello, O, Hi Marilyn,
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  Speaker 1: It's Claire, Hi Cli. How are you?
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  Speaker 2: That is the longest Laura be tired seven running.
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  Speaker 1: Just moments after a momentous decision. The latest twist in
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  Speaker 1: the story of Christopher Michael Dawson. I ran Greg and
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  Speaker 1: Marilyn Simms, the brother and sister in law of the
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  Speaker 1: wife Chris murdered in nineteen eighty two, Lynnett.
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  Speaker 2: Well waiting for the judges to come out. They're verdict
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  Speaker 2: if you want to call it that, very tense and
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  Speaker 2: it's the longest minute I've had in my life.
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  Speaker 3: Waiting and listening.
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  Speaker 1: To call Greg and Marilyn relieved would be an understatement.
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  Speaker 1: Greg and Marilyn are the guardians of Lynn's memory, along
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  Speaker 1: with the rest of her family. They're the ones who
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  Speaker 1: have kept the flame alive for forty two years as
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  Speaker 1: their suspicions grew that their bright, warm, devoted Lynn did
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  Speaker 1: not voluntarily leave her family as her husband claimed, but
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  Speaker 1: had been murdered in cold blood. Greg and Marilyn had
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  Speaker 1: liked and trusted Chris, Lynn's handsome, football playing teacher husband.
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  Speaker 1: They were deeply confused and upset when he told Lynn's
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  Speaker 1: family in nineteen eighty two that Lynn had gone away
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  Speaker 1: for a break and that Lynn had told him not
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  Speaker 1: to worry about her by the time he Australians in
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  Speaker 1: vistigative podcast The Teacher's Pet, created by our colleague Hedley
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  Speaker 1: Thomas was released in twenty eighteen. Greg and Marylyn were
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  Speaker 1: convinced Chris was a murderer. They'd seen an inept initial
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  Speaker 1: police investigation, then a competent investigation led by Detective Damian Loon,
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  Speaker 1: then to coroners recommend charges against Chris, and then the
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  Speaker 1: heartbreak of prosecutors steadfastly declining to charge him. In August
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, the family finally got the conviction they
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  Speaker 1: believed was right.
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  Speaker 2: Christopher Michael Dawson on the charge the donor about eight
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  Speaker 2: January nineteen eighty two, at Bayview or.
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  Speaker 4: Elsewhere in the state of New South Wales, you.
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  Speaker 2: Did murder Lynette Dawson.
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  Speaker 5: I find you guilty.
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  Speaker 1: And then the sense of dread returned as Dawson launched
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  Speaker 1: an appeal against that murder conviction.
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  Speaker 6: Teacher's pet killer Chris Dawson has begun an appeal against
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  Speaker 6: his conviction for murdering wife Lynette more than four decades ago.
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  Speaker 1: A seventy five year old former rugby.
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  Speaker 6: League star once a court to overturn his conviction for
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  Speaker 6: killing his wife Lynette in nineteen eighty two. His legal
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  Speaker 6: team claims, here's the victim of a miscarriage of justice,
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  Speaker 6: and that it was unreasonable for the trial judge to
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  Speaker 6: find him guilty.
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  Speaker 1: I spoke to Greg and Marylyn in the early afternoon
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday, shortly before the New South Wales Court of
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  Speaker 1: Criminal Appeal handed down its decision. They were nervous then,
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  Speaker 1: and by the time the two pm hearing clicked around
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  Speaker 1: they told me they had knots in their stomachs. The
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  Speaker 1: judges swept into the room and took their seats for
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  Speaker 1: what turned out to be a lightning quick sitting of
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  Speaker 1: the Court of Criminal Appeal, New South Wales's highest court.
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  Speaker 1: The judge's words are being read by voice actors.
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  Speaker 7: I propose the following orders. One grant leave to appeal
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  Speaker 7: to dismissed the appeal.
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  Speaker 1: I published my reasons, Justice Pain.
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  Speaker 5: I agree with the orders proposed by Justice Adamson, and
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  Speaker 5: I publish a note of my reasons.
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  Speaker 8: I agree with Justice Adamson and with the supplementary observations
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  Speaker 8: of Justice Pain, and I publish my concurring judgment. The
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  Speaker 8: orders of the Court will therefore be one grant leave
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  Speaker 8: to appeal, two dismiss The Appeal Court is now adjourned.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, the judges accepted, Chris Dawson could appeal
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  Speaker 1: to the court heard the appeal and rejected it. His
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  Speaker 1: conviction for Linn's murder stands. The judges published reasons made
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  Speaker 1: it crystal clear. First Justice Anthony Payne.
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  Speaker 7: I have no doubt about the applicant skilt.
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  Speaker 1: Justice Julie Ward.
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  Speaker 8: The circumstantial case against the applicant was compelling and there
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  Speaker 8: is no reasonable doubt as to the applicants skilt. No
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  Speaker 8: substantial miscarriage of justice has occurred. Justice Christine Adamson.
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  Speaker 7: None of the arguments advanced on behalf of the apple
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  Speaker 7: causes me to doubt the applicants guilt of murder.
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  Speaker 2: We are extremely happy and the law has done the
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  Speaker 2: right thing in our minds.
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  Speaker 1: And what do you hope Chris Dawson does now?
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  Speaker 2: I hope he sits back in his cell and enjoys
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  Speaker 2: the next twenty years.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, and we both feel that this way for the end,
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  Speaker 4: he will keep pushing as far as it can. We're
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  Speaker 4: very grateful that justice has been done as far as
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  Speaker 4: we're concerned, twice over now and hopefully if he's going
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  Speaker 4: to proceed any further, we just hope that whoever has
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  Speaker 4: to make the decision as to whether he's allowed to
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  Speaker 4: proceed any further. Really thinks carefully about using the public
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  Speaker 4: purse enough. I think this money needed through other very
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  Speaker 4: worthwhile causes as well.
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  Speaker 1: This should be the last time we see Christopher Michael
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  Speaker 1: Dawson in a courtroom, but it won't be this humiliation.
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  Speaker 1: His appeal flatly rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeal
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  Speaker 1: means Dawson should finally accept the decision of Justice Ian
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  Speaker 1: Harrison of August twenty twenty two. It's still possible he
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  Speaker 1: could appeal to the High Court of Australia. The High
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  Speaker 1: Court doesn't hear every case. First, Dawson would have to
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  Speaker 1: persuade the Public Defender's Office to take his appeal. To
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  Speaker 1: be heard by the High Court, he would first have
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  Speaker 1: to seek special leave to appeal, and would have to
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  Speaker 1: demonstrate that it was a matter worthy of the High
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  Speaker 1: Court's consideration. The Court says bluntly on its website, only
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  Speaker 1: cases of major importance are heard by the High Court.
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  Speaker 1: Usually that means the case raises some new point of
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  Speaker 1: law that hasn't been considered before, or is of high
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  Speaker 1: public importance, or that a High Court hearing is essential
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  Speaker 1: to clarify a question of law that has been decided
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  Speaker 1: in inconsistent ways by lower courts. The court might hear
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  Speaker 1: something that involves the question of the administration of justice.
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  Speaker 1: That is a case that is highly significant, not just
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  Speaker 1: for one person, but for a whole legal system. Dawson
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  Speaker 1: has tried this before and failed. During the years in
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  Speaker 1: which he was fighting the Crown's right to take him
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  Speaker 1: to trial at all, he sought to have the whole
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  Speaker 1: case thrown out. The Supreme Court rejected him, so he
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  Speaker 1: went to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which also rejected him.
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  Speaker 1: He then sought special leave to appeal to the High
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  Speaker 1: Court and was knocked back. Dawson also has another criminal
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  Speaker 1: conviction for the unlawful carnal knowledge of a sixteen year
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  Speaker 1: old schoolgirl who was in his class when he was
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  Speaker 1: desperate to get rid of Lynn and be with the girl. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: after Lynn's disappearance, Dawson married the former pupil. In twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, the New South Wales District Court found Dawson
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  Speaker 1: guilty of the carnal knowledge offense and sentenced him to
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  Speaker 1: three years imprisonment. He could, of course also appeal that
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  Speaker 1: conviction and sentence what are you guys going to do now?
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  Speaker 4: I think probably failed to sift and courts have already
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  Speaker 4: had dozens of texts. It's just so lovely to have the.
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  Speaker 1: Support the people.
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  Speaker 4: In Australia and possibly the world have just been so
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  Speaker 4: behind this and behind this conviction holding and we value
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  Speaker 4: very much the support and comfort we've received from so
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  Speaker 4: many people far and wide, lots of people very invested
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  Speaker 4: in this story, Claire.
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  Speaker 1: So here's how Chris Dawson tried to get out of
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  Speaker 1: the murder conviction where Justice Harrison found he killed Lynn
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  Speaker 1: Simms on or about the eighth of January nineteen eighty two.
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  Speaker 1: Dawson had five grounds. First, that Dawson suffered a significant
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  Speaker 1: forensic disadvantage in defending himself when the matter was finally
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  Speaker 1: brought to trial forty years after Lynn vanished from Sydney's
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  Speaker 1: Northern Beaches. That means evidence like statements, records and receipts
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  Speaker 1: have disappeared or been destroyed, and it makes it a
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  Speaker 1: lot harder for Dawson to back up his version of events.
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  Speaker 1: He is what Dawson's barrister, Belinda Rigg SC said about
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  Speaker 1: that in court. She's referring to the account of the
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  Speaker 1: late Sue Butler, who said she saw someone who looked
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  Speaker 1: like Lynn Simms getting into a car at a fruit
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  Speaker 1: market on the New South Wales Central coast. Belinda Riggs's
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  Speaker 1: words are being read aloud by a voice actor.
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  Speaker 5: That's a very clear example of a deceased person whose
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  Speaker 5: evidence was crucial. That very type of detail has been
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  Speaker 5: lost because of the delay. All we have is an
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  Speaker 5: impoverished hearsay account from her former husband.
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  Speaker 1: Rigg said Justice Harrison got it wrong when he failed
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  Speaker 1: to find a significant forensic disadvantage existed, and that he
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  Speaker 1: should have taken it into account when considering the evidence
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  Speaker 1: presented at Dawson's ten week trial barb. The three judge
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  Speaker 1: bench said Justice Harrison did adequately consider the fact many
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  Speaker 1: witnesses were now deceased and unable to give evidence in court.
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  Speaker 7: I consider that for the reasons given by the trial judge,
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  Speaker 7: his honor was correct to cannsidered that the unavailability of
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  Speaker 7: Philip day, Ellen, McBay, Ross Hutchin and Sue Butlin did
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  Speaker 7: not cause significant forensic disadvantage to the applicant.
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  Speaker 1: They also said the unavailability of paperwork like bank statements,
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  Speaker 1: phone records and employee rosters didn't put Chris Dawson so
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  Speaker 1: far behind the eight ball that he couldn't have mounted
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  Speaker 1: a solid defense at trial.
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  Speaker 7: No error of process or result has been established.
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  Speaker 1: The second and third round of Chris Dawson's appeal are
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  Speaker 1: two sides of the same coin. They say Justice and
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  Speaker 1: Harrison was wrong to find that Chris Dawson's lies were
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  Speaker 1: evidence of his consciousness of guilt. Basically, that means Harrison
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  Speaker 1: found Dawson knew he was guilty and so told a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of lies about Lynn's purported whereabouts in order to
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  Speaker 1: cover his tracks. The public defender for Dawson, Blinda Rigger,
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  Speaker 1: c argued Harrison gave inadequate reasons for relying on those
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  Speaker 1: lies as evidence of Dawson's guilt. Rigg also argued Crown
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  Speaker 1: Prosecutor Craig Everson didn't rely upon those lies as part
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  Speaker 1: of his case, and so Harrison shouldn't have. Either. Justices Ward,
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  Speaker 1: Adamson and Pain agreed. They said the language in Justice
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  Speaker 1: Harrison's judgment was ambiguous, the trial judge's reasons revealed error
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  Speaker 1: and did not comply with Section one hundred and thirty
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  Speaker 1: three II of the Criminal Procedure Act, or the common
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  Speaker 1: law obligation to give reasons. Okay, deep breath here this
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  Speaker 1: is complicated stuff. The accepted rule is that a lie
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  Speaker 1: can only be used as an implied admission of guilds
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  Speaker 1: if the prosecutor relies on the lie for that purpose.
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  Speaker 1: So a judge or jury in this case, a judge
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  Speaker 1: can only find a liar's consciousness of guilt if the
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  Speaker 1: prosecutor has also put it that way, and the prosecutor
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  Speaker 1: has to prove a few key things. The lie has
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  Speaker 1: to be deliberate, it has to be a lie told
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  Speaker 1: because the accused knew the truth would implicate them in
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  Speaker 1: the offense. And it's made clear to the judge or
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  Speaker 1: jury that there may be other reasons for the lie.
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  Speaker 1: And this is where Justice Harrison mate made a mistake.
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  Speaker 1: According to the Court of Appeal, they said Justice Harrison
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  Speaker 1: took the lies that the Crown Prosecutor said were consciousness
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  Speaker 1: of guilt, but also referenced other lies by Dawson and
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  Speaker 1: didn't make clear which ones he thought were consciousness of guilt.
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  Speaker 7: This was an error in his honors reasoning.
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  Speaker 1: The fourth ground of Dawson's appeal was that the evidence
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  Speaker 1: proving Lynn was dead after January ninth, nineteen eighty two
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  Speaker 1: was inadequate and the Crown Prosecutor didn't prove Dawson's guilt
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  Speaker 1: beyond a reasonable doubt, But the Court of Criminal Appeal
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  Speaker 1: judges backed Justice Harrison having.
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  Speaker 7: Reviewed all of the evidence. I am not persuaded that
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  Speaker 7: the verdict of guilty of murder was unreasonable. None of
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  Speaker 7: the arguments advanced on behalf of the applicant by Miss
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  Speaker 7: Rigg causes me to doubt the applicant's guilt of murder.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up what the Court of Appeal found about what
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  Speaker 1: happened at Northbridge Barns stay with us. The final ground
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  Speaker 1: of Chris Dawson's appeal was that a miscarriage of justice
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  Speaker 1: occurred when Justice and Harrison found Chris Dawson guilty of
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  Speaker 1: the murder of Lynd Sims. This was all about the
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  Speaker 1: fine detail of what happened at Northbridge Barths, the public
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  Speaker 1: ocean pool where Dawson worked as a lifeguard on the
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  Speaker 1: day after Lynn's disappearance. Dawson has always claimed he took
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  Speaker 1: a phone call from Lynn when he was working at
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  Speaker 1: the baths on January ninth, nineteen eighty two. Dawson had
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  Speaker 1: taken his two young daughters there on that hot January
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  Speaker 1: day and recruited Lynn's mum, Helena, and a friend, Philip Day,
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  Speaker 1: to help look after them. He said he'd drop Lynn
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  Speaker 1: at a bus stop in Mona Vale earlier that day
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  Speaker 1: and she'd joined them at some point in the afternoon. Then,
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  Speaker 1: Dawson says he received a call from Lynn at the
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  Speaker 1: kiosk at the baths, saying she was going away for
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  Speaker 1: a while. But after forty long years, the people who
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  Speaker 1: were at the Barth's on that day couldn't remember if
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  Speaker 1: the call happened, or if it did if it was Lynn.
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  Speaker 1: On the other end, Justice Harrison found this story of
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  Speaker 1: Dawson's was a lie, but there was no phone call
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  Speaker 1: and Dawson knew it. Versus the point the public Defender
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  Speaker 1: argued with. Rigg said Harrison was wrong in his interpretation
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  Speaker 1: of this alleged lie. Rigg also said the Crown had
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  Speaker 1: not actually proved Lynn was dead on this day. On Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: Justice's ward Adamson and Payne found no miscarriage of justice occurred.
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  Speaker 7: I am satisfied that in rejecting the north Bridge Bard's
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  Speaker 7: phone call and other evidence, relied upon by the applicant
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  Speaker 7: as indicating that the deceased might be alive after the
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  Speaker 7: evening of eight January nineteen eighty two or the morning
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  Speaker 7: of nine January nineteen eighty two. The trial judge had
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  Speaker 7: regard to the whole of the evidence as sufficiently indicated
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  Speaker 7: by his honest reasons. Lynn's story has really touched people,
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  Speaker 7: It really has.
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  Speaker 4: And I think we've all said this case has just
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: been such a landmark case and it continues to be.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: There's just it'll go down in history as I don't know,
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  Speaker 4: putting benchmarks and making benchmarks I think for future law
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  Speaker 4: and pretty astounding.
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  Speaker 2: I think the best thing that we've done. We've had
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: the arrest, we've had all the courts of feels and
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: all that sort of thing, and then we've had the trial.
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  Speaker 2: We've had a guilty verdict. We've got Linn's Law.
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  Speaker 3: Into operation, and we're going to shit back and say
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  Speaker 3: we've done the best we can and go from there
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  Speaker 3: and now we can try and live our lives again.
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  Speaker 4: Let's hope and prayer we can.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, let's hope. We're free to move on.
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  Speaker 1: Now, these three eminent jud disagree with you that Chris
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: did killing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, just having goosebumps and shivers there. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it'll hit home soon, but it takes.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of sitting here good night watching the news
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  Speaker 2: and when it comes on we'll just go.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, bager.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. There's always somebody that comes back in relation to it,
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  Speaker 2: but we know we've got this one and now let's
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  Speaker 2: hope he just has enough sense to say I've tried
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: to get out of it. They won't listen to me.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I'll just do my time.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Who had the best Aussie song of all time? Was
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  Speaker 1: it Daddy Cool, Yothy Yindi or Akadaka? Andrew McMillan and
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  Speaker 1: paper's sixtieth anniversary. You can read the full list of
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  Speaker 1: the best Australian songs of all time right now at
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  Speaker 1: The Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: on the front this week. Our team is Kristin amyot
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Lea Sammaglue, Joshua Burton, Just the League, Tiffany Dinner, Matthew
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Condon and me Clay Hobby