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Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker

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Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play

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Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, Here's what's

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Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, June fourteenth.

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Speaker 1: Green activists delayed more than a dozen colon gas projects

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Speaker 1: by taking court action, even though their legal cases have

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Speaker 1: been unsuccessful. That's prompted the resources sector to demand the

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Speaker 1: federal government's speed up approvals and stop giving taxpayers money

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Speaker 1: to the Environmental Defender's Office. That stories live now at

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Speaker 1: The Australian dot com dot au. Christopher Michael Dawson will

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Speaker 1: stay in jail. He has lost an appeal against his

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Speaker 1: conviction for the murder of his wife, Lynnette. That case

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Speaker 1: was made famous by our podcast The Teacher's Pet and

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Speaker 1: has ended in another humiliation for Dawson. Today the moment

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Speaker 1: Lynn's family found out Dawson would stay in jail and

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Speaker 1: what his next move might be. Hello, O, Hi Marilyn,

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Speaker 1: It's Claire, Hi Cli. How are you?

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Speaker 2: That is the longest Laura be tired seven running.

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Speaker 1: Just moments after a momentous decision. The latest twist in

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Speaker 1: the story of Christopher Michael Dawson. I ran Greg and

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Speaker 1: Marilyn Simms, the brother and sister in law of the

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Speaker 1: wife Chris murdered in nineteen eighty two, Lynnett.

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Speaker 2: Well waiting for the judges to come out. They're verdict

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Speaker 2: if you want to call it that, very tense and

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Speaker 2: it's the longest minute I've had in my life.

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Speaker 3: Waiting and listening.

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Speaker 1: To call Greg and Marilyn relieved would be an understatement.

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Speaker 1: Greg and Marilyn are the guardians of Lynn's memory, along

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Speaker 1: with the rest of her family. They're the ones who

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Speaker 1: have kept the flame alive for forty two years as

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Speaker 1: their suspicions grew that their bright, warm, devoted Lynn did

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Speaker 1: not voluntarily leave her family as her husband claimed, but

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Speaker 1: had been murdered in cold blood. Greg and Marilyn had

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Speaker 1: liked and trusted Chris, Lynn's handsome, football playing teacher husband.

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Speaker 1: They were deeply confused and upset when he told Lynn's

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Speaker 1: family in nineteen eighty two that Lynn had gone away

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Speaker 1: for a break and that Lynn had told him not

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Speaker 1: to worry about her by the time he Australians in

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Speaker 1: vistigative podcast The Teacher's Pet, created by our colleague Hedley

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Speaker 1: Thomas was released in twenty eighteen. Greg and Marylyn were

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Speaker 1: convinced Chris was a murderer. They'd seen an inept initial

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Speaker 1: police investigation, then a competent investigation led by Detective Damian Loon,

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Speaker 1: then to coroners recommend charges against Chris, and then the

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Speaker 1: heartbreak of prosecutors steadfastly declining to charge him. In August

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, the family finally got the conviction they

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Speaker 1: believed was right.

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Speaker 2: Christopher Michael Dawson on the charge the donor about eight

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Speaker 2: January nineteen eighty two, at Bayview or.

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Speaker 4: Elsewhere in the state of New South Wales, you.

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Speaker 2: Did murder Lynette Dawson.

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Speaker 5: I find you guilty.

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Speaker 1: And then the sense of dread returned as Dawson launched

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Speaker 1: an appeal against that murder conviction.

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Speaker 6: Teacher's pet killer Chris Dawson has begun an appeal against

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Speaker 6: his conviction for murdering wife Lynette more than four decades ago.

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Speaker 1: A seventy five year old former rugby.

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Speaker 6: League star once a court to overturn his conviction for

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Speaker 6: killing his wife Lynette in nineteen eighty two. His legal

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Speaker 6: team claims, here's the victim of a miscarriage of justice,

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Speaker 6: and that it was unreasonable for the trial judge to

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Speaker 6: find him guilty.

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Speaker 1: I spoke to Greg and Marylyn in the early afternoon

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Speaker 1: on Thursday, shortly before the New South Wales Court of

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Speaker 1: Criminal Appeal handed down its decision. They were nervous then,

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Speaker 1: and by the time the two pm hearing clicked around

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Speaker 1: they told me they had knots in their stomachs. The

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Speaker 1: judges swept into the room and took their seats for

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Speaker 1: what turned out to be a lightning quick sitting of

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Speaker 1: the Court of Criminal Appeal, New South Wales's highest court.

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Speaker 1: The judge's words are being read by voice actors.

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Speaker 7: I propose the following orders. One grant leave to appeal

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Speaker 7: to dismissed the appeal.

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Speaker 1: I published my reasons, Justice Pain.

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Speaker 5: I agree with the orders proposed by Justice Adamson, and

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Speaker 5: I publish a note of my reasons.

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Speaker 8: I agree with Justice Adamson and with the supplementary observations

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Speaker 8: of Justice Pain, and I publish my concurring judgment. The

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Speaker 8: orders of the Court will therefore be one grant leave

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Speaker 8: to appeal, two dismiss The Appeal Court is now adjourned.

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Speaker 1: In other words, the judges accepted, Chris Dawson could appeal

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Speaker 1: to the court heard the appeal and rejected it. His

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Speaker 1: conviction for Linn's murder stands. The judges published reasons made

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Speaker 1: it crystal clear. First Justice Anthony Payne.

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Speaker 7: I have no doubt about the applicant skilt.

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Speaker 1: Justice Julie Ward.

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Speaker 8: The circumstantial case against the applicant was compelling and there

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Speaker 8: is no reasonable doubt as to the applicants skilt. No

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Speaker 8: substantial miscarriage of justice has occurred. Justice Christine Adamson.

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Speaker 7: None of the arguments advanced on behalf of the apple

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Speaker 7: causes me to doubt the applicants guilt of murder.

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Speaker 2: We are extremely happy and the law has done the

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Speaker 2: right thing in our minds.

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Speaker 1: And what do you hope Chris Dawson does now?

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Speaker 2: I hope he sits back in his cell and enjoys

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Speaker 2: the next twenty years.

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Speaker 4: Yes, and we both feel that this way for the end,

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Speaker 4: he will keep pushing as far as it can. We're

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Speaker 4: very grateful that justice has been done as far as

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Speaker 4: we're concerned, twice over now and hopefully if he's going

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Speaker 4: to proceed any further, we just hope that whoever has

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Speaker 4: to make the decision as to whether he's allowed to

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Speaker 4: proceed any further. Really thinks carefully about using the public

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Speaker 4: purse enough. I think this money needed through other very

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Speaker 4: worthwhile causes as well.

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Speaker 1: This should be the last time we see Christopher Michael

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Speaker 1: Dawson in a courtroom, but it won't be this humiliation.

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Speaker 1: His appeal flatly rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeal

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Speaker 1: means Dawson should finally accept the decision of Justice Ian

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Speaker 1: Harrison of August twenty twenty two. It's still possible he

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Speaker 1: could appeal to the High Court of Australia. The High

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Speaker 1: Court doesn't hear every case. First, Dawson would have to

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Speaker 1: persuade the Public Defender's Office to take his appeal. To

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Speaker 1: be heard by the High Court, he would first have

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Speaker 1: to seek special leave to appeal, and would have to

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Speaker 1: demonstrate that it was a matter worthy of the High

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Speaker 1: Court's consideration. The Court says bluntly on its website, only

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Speaker 1: cases of major importance are heard by the High Court.

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Speaker 1: Usually that means the case raises some new point of

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Speaker 1: law that hasn't been considered before, or is of high

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Speaker 1: public importance, or that a High Court hearing is essential

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Speaker 1: to clarify a question of law that has been decided

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Speaker 1: in inconsistent ways by lower courts. The court might hear

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Speaker 1: something that involves the question of the administration of justice.

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Speaker 1: That is a case that is highly significant, not just

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Speaker 1: for one person, but for a whole legal system. Dawson

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Speaker 1: has tried this before and failed. During the years in

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Speaker 1: which he was fighting the Crown's right to take him

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Speaker 1: to trial at all, he sought to have the whole

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Speaker 1: case thrown out. The Supreme Court rejected him, so he

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Speaker 1: went to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which also rejected him.

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Speaker 1: He then sought special leave to appeal to the High

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Speaker 1: Court and was knocked back. Dawson also has another criminal

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Speaker 1: conviction for the unlawful carnal knowledge of a sixteen year

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Speaker 1: old schoolgirl who was in his class when he was

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Speaker 1: desperate to get rid of Lynn and be with the girl. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: after Lynn's disappearance, Dawson married the former pupil. In twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three, the New South Wales District Court found Dawson

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Speaker 1: guilty of the carnal knowledge offense and sentenced him to

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Speaker 1: three years imprisonment. He could, of course also appeal that

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Speaker 1: conviction and sentence what are you guys going to do now?

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Speaker 4: I think probably failed to sift and courts have already

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Speaker 4: had dozens of texts. It's just so lovely to have the.

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Speaker 1: Support the people.

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Speaker 4: In Australia and possibly the world have just been so

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Speaker 4: behind this and behind this conviction holding and we value

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Speaker 4: very much the support and comfort we've received from so

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Speaker 4: many people far and wide, lots of people very invested

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Speaker 4: in this story, Claire.

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Speaker 1: So here's how Chris Dawson tried to get out of

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Speaker 1: the murder conviction where Justice Harrison found he killed Lynn

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Speaker 1: Simms on or about the eighth of January nineteen eighty two.

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Speaker 1: Dawson had five grounds. First, that Dawson suffered a significant

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Speaker 1: forensic disadvantage in defending himself when the matter was finally

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Speaker 1: brought to trial forty years after Lynn vanished from Sydney's

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Speaker 1: Northern Beaches. That means evidence like statements, records and receipts

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Speaker 1: have disappeared or been destroyed, and it makes it a

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Speaker 1: lot harder for Dawson to back up his version of events.

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Speaker 1: He is what Dawson's barrister, Belinda Rigg SC said about

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Speaker 1: that in court. She's referring to the account of the

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Speaker 1: late Sue Butler, who said she saw someone who looked

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Speaker 1: like Lynn Simms getting into a car at a fruit

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Speaker 1: market on the New South Wales Central coast. Belinda Riggs's

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Speaker 1: words are being read aloud by a voice actor.

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Speaker 5: That's a very clear example of a deceased person whose

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Speaker 5: evidence was crucial. That very type of detail has been

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Speaker 5: lost because of the delay. All we have is an

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Speaker 5: impoverished hearsay account from her former husband.

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Speaker 1: Rigg said Justice Harrison got it wrong when he failed

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Speaker 1: to find a significant forensic disadvantage existed, and that he

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Speaker 1: should have taken it into account when considering the evidence

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Speaker 1: presented at Dawson's ten week trial barb. The three judge

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Speaker 1: bench said Justice Harrison did adequately consider the fact many

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Speaker 1: witnesses were now deceased and unable to give evidence in court.

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Speaker 7: I consider that for the reasons given by the trial judge,

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Speaker 7: his honor was correct to cannsidered that the unavailability of

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Speaker 7: Philip day, Ellen, McBay, Ross Hutchin and Sue Butlin did

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Speaker 7: not cause significant forensic disadvantage to the applicant.

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Speaker 1: They also said the unavailability of paperwork like bank statements,

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Speaker 1: phone records and employee rosters didn't put Chris Dawson so

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Speaker 1: far behind the eight ball that he couldn't have mounted

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Speaker 1: a solid defense at trial.

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Speaker 7: No error of process or result has been established.

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Speaker 1: The second and third round of Chris Dawson's appeal are

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Speaker 1: two sides of the same coin. They say Justice and

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Speaker 1: Harrison was wrong to find that Chris Dawson's lies were

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Speaker 1: evidence of his consciousness of guilt. Basically, that means Harrison

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Speaker 1: found Dawson knew he was guilty and so told a

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Speaker 1: bunch of lies about Lynn's purported whereabouts in order to

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Speaker 1: cover his tracks. The public defender for Dawson, Blinda Rigger,

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Speaker 1: c argued Harrison gave inadequate reasons for relying on those

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Speaker 1: lies as evidence of Dawson's guilt. Rigg also argued Crown

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Speaker 1: Prosecutor Craig Everson didn't rely upon those lies as part

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Speaker 1: of his case, and so Harrison shouldn't have. Either. Justices Ward,

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Speaker 1: Adamson and Pain agreed. They said the language in Justice

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Speaker 1: Harrison's judgment was ambiguous, the trial judge's reasons revealed error

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Speaker 1: and did not comply with Section one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: three II of the Criminal Procedure Act, or the common

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Speaker 1: law obligation to give reasons. Okay, deep breath here this

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Speaker 1: is complicated stuff. The accepted rule is that a lie

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Speaker 1: can only be used as an implied admission of guilds

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Speaker 1: if the prosecutor relies on the lie for that purpose.

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Speaker 1: So a judge or jury in this case, a judge

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Speaker 1: can only find a liar's consciousness of guilt if the

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Speaker 1: prosecutor has also put it that way, and the prosecutor

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Speaker 1: has to prove a few key things. The lie has

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Speaker 1: to be deliberate, it has to be a lie told

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Speaker 1: because the accused knew the truth would implicate them in

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Speaker 1: the offense. And it's made clear to the judge or

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Speaker 1: jury that there may be other reasons for the lie.

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Speaker 1: And this is where Justice Harrison mate made a mistake.

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Speaker 1: According to the Court of Appeal, they said Justice Harrison

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Speaker 1: took the lies that the Crown Prosecutor said were consciousness

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Speaker 1: of guilt, but also referenced other lies by Dawson and

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Speaker 1: didn't make clear which ones he thought were consciousness of guilt.

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Speaker 7: This was an error in his honors reasoning.

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Speaker 1: The fourth ground of Dawson's appeal was that the evidence

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Speaker 1: proving Lynn was dead after January ninth, nineteen eighty two

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Speaker 1: was inadequate and the Crown Prosecutor didn't prove Dawson's guilt

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Speaker 1: beyond a reasonable doubt, But the Court of Criminal Appeal

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Speaker 1: judges backed Justice Harrison having.

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Speaker 7: Reviewed all of the evidence. I am not persuaded that

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Speaker 7: the verdict of guilty of murder was unreasonable. None of

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Speaker 7: the arguments advanced on behalf of the applicant by Miss

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Speaker 7: Rigg causes me to doubt the applicant's guilt of murder.

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Speaker 1: Coming up what the Court of Appeal found about what

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Speaker 1: happened at Northbridge Barns stay with us. The final ground

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Speaker 1: of Chris Dawson's appeal was that a miscarriage of justice

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Speaker 1: occurred when Justice and Harrison found Chris Dawson guilty of

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Speaker 1: the murder of Lynd Sims. This was all about the

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Speaker 1: fine detail of what happened at Northbridge Barths, the public

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Speaker 1: ocean pool where Dawson worked as a lifeguard on the

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Speaker 1: day after Lynn's disappearance. Dawson has always claimed he took

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Speaker 1: a phone call from Lynn when he was working at

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Speaker 1: the baths on January ninth, nineteen eighty two. Dawson had

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Speaker 1: taken his two young daughters there on that hot January

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Speaker 1: day and recruited Lynn's mum, Helena, and a friend, Philip Day,

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Speaker 1: to help look after them. He said he'd drop Lynn

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Speaker 1: at a bus stop in Mona Vale earlier that day

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Speaker 1: and she'd joined them at some point in the afternoon. Then,

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Speaker 1: Dawson says he received a call from Lynn at the

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Speaker 1: kiosk at the baths, saying she was going away for

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Speaker 1: a while. But after forty long years, the people who

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Speaker 1: were at the Barth's on that day couldn't remember if

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Speaker 1: the call happened, or if it did if it was Lynn.

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Speaker 1: On the other end, Justice Harrison found this story of

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Speaker 1: Dawson's was a lie, but there was no phone call

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Speaker 1: and Dawson knew it. Versus the point the public Defender

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Speaker 1: argued with. Rigg said Harrison was wrong in his interpretation

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Speaker 1: of this alleged lie. Rigg also said the Crown had

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Speaker 1: not actually proved Lynn was dead on this day. On Thursday,

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Speaker 1: Justice's ward Adamson and Payne found no miscarriage of justice occurred.

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Speaker 7: I am satisfied that in rejecting the north Bridge Bard's

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Speaker 7: phone call and other evidence, relied upon by the applicant

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Speaker 7: as indicating that the deceased might be alive after the

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Speaker 7: evening of eight January nineteen eighty two or the morning

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Speaker 7: of nine January nineteen eighty two. The trial judge had

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Speaker 7: regard to the whole of the evidence as sufficiently indicated

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Speaker 7: by his honest reasons. Lynn's story has really touched people,

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Speaker 7: It really has.

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Speaker 4: And I think we've all said this case has just

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Speaker 4: been such a landmark case and it continues to be.

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Speaker 4: There's just it'll go down in history as I don't know,

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Speaker 4: putting benchmarks and making benchmarks I think for future law

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Speaker 4: and pretty astounding.

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Speaker 2: I think the best thing that we've done. We've had

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Speaker 2: the arrest, we've had all the courts of feels and

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Speaker 2: all that sort of thing, and then we've had the trial.

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Speaker 2: We've had a guilty verdict. We've got Linn's Law.

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Speaker 3: Into operation, and we're going to shit back and say

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Speaker 3: we've done the best we can and go from there

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Speaker 3: and now we can try and live our lives again.

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Speaker 4: Let's hope and prayer we can.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, let's hope. We're free to move on.

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Speaker 1: Now, these three eminent jud disagree with you that Chris

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Speaker 1: did killing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, just having goosebumps and shivers there. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it'll hit home soon, but it takes.

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Speaker 2: A lot of sitting here good night watching the news

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Speaker 2: and when it comes on we'll just go.

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Speaker 3: Oh, bager.

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Speaker 2: Okay. There's always somebody that comes back in relation to it,

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Speaker 2: but we know we've got this one and now let's

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Speaker 2: hope he just has enough sense to say I've tried

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Speaker 2: to get out of it. They won't listen to me.

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Speaker 2: I'll just do my time.

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Speaker 1: Who had the best Aussie song of all time? Was

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Speaker 1: it Daddy Cool, Yothy Yindi or Akadaka? Andrew McMillan and

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Speaker 1: Alan Howe have whittled the long list of brilliant Australian

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Speaker 1: made tunes down to just sixty in honor of the

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Speaker 1: paper's sixtieth anniversary. You can read the full list of

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Speaker 1: the best Australian songs of all time right now at

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Speaker 1: The Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us

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Speaker 1: on the front this week. Our team is Kristin amyot

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Speaker 1: Lea Sammaglue, Joshua Burton, Just the League, Tiffany Dinner, Matthew

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Speaker 1: Condon and me Clay Hobby