AN AUSTRALIAN MAN whose life was laid bare in a popular crime podcast about the disappearance of his wife 40 years ago has been found guilty of her murder.
Former rugby league player Chris Dawson, 74, was charged with the murder of his former wife Lynette in 2018.
Despite all the evidence being circumstantial, the New South Wales Supreme Court found that Dawson had murdered his wife in Sydney.
Lynette was last seen on 8 January 1982. Her body has never been found and Dawson has always maintained that he was not involved in her disappearance, claiming she left home at the time to get some time to herself.
The case garnered global attention after it was featured in The Australian newspapers’ The Teacher’s Pet podcast, which detailed the couple’s troubled marriage leading up to Lynette’s disappearance and examined the shortcomings of the police response.
An inquest in 2003 found that Dawson, a former high school teacher, had started an affair with a 16-year-old student who moved in with him within days of his wife’s disappearance.
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Lynette’s brother Greg Simms said his sister’s name “has been cleared”.
“She loved her family and never left them of her own accord. Instead her trust was betrayed by a man she loved,” he said.
“The court has found what we have believed to be true for so many years. Chris Dawson took the life of our beloved Lyn back in 1982.”
He thanked all those who came forward “to speak the truth on Lyn’s behalf, to give her a voice 40 years after she lost her own”.
Simms also appealed to Dawson to tell the family where his sister was buried.
“She’s still missing. We still need to bring her home. We would ask Chris Dawson to find it in himself to finally do the decent thing and allow us to bring Lyn home to a peaceful rest, Finally showing her the dignity she deserves,” he said.
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