Christopher Michael Dawson (born 26 July 1948) is an Australian convicted murderer and sex offender, and a former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1970s. Following the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Lynette, and two separate

coronial inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...

s, the New South Wales State Coroner determined that Lynette was dead and that Chris Dawson was her most likely murderer. After many years of stalled and failed investigations, Dawson was arrested and charged with murder in December 2018. He was granted bail after he paid the court A$1.5 million. The bail conditions required him to surrender his passport to Queensland police and to live with his current wife. His trial started on 9 May 2022 in the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian States and territories of Australia, State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil law (common law), civil matters, and hears ...

. In 2022, Dawson was found guilty of murdering Lynette, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. He is currently incarcerated at

Long Bay Correctional Centre The Long Bay Correctional Complex, commonly called Long Bay, is a correctional facility comprising a heritage-listed maximum and minimum security prison for males and females and a hospital to treat prisoners, psychiatric cases and remandees, loc ...

Early life

Dawson was born in Sydney, New South Wales. He is the second born of twins; his twin brother is

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

who was also a professional rugby league player and he has an older brother, Peter. Dawson attended

Sydney Boys High School Sydney Boys High School ('SBHS'), otherwise known as Sydney High School ('SHS') or simply High, is an Australian government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located at Moore Park, New South Wales, a s ...

where he was a

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

. He graduated in 1966. Dawson met Lynette Simms at a high school function in 1965, when they were both aged sixteen. They married in 1970 at

St Jude's Church, Randwick The St Jude's Church is an active Anglican church in Randwick, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is part of a significant heritage group that includes the church, cemetery, rectory and original Randwick Borough Chambers, later co ...

, and later had two daughters.

Rugby career

Both Chris and Paul played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

for Eastern Suburbs. The Dawson brothers switched codes to play rugby league for the

Newtown Jets The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, New South Wales, Newtown, a suburb of Inner West (Sydney), Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSW Cup competition, having left the top grade after t ...

in 1972. Chris Dawson played in the second row along with Paul for the Newtown Jets club for five seasons. The Dawson brothers were part of the 1973 New South Wales Rugby League Club Championship winning team.

Subsequent career

After their rugby careers finished, both Chris and Paul Dawson became

physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

teachers at public high schools on the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the ...

and North Shore of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. Dawson was teaching at Cromer High School in 1980 when he commenced a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old pupil, Joanne Curtis, while he was married to Lynette Dawson. The Dawson brothers and families moved to Queensland in 1985. Chris Dawson worked at

Keebra Park State High School Keebra Park State High School (KPSHS), referred to as Keebra Park or Keebra, is a co-educational public secondary school, located in the Gold Coast suburb of Southport, Queensland, Australia. The school falls within Division 6 of Gold Coast ...

first then later moved to

Coombabah State High School Coombabah State High School is a public secondary school located in the northern suburb of Coombabah on the Gold Coast, Queensland, in Australia. Backing onto the Coombabah Lakelands Conversation Area, The campus is situated on Pine Ridge Road ...

to work with his brother Paul. In 2003 Dawson was working at St Ursula's College in

Yeppoon, Queensland Yeppoon () is a coastal town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Livingstone, Queensland, Australia. Yeppoon is renowned for its beaches, tropical climate, and the islands out on the bay. Located from the city of R ...

before being fired from his job during the 2003 coronial inquest on Lynette's death.

Criminal convictions

Wife's murder

Dawson's wife Lynette went missing in January 1982. Two days after Lynette's disappearance, Dawson invited Joanne Curtis to move into the family house. He reported his wife

missing Missing or The Missing may refer to: Film * ''Missing'' (1918 film), an American silent drama directed by James Young * ''Missing'' (1982 film), an American historical drama directed by Costa-Gavras about the 1973 coup in Chile *, a Belgian film ...

on 18 February 1982, six weeks after her disappearance, claiming she had left after marital problems and had joined a commune. He finalised divorce proceedings against Lynette in 1983. Dawson married Joanne Curtis in 1984. The couple divorced in 1993. Lynette's body has never been found but two coronial inquests were conducted in 2001 and 2003 with both ruling that Lynette Dawson must be dead and was most likely murdered by a known person. Dawson was the main subject of an investigative

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

series, ''

The Teacher's Pet ''The Teacher's Pet'' is a 2018 Australian crime podcast that investigated the disappearance of Lynette Dawson. Published by ''The Australian'' newspaper, the podcast was hosted by journalist Hedley Thomas and produced by Slade Gibson. As of ...

'', by journalist

Hedley Thomas Hedley Thomas is an Australian investigative journalist, author and podcast producer based in Brisbane. He has been a staff writer at ''The Courier-Mail'', the ''South China Morning Post'' and ''The Australian.'' He is known for producing ''T ...

. Thomas investigated allegations about the disappearance of Lynette and brought Dawson into renewed public and media focus through the podcast's broadcast in 2018. , the

Gold Walkley The Gold Walkley is the major award of the Walkley Awards The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic ...

-award-winning podcast was

downloaded In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote se ...

28 million times. The series was temporarily removed from download in Australia in April 2019, "to help ensure that Chris Dawson gets a

fair trial A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

". On 5 December 2018, Dawson was arrested by detectives from

Queensland Police The Queensland Police Service (QPS) is the principal law enforcement agency responsible for policing the Australian state of Queensland. In 1990, the Queensland Police Force was officially renamed the Queensland Police Service and the old motto ...

for the murder of Lynette Dawson. He was extradited to

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

on 6 December 2018 to face trial. In his appearance at

's Central Local Court that day, he was refused bail and was remanded in custody. On 17 December 2018, Dawson was granted bail and his family paid A$1.5 million bail for him to be released. Appearing in the

Local Court of New South Wales The Local Court of New South Wales is the lowest court in the judicial hierarchy of the Australian state of New South Wales. Formerly known as the Court of Petty Sessions and the Magistrates Court, there are more than 160 branches across New Sou ...

in June 2019, Dawson pleaded not guilty to the murder of Lynette Dawson. In February 2020, Dawson was committed to stand trial for the murder of Lynette. His arraignment was set for April, with a potential trial date later in 2020. On 30 August 2022, Dawson was found guilty of murdering Lynette in 1982, after a judge only trial in the

. On 2 December 2022, Dawson was sentenced to 24 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 18 years, for the murder of Lynette. In May 2024, Dawson's appeal against his conviction commenced. His appeal was dismissed on 13 June 2024.

Carnal knowledge of a student

In May 2023, Dawson faced charges related to

carnal knowledge Carnal knowledge is an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse. In modern statutes, the term "sexual penetration" is widely used, though with various definitions. Biblical source The term derives from ''carnal'', meaning "of the flesh ...

(a historical offence replaced in 1986) of a student in his class, known for the purposes of the trial as "AB". In a judge-only trial, he was found guilty by judge

Sarah Huggett Sarah Huggett is an Australian lawyer and judge who is the first female Chief Judge of the District Court of New South Wales. Early life and education Sarah Huggett was born in Moree, one of eight children and the daughter of a police officer. Sh ...

on 28 June 2023. On 15 September 2023, he was sentenced to imprisonment for three years, with a non-parole period of two years, with the sentence to begin in August 2039 after the completion of his murder sentence. In September 2023, Dawson's victim, launched a civil case in the NSW Supreme Court against the NSW Department of Education for negligence, claiming it breached its duty of care to her, failed to investigate Dawson, and allowed him to remain a teacher at the school "notwithstanding the common knowledge that he was sexually abusing a pupil".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Chris 1948 births Living people Australian murderers Australian people convicted of child sexual abuse Australian people convicted of murder Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Australian sportspeople convicted of crimes Australian twins Eastern Suburbs RUFC players Footballers who switched code Newtown Jets players People convicted of murder by New South Wales People educated at Sydney Boys High School Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows Sportspeople convicted of murder 20th-century Australian sportsmen