June 13, 2024 • 17 mins
This is an episode of The Australian's daily news podcast, The Front.
Chris Dawson has suffered another humiliation, losing an appeal against his conviction for the 1982 murder of his wife Lynette in 1982.
Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian’s app.
This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet and edited by Lia Tsamoglou. Original music is composed by Jasper Leak.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
the news from the Australian.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
From the Australian, here's what's on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Christopher Michael Dawson will stay in jail. He has lost
an appeal against his conviction for the murder of his wife, Lynnette.
That case was made famous by our podcast The Teacher's
(00:44):
Pet and has ended in another humiliation for Dawson. Today,
the moment Rinn's family found out Dawson would stay in
jail and what his next move might be. Hello, Oh,
(01:10):
hy Marilyn, it's Claire. Hi, Claire, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
That is the longest law and tired seventh running.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Living just moments after a momentous decision. The latest twist
in the story of Christopher Michael Dawson. I rank Greg
and Marilyn Simms, the brother and sister in law of
the wife Chris murdered in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Lynnett Well waiting for the judges to come out. They're
verdict if you want to call it.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
That very tense and it's the longest minute I've had
in my life.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Waiting and listening.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
To call Greg and Marilyn relieved would be an understatement.
Greg and Marilyn are the guardians of Lynn's memory, along
with the rest of her family. They're the ones who
have kept the flame alive for forty two years as
their suspicions grew that their bright, warm, devoted Lynn did
not voluntarily leave her family as her husband claimed, but
(02:12):
had been murdered in cold blood. Greg and Marilyn had
liked and trusted Chris, Lynn's handsome, football playing teacher husband.
They were deeply confused and upset when he told Lynn's
family in nineteen eighty two that Lynn had gone away
for a break and that Lynn had told him not
to worry about her. By the time the Australians investigative
(02:35):
podcast The Teacher's Pet, created by our colleague Headley Thomas,
was released in twenty eighteen, Greg and Marilyn were convinced
Chris was a murderer. They'd seen an inept initial police investigation,
then a competent investigation led by Detective Damian Lohne, then
to coroners recommend charges against Chris, and then the heartbreak
(02:57):
of prosecutors steadfastly declining to charge him. In August twenty
twenty two, the family finally got the conviction they believed
was right.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Christopher Michael Dawson on the charge the diner about eight
January nineteen eighty two at Bayview or elsewhere in the
state of New South Wales, you did murder Lynette Dawson.
I find you guilty.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And then the sense of dread returned as Dawson launched
an appeal against that murder conviction.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Teacher's pet killer Chris Dawson has begun an appeal against
his conviction for murdering wife Lynette more than four decades ago.
A seventy five year old former rugby league star once
a court to overturn his conviction for killing his wife
Lynette in nineteen eighty two. His legal team claims here's
the victim of a miscarriage of justice and that it
(03:52):
was unreasonable for the trial judge to find him guilty.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I spoke to Greg and Marilyn in me the early
afternoon on Thursday, shortly before or the New South Wales
Court of Criminal Appeal handed down its decision. They were
nervous then and by the time the two pm hearing
clicked around, they told me they had knots in their stomachs.
The judges swept into the room and took their seats
for what turned out to be a lightning quick sitting
(04:17):
of the Court of Criminal Appeal, New South Wales's highest court.
The judges words are being read by voice actors.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
I propose the following orders. One grant leave to appeal,
two dismiss the appeal. I publish my reasons, Justice Pain.
Speaker 8 (04:35):
I agree with the orders proposed by Justice Adamson, and
I publish a note of my reasons.
Speaker 9 (04:40):
I agree with Justice Adamson and with the supplementary observations
of Justice Pain, and I publish my concurring judgment. The
orders of the Court will therefore be one grant leave
to appeal, two dismiss The appeal. Court is now adjourned.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
In other words, the judges accepted Chris Dawson could appeal
to The court heard the appeal and rejected it. His
conviction for Lynn's murder stands. The judges published reasons made
it crystal clear. First Justice Anthony Payne.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
I have no doubt about the applicants guilt.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Justice Julie Ward.
Speaker 9 (05:20):
The circumstantial case against the applicant was compelling, and there
is no reasonable doubt as to the applicants guilt. No
substantial miscarriage of justice has occurred. Justice Christine Adamson.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
None of the arguments advanced on behalf of the applicant
causes me to doubt the applicant's guilt of murder.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
We are extremely happy and the law has done the
right thing in our minds.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And what do you hope Chris Dawson does now?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I hope he sits back in his cell and enjoy
us in the next twenty years.
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Yes, and we both feel that this way for the
end he.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Will keep here all girl. As far as a game,
we're very.
Speaker 8 (06:02):
Grateful that justice has been done as far as we're
concerned twice over now, and hopefully if he's going to
proceed any further, we just hope that whoever has to
make the decision as to whether he's allowed to proceed
any further really thinks carefully about using the public purse enough.
I think this money needs throw other very worthwhile causes
(06:25):
as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
This should be the last time we see Christopher Michael
Dawson in a courtroom, but it won't be this humiliation.
His appeal flatly rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeal
means Dawson should finally accept the decision of Justice Ian
Harrison of August twenty twenty two. It's still possible he
could appeal to the High Court of Australia. The High
(06:51):
Court doesn't hear every case. First, Dawson would have to
persuade the Public Defender's Office to take his appeal. To
be heard by the High Court, he would first have
to see special leave to appeal, and would have to
demonstrate that it was a matter worthy of the High
Court's consideration. The Court says bluntly on its website, only
cases of major importance are heard by the High Court.
(07:13):
Usually that means the case raises some new point of
law that hasn't been considered before, or is of high
public importance, or that a High Court hearing is essential
to clarify a question of law that has been decided
in inconsistent ways by lower courts. The Court might hear
something that involves the question of the administration of justice.
(07:33):
That is a case that is highly significant, not just
for one person, but for a whole legal system. Dawson
has tried this before and failed during the years in
which he was fighting the Crown's right to take him
to trial at all. He sought to have the whole
case thrown out. The Supreme Court rejected him, so he
went to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which also rejected him.
(07:56):
He then sought special leave to appeal to the High
Court and was knocked back. Dawson also has another criminal
conviction for the unlawful carnal knowledge of a sixteen year
old schoolgirl who was in his class when he was
desperate to get rid of Lynn and be with the girl. Indeed,
after Lynn's disappearance, Dawson married the former pupil. In twenty
(08:17):
twenty three, the New South Wales District Court found Dawson
guilty of the carnal knowledge offense and sentenced him to
three years imprisonment. He could, of course also appeal that
conviction and sentence. What are you guys going to do now?
Speaker 8 (08:30):
I think probably failed if the fifthhone courts have already
had dozens of texts, just just so lovely to have
the support the people in Australia and possibly the world
have just been so behind this and behind this conviction,
holding and with value very much the support and comfort
we've received from so many people far and wide, lots
(08:52):
of people very invested in this story, Claire.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So here's how Chris Dawson tried to get out of
the murder conviction where Justice Harrison found he killed Lynn
sims on or about the eighth of January nineteen eighty two.
Dawson had five grounds. First, that Dawson suffered a significant
forensic disadvantage in defending himself when the matter was finally
brought to trial forty years after Lynn vanished from Sydney's
(09:23):
northern beaches. That means evidence like statements, records and receipts
have disappeared or been destroyed, and it makes it a
lot harder for Dawson to back up his version of events.
Here's what Dawson's barrister, at Belinda Rigg SC said about
that in court. She's referring to the account of the
late Sue Butler, who said she saw someone who looked
(09:44):
like Lynn Simms getting into a car at a fruit
market on the New South Wales Central Coast. Belinda Riggs's
words are being read aloud by a voice actor.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
That's a very clear example of a deceased person whose
evidence was crucial. That very type of detail has been
lost because of the delay. All we have is an
impoverished hearsay account from her former husband.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Rigg said Justice Harrison got it wrong when he failed
to find a significant forensic disadvantage existed, and that he
should have taken it into account when considering the evidence
presented at Dawson's ten week trial. But the three judge
bench said Justice Harrison did adequately consider the fact many
witnesses were now deceased and unable to give evidence in court.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
I consider that, for the reasons given by the trial judge,
his honor was correct to consider that the unavailability of
Philip day, Ellen, McBay, Ross Hutchin and Sue Butlin did
not cause significant forensic disadvantage to the applicant.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
They also said the unavailability of paperwork like bank statements,
phone records and employee rosters didn't put Chris Dawson so
far behind the eight ball that he couldn't have mounted
a solid defense at trial.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
No error of process or result has been established.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The second and third round of Chris Dawson's appeal are
two sides of the same coin. They say Justice and
Harrison was wrong to find that Chris Dawson's lies were
evidence of his consciousness of guilt. Basically, that means Harrison
found Dawson knew he was guilty and so told a
bunch of lies about Lynn's purported whereabouts in order to
(11:22):
cover his tracks. The public defender for Dawson, Belinda riggerc
argued Harrison gave inadequate reasons for relying on those lies
as evidence of Dawson's guilt. Rigg also argued Crown Prosecutor
Craig Everson didn't rely upon those lies as part of
his case, and so Harrison shouldn't have. Either. Justices Ward,
(11:43):
Adamson and Paine agreed. They said the language in Justice
Harrison's judgment was ambiguous, the trial judge's reasons revealed error
and did not comply with Section one hundred and thirty
three to two of the Criminal Procedure Act or the
common law obligation to give reasons. Okay, deep breath here,
this is complicated stuff. The accepted rule is that a
(12:04):
lie can only be used as an implied admission of
guilds if the prosecutor relies on the lie for that purpose.
So a judge or jury in this case of judge
can only find a liear's consciousness of guilt if the
prosecutor has also put it that way, and the prosecutor
has to prove a few key things. The lie has
to be deliberate, it has to be a lie told
(12:24):
because the accused knew the truth would implicate the mi
me offense, and it's made clear to the judge or
jury that there may be other reasons for the lie.
And this is where Justice Harrison made a mistake. According
to the Court of Appeal, they said Justice Harrison took
the lies that the Crown Prosecutor said were consciousness of guilt,
but also referenced other lies by Dawson and didn't make
(12:46):
clear which ones he thought were consciousness of guilt. This
was an error in his honor's reasoning. The fourth ground
of Dawson's appeal was that the evidence proving Lynn was
dead after January ninth, nineteen eight two was inadequate and
the Crown prosecutor didn't prove Dawson's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,
But the Court of Criminal Appeal judges backed Justice Harrison.
Speaker 7 (13:09):
Having reviewed all of the evidence, I am not persuaded
that the verdict of guilty of murder was unreasonable. None
of the arguments advanced on behalf of the applicant by
Miss Rigg causes me to doubt the applicants guilt of murder.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Coming up what the Court of Appeal found about what
happened at Northbridge Bars stay with us. The final ground
of Chris Dawson's appeal was that a miscarriage of justice
occurred when Justice and Harrison found Chris Dawson guilty of
(13:48):
the murder of lind Sims. This was all about the
fine detail of what happened at Northbridge Barns, the public
ocean pool where Dawson worked as a lifeguard on the
day after Lind's disappe ahearance. Dawson has always claimed he
took a phone call from Lynn when he was working
at the baths on January ninth, nineteen eighty two. Dawson
(14:08):
had taken his two young daughters there on that hot
January day and recruited Lynn's mum, Helena, and a friend,
Philip Day, to help look after them. He said he'd
drop Lynn at a bus stop in Mona Vale earlier
that day, and she'd joined them at some point in
the afternoon. Then Dawson says he received a call from
Lynn at the kiosk at the baths saying she was
(14:30):
going away for a while. But after forty long years,
the people who were at the Bath's on that day
couldn't remember if the call happened, or if it did,
if it was Lynn on the other end, Just as
Harrison found this story of Dawson's was a lie, but
there was no phone call and Dawson knew it. Vers
is the point the public defender argued with. Rigg said
(14:51):
Harrison was wrong in his interpretation of this alleged lie.
Rigg also said the Crown had not actually proved Lynn
was dead on this day on Thursday. Justice's Ward Adamson
and Payne found no miscarriage of justice occurred.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
I am satisfied that in rejecting the north Bridge Bard's
phone call and other evidence relied upon by the applicant
as indicating that the deceased might be alive after the
evening of eight January nineteen eighty two or the morning
of nine January nineteen eighty two, the trial judge had
regard to the whole of the evidence as sufficiently indicated
by his honors reasons Lynn's story has really touched people.
Speaker 8 (15:36):
It really has. And I think we've all said this
case has just been such a land mark case and
it continues to be. There's just it'll go down in
history as I don't note putting benchmarks and making venchmarks.
I think the future law and pretty astounding.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
I think the best thing that we've done. We've had
the arrest, we've had all the thoughts of eels and
all that sort of thing, and then we've had the trial.
We've had a guilty verdict, We've got Linn's Law into operation,
and we're going just shit back and say we've done
the best we can and go from there, and now
(16:16):
we can try and live our lives again.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Let's hope and pray we can. Yeah, let's hope we're
free to move on.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now these three eminent I disagree with you that Chris
did kill in Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
I'm just having goosebumps and shivers there. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (16:33):
Yeah, it'll eat home soon.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But it takes in a lot of thinking sitting here
tonight watching the news, and when it comes on we'll
just go, oh, bugger, thanks great.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
There's always somebody who comes back in relation to it.
But we know we've got this one and now let's
hope he just has enough sense to say. I've tried
to get out of it. They won't listen to me.
I'll just do my time.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Who had the best Aussie song of all time? Was
it Daddy Cool, Yothy Yindi or Akadaka. Andrew McMillan and
Alan Howe have whittled the long list of brilliant Australian
made tunes down to just sixty in honor of the
paper's sixtieth anniversary. You can read the full list of
the best Australian songs of all time right now at
the Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us
(17:27):
on the front this week. Our team is Kristin Amiot,
Lea Sammagluo, Joshua Burton, Jas the League, Tiffany Dinmak, Matthew
Condon and meet Claire Harvey.
You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
the news from the Australian.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
From the Australian, here's what's on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Christopher Michael Dawson will stay in jail. He has lost
an appeal against his conviction for the murder of his wife, Lynnette.
That case was made famous by our podcast The Teacher's
(00:44):
Pet and has ended in another humiliation for Dawson. Today,
the moment Rinn's family found out Dawson would stay in
jail and what his next move might be. Hello, Oh,
(01:10):
hy Marilyn, it's Claire. Hi, Claire, how are you?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
That is the longest law and tired seventh running.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Living just moments after a momentous decision. The latest twist
in the story of Christopher Michael Dawson. I rank Greg
and Marilyn Simms, the brother and sister in law of
the wife Chris murdered in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Lynnett Well waiting for the judges to come out. They're
verdict if you want to call it.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
That very tense and it's the longest minute I've had
in my life.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Waiting and listening.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
To call Greg and Marilyn relieved would be an understatement.
Greg and Marilyn are the guardians of Lynn's memory, along
with the rest of her family. They're the ones who
have kept the flame alive for forty two years as
their suspicions grew that their bright, warm, devoted Lynn did
not voluntarily leave her family as her husband claimed, but
(02:12):
had been murdered in cold blood. Greg and Marilyn had
liked and trusted Chris, Lynn's handsome, football playing teacher husband.
They were deeply confused and upset when he told Lynn's
family in nineteen eighty two that Lynn had gone away
for a break and that Lynn had told him not
to worry about her. By the time the Australians investigative
(02:35):
podcast The Teacher's Pet, created by our colleague Headley Thomas,
was released in twenty eighteen, Greg and Marilyn were convinced
Chris was a murderer. They'd seen an inept initial police investigation,
then a competent investigation led by Detective Damian Lohne, then
to coroners recommend charges against Chris, and then the heartbreak
(02:57):
of prosecutors steadfastly declining to charge him. In August twenty
twenty two, the family finally got the conviction they believed
was right.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Christopher Michael Dawson on the charge the diner about eight
January nineteen eighty two at Bayview or elsewhere in the
state of New South Wales, you did murder Lynette Dawson.
I find you guilty.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And then the sense of dread returned as Dawson launched
an appeal against that murder conviction.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Teacher's pet killer Chris Dawson has begun an appeal against
his conviction for murdering wife Lynette more than four decades ago.
A seventy five year old former rugby league star once
a court to overturn his conviction for killing his wife
Lynette in nineteen eighty two. His legal team claims here's
the victim of a miscarriage of justice and that it
(03:52):
was unreasonable for the trial judge to find him guilty.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I spoke to Greg and Marilyn in me the early
afternoon on Thursday, shortly before or the New South Wales
Court of Criminal Appeal handed down its decision. They were
nervous then and by the time the two pm hearing
clicked around, they told me they had knots in their stomachs.
The judges swept into the room and took their seats
for what turned out to be a lightning quick sitting
(04:17):
of the Court of Criminal Appeal, New South Wales's highest court.
The judges words are being read by voice actors.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
I propose the following orders. One grant leave to appeal,
two dismiss the appeal. I publish my reasons, Justice Pain.
Speaker 8 (04:35):
I agree with the orders proposed by Justice Adamson, and
I publish a note of my reasons.
Speaker 9 (04:40):
I agree with Justice Adamson and with the supplementary observations
of Justice Pain, and I publish my concurring judgment. The
orders of the Court will therefore be one grant leave
to appeal, two dismiss The appeal. Court is now adjourned.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
In other words, the judges accepted Chris Dawson could appeal
to The court heard the appeal and rejected it. His
conviction for Lynn's murder stands. The judges published reasons made
it crystal clear. First Justice Anthony Payne.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
I have no doubt about the applicants guilt.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Justice Julie Ward.
Speaker 9 (05:20):
The circumstantial case against the applicant was compelling, and there
is no reasonable doubt as to the applicants guilt. No
substantial miscarriage of justice has occurred. Justice Christine Adamson.
Speaker 7 (05:32):
None of the arguments advanced on behalf of the applicant
causes me to doubt the applicant's guilt of murder.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
We are extremely happy and the law has done the
right thing in our minds.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And what do you hope Chris Dawson does now?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
I hope he sits back in his cell and enjoy
us in the next twenty years.
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Yes, and we both feel that this way for the
end he.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Will keep here all girl. As far as a game,
we're very.
Speaker 8 (06:02):
Grateful that justice has been done as far as we're
concerned twice over now, and hopefully if he's going to
proceed any further, we just hope that whoever has to
make the decision as to whether he's allowed to proceed
any further really thinks carefully about using the public purse enough.
I think this money needs throw other very worthwhile causes
(06:25):
as well.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
This should be the last time we see Christopher Michael
Dawson in a courtroom, but it won't be this humiliation.
His appeal flatly rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeal
means Dawson should finally accept the decision of Justice Ian
Harrison of August twenty twenty two. It's still possible he
could appeal to the High Court of Australia. The High
(06:51):
Court doesn't hear every case. First, Dawson would have to
persuade the Public Defender's Office to take his appeal. To
be heard by the High Court, he would first have
to see special leave to appeal, and would have to
demonstrate that it was a matter worthy of the High
Court's consideration. The Court says bluntly on its website, only
cases of major importance are heard by the High Court.
(07:13):
Usually that means the case raises some new point of
law that hasn't been considered before, or is of high
public importance, or that a High Court hearing is essential
to clarify a question of law that has been decided
in inconsistent ways by lower courts. The Court might hear
something that involves the question of the administration of justice.
(07:33):
That is a case that is highly significant, not just
for one person, but for a whole legal system. Dawson
has tried this before and failed during the years in
which he was fighting the Crown's right to take him
to trial at all. He sought to have the whole
case thrown out. The Supreme Court rejected him, so he
went to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which also rejected him.
(07:56):
He then sought special leave to appeal to the High
Court and was knocked back. Dawson also has another criminal
conviction for the unlawful carnal knowledge of a sixteen year
old schoolgirl who was in his class when he was
desperate to get rid of Lynn and be with the girl. Indeed,
after Lynn's disappearance, Dawson married the former pupil. In twenty
(08:17):
twenty three, the New South Wales District Court found Dawson
guilty of the carnal knowledge offense and sentenced him to
three years imprisonment. He could, of course also appeal that
conviction and sentence. What are you guys going to do now?
Speaker 8 (08:30):
I think probably failed if the fifthhone courts have already
had dozens of texts, just just so lovely to have
the support the people in Australia and possibly the world
have just been so behind this and behind this conviction,
holding and with value very much the support and comfort
we've received from so many people far and wide, lots
(08:52):
of people very invested in this story, Claire.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
So here's how Chris Dawson tried to get out of
the murder conviction where Justice Harrison found he killed Lynn
sims on or about the eighth of January nineteen eighty two.
Dawson had five grounds. First, that Dawson suffered a significant
forensic disadvantage in defending himself when the matter was finally
brought to trial forty years after Lynn vanished from Sydney's
(09:23):
northern beaches. That means evidence like statements, records and receipts
have disappeared or been destroyed, and it makes it a
lot harder for Dawson to back up his version of events.
Here's what Dawson's barrister, at Belinda Rigg SC said about
that in court. She's referring to the account of the
late Sue Butler, who said she saw someone who looked
(09:44):
like Lynn Simms getting into a car at a fruit
market on the New South Wales Central Coast. Belinda Riggs's
words are being read aloud by a voice actor.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
That's a very clear example of a deceased person whose
evidence was crucial. That very type of detail has been
lost because of the delay. All we have is an
impoverished hearsay account from her former husband.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Rigg said Justice Harrison got it wrong when he failed
to find a significant forensic disadvantage existed, and that he
should have taken it into account when considering the evidence
presented at Dawson's ten week trial. But the three judge
bench said Justice Harrison did adequately consider the fact many
witnesses were now deceased and unable to give evidence in court.
Speaker 7 (10:30):
I consider that, for the reasons given by the trial judge,
his honor was correct to consider that the unavailability of
Philip day, Ellen, McBay, Ross Hutchin and Sue Butlin did
not cause significant forensic disadvantage to the applicant.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
They also said the unavailability of paperwork like bank statements,
phone records and employee rosters didn't put Chris Dawson so
far behind the eight ball that he couldn't have mounted
a solid defense at trial.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
No error of process or result has been established.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The second and third round of Chris Dawson's appeal are
two sides of the same coin. They say Justice and
Harrison was wrong to find that Chris Dawson's lies were
evidence of his consciousness of guilt. Basically, that means Harrison
found Dawson knew he was guilty and so told a
bunch of lies about Lynn's purported whereabouts in order to
(11:22):
cover his tracks. The public defender for Dawson, Belinda riggerc
argued Harrison gave inadequate reasons for relying on those lies
as evidence of Dawson's guilt. Rigg also argued Crown Prosecutor
Craig Everson didn't rely upon those lies as part of
his case, and so Harrison shouldn't have. Either. Justices Ward,
(11:43):
Adamson and Paine agreed. They said the language in Justice
Harrison's judgment was ambiguous, the trial judge's reasons revealed error
and did not comply with Section one hundred and thirty
three to two of the Criminal Procedure Act or the
common law obligation to give reasons. Okay, deep breath here,
this is complicated stuff. The accepted rule is that a
(12:04):
lie can only be used as an implied admission of
guilds if the prosecutor relies on the lie for that purpose.
So a judge or jury in this case of judge
can only find a liear's consciousness of guilt if the
prosecutor has also put it that way, and the prosecutor
has to prove a few key things. The lie has
to be deliberate, it has to be a lie told
(12:24):
because the accused knew the truth would implicate the mi
me offense, and it's made clear to the judge or
jury that there may be other reasons for the lie.
And this is where Justice Harrison made a mistake. According
to the Court of Appeal, they said Justice Harrison took
the lies that the Crown Prosecutor said were consciousness of guilt,
but also referenced other lies by Dawson and didn't make
(12:46):
clear which ones he thought were consciousness of guilt. This
was an error in his honor's reasoning. The fourth ground
of Dawson's appeal was that the evidence proving Lynn was
dead after January ninth, nineteen eight two was inadequate and
the Crown prosecutor didn't prove Dawson's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,
But the Court of Criminal Appeal judges backed Justice Harrison.
Speaker 7 (13:09):
Having reviewed all of the evidence, I am not persuaded
that the verdict of guilty of murder was unreasonable. None
of the arguments advanced on behalf of the applicant by
Miss Rigg causes me to doubt the applicants guilt of murder.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Coming up what the Court of Appeal found about what
happened at Northbridge Bars stay with us. The final ground
of Chris Dawson's appeal was that a miscarriage of justice
occurred when Justice and Harrison found Chris Dawson guilty of
(13:48):
the murder of lind Sims. This was all about the
fine detail of what happened at Northbridge Barns, the public
ocean pool where Dawson worked as a lifeguard on the
day after Lind's disappe ahearance. Dawson has always claimed he
took a phone call from Lynn when he was working
at the baths on January ninth, nineteen eighty two. Dawson
(14:08):
had taken his two young daughters there on that hot
January day and recruited Lynn's mum, Helena, and a friend,
Philip Day, to help look after them. He said he'd
drop Lynn at a bus stop in Mona Vale earlier
that day, and she'd joined them at some point in
the afternoon. Then Dawson says he received a call from
Lynn at the kiosk at the baths saying she was
(14:30):
going away for a while. But after forty long years,
the people who were at the Bath's on that day
couldn't remember if the call happened, or if it did,
if it was Lynn on the other end, Just as
Harrison found this story of Dawson's was a lie, but
there was no phone call and Dawson knew it. Vers
is the point the public defender argued with. Rigg said
(14:51):
Harrison was wrong in his interpretation of this alleged lie.
Rigg also said the Crown had not actually proved Lynn
was dead on this day on Thursday. Justice's Ward Adamson
and Payne found no miscarriage of justice occurred.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
I am satisfied that in rejecting the north Bridge Bard's
phone call and other evidence relied upon by the applicant
as indicating that the deceased might be alive after the
evening of eight January nineteen eighty two or the morning
of nine January nineteen eighty two, the trial judge had
regard to the whole of the evidence as sufficiently indicated
by his honors reasons Lynn's story has really touched people.
Speaker 8 (15:36):
It really has. And I think we've all said this
case has just been such a land mark case and
it continues to be. There's just it'll go down in
history as I don't note putting benchmarks and making venchmarks.
I think the future law and pretty astounding.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
I think the best thing that we've done. We've had
the arrest, we've had all the thoughts of eels and
all that sort of thing, and then we've had the trial.
We've had a guilty verdict, We've got Linn's Law into operation,
and we're going just shit back and say we've done
the best we can and go from there, and now
(16:16):
we can try and live our lives again.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Let's hope and pray we can. Yeah, let's hope we're
free to move on.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Now these three eminent I disagree with you that Chris
did kill in Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
I'm just having goosebumps and shivers there. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (16:33):
Yeah, it'll eat home soon.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But it takes in a lot of thinking sitting here
tonight watching the news, and when it comes on we'll
just go, oh, bugger, thanks great.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
There's always somebody who comes back in relation to it.
But we know we've got this one and now let's
hope he just has enough sense to say. I've tried
to get out of it. They won't listen to me.
I'll just do my time.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Who had the best Aussie song of all time? Was
it Daddy Cool, Yothy Yindi or Akadaka. Andrew McMillan and
Alan Howe have whittled the long list of brilliant Australian
made tunes down to just sixty in honor of the
paper's sixtieth anniversary. You can read the full list of
the best Australian songs of all time right now at
the Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us
(17:27):
on the front this week. Our team is Kristin Amiot,
Lea Sammagluo, Joshua Burton, Jas the League, Tiffany Dinmak, Matthew
Condon and meet Claire Harvey.
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