He had pleaded not guilty.
Former Australian rugby player Chris Dawson, who became the subject of the popular The Teacher’s Pet crime podcast, has been found guilty of his wife’s murder.
Standing trial in Sydney, there had been decades long speculation about his involvement in the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Lynette.
Her body has never been discovered and all the evidence in the then cold case was circumstantial.
The now 74 year old has denied killing Lynette and stuck to the story that she had abandoned him and their two children.
As he was given the verdict on Tuesday, Justice Ian Harrison said the evidence against Dawson was “persuasive and compelling”.
“None of the circumstances considered alone can establish Mr Dawson’s guilt,” the judge said.
“But when regard is had to their combined force, I am left in no doubt. The only rational inference [is that] Lynette Dawson died on or about 8 January 1982 as a result of a conscious or voluntary act committed by Christopher Dawson.”
He then agreed that Dawson had become obsessed with his teenage babysitter and former student, deciding to murder Lynette as a way of pursuing the relationship.
The case has become the subject of the popular true crime podcast The Teacher’s Pet, created by investigative reporter Hedley Thomas. It was published back in 2018 at the same time the NSW police were again investigating Lynette Dawson’s disappearance.
Thomas had alleged in the podcast that he had uncovered new evidence that indicated Dawson may have been responsible for his wife’s murder in order to have an affair with a former student.
It also looked into the errors in the original police investigation and the failure of the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge Dawson despite inquest findings that he was potentially responsible.
Outside court, Lynette’s brother, Greg Simms, called on Dawson to reveal where her body was buried, telling reporters: “This verdict is for Lyn. Today her name has been cleared – she loved her family and would have never left them of her own accord. Instead, her trust was betrayed by a man she loved.”
Lynette went missing in January 1982, and three days after she vanished Chris invited his teenage lover to move into the family home.
He later reported his wife missing on 18 February 1982, six weeks after her disappearance, saying she had left due to marital problems and finalised his divorce proceedings in 1983.
Lynette’s body was never recovered and two coronial inquests were conducted in 2001 and 2003, both ruling she was dead and most likely had been killed by a known person.
Dawson was then arrested on 5 December 2018 by detectives from Queensland Police for the murder of his wife, and extradited to New South Wales on 6 December 2018 to face trial.
