Wife Killer Chris Dawson will spend the remaining years of his life in prison after his sentence was handed down today in the New South Wales Supreme Court as per the ABC. In a judge-only session, the former teacher and Newton Jets football player learned he would spend a minimum of 18 years and a maximum of 24 years behind bars for the death of his first wife, Lynette Dawson, in early January 1982.
Lyn’s body has never been found, and the case was considered cold until 2018 when Hedley Thomas, a journalist for The Australian newspaper, started a podcast called The Teacher’s Pet. The podcast renewed interest in Lynette’s disappearance enough to lead the police to take another look at the case.
Chris was always the lead suspect in his wife’s disappearance. Just days after Lyn vanished, Dawson moved the family’s babysitter, identified in the press as “J.C.” The Teacher’s Pet Podcast identifies her as Joanne Curtis.
The judge came down hard on Chris saying that Lyn was undeserving of her fate and that Dawson had an “possessive infatuation” with J.C. The judge added that his obsession with the teenager was strong enough to envokve fear in himself that he would lose her so it made him kill his wife.
During the earlier court proceedings, Chris Dawson’s lawyers tried to use an alternative version of events to explain Lyn’s disappearance. The’ve claimed that Mrs Dawson left her family due to the broken trust between her and her husband over J.C.” They also used sightings that were unverified as proof that she was alive.
If Chris Dawson is alive in 2040, he will be eligible for parole in August of that year.
