S1: A listener production.
S2: Hello, Tom Tilley with you for today's briefing. And in
S2: this episode, we get the latest from the trial of
S2: Chris Dawson. Now, this is the case that was at
S2: the centre of the Teacher's Pet podcast.
S3: There's evidence that Lynn Dawson made a phone call to
S3: her husband, who was working at the Northbridge Baths as
S3: a lifeguard on that particular Saturday. And she basically said,
S3: according to evidence, Look, you had your time out. I
S3: think I need a little bit of time out for myself.
S3: So that sort of mutually agreed on that. And that
S3: was the last anyone had ever seen Lynn Dawson.
S2: Chris Dawson was a rugby player and a teacher. Lynette
S2: Dawson was a nurse and a devoted mother. He's pleaded
S2: not guilty to her murder. And this story has gripped
S2: the nation and it's now playing out in court. So
S2: midway through the trial, we find out what fresh evidence
S2: has been uncovered in the decades long mystery. First, today's
S2: headlines with Tash Belling. It is Monday, June 20th.
S4: Good morning, Tom. Thank you. A huge decision on transgender
S4: athletes in swimming fina world swimming governing body has voted
S4: to restrict transgender athletes in elite women's competitions.
S5: Male to female transgender athletes whose legal gender or gender
S5: identity is female may only compete in FINA competition in
S5: the female category if they can establish that they have
S5: not experienced any part of male puberty fantasy.
S2: Brent Nowicki So the decision was made during Fina's extraordinary
S2: general Congress, which is happening on the sidelines of the
S2: World Championships in Budapest, and around 71% of their members
S2: of the 152 national federations voted for this policy.
S4: It means male to female. Transgender competitors have to have
S4: completed their transition by the age of 12in order to
S4: be able to compete in women's competitions.
S2: Yeah, the other important part of this decision is to
S2: create a new category for transgender athletes to compete in.
S2: It will be called an open category. So this is
S2: a big one, Tash. It means that Lia Thomas, that
S2: well-known American transgender swimmer, won't be able to compete at
S2: the Olympics or the world championships.
S4: And Tom, obviously I'm thinking straight away, will this set
S4: a precedent then for other sporting competitions and other athletes?
S2: Yeah, I think it probably will.
S4: And the vote, of course, followed a report from a
S4: transgender taskforce comprising leading medical, legal and sports figures.
S2: And a big payout for hundreds of thousands of Toyota drivers.
S4: In Australia's largest ever class action. The Federal Court ruled
S4: in April that Toyota, Hilux, Prado and Fortuner diesel vehicles
S4: sold from the 1st of October 2015 to the 23rd
S4: of April 2020 had a defect.
S2: Yes, the defect caused excessive smell and white smoke and
S2: also increased fuel consumption. And the court found the defects
S2: also led to a 17.5% price drop in the value
S2: of the cars when they were resold, which means the
S2: owners of 260,000 of these defective vehicles will be compensated.
S6: The best guide is around 17.5 per percent of the
S6: average retail price of that vehicle. New.
S4: That's extraordinary. And I can't believe also about the fuel
S4: consumption issues. So does that mean not only the value
S4: of your car has dropped, but also the fact that
S4: you were using a lot more fuel and that was
S4: then costing you a lot more at the petrol pump.
S2: Yeah. Interesting point. That was Matt Mackenzie from Gilbert and
S2: Tobin Lawyers we heard before. But yeah, Toyota's are such
S2: a popular car, so a ruling like this just affects
S2: so many people, a quarter of a million. It's just huge.
S4: And Toyota has appealed that judgment.
S2: And the former Coalition government's new job seeker policy will
S2: go ahead in 11 days. It has a points based
S2: system which will require job seekers to earn 100 points
S2: through searching for jobs, studying training and work for the dole.
S7: It's actually too late to not have a point system
S7: at all. It's about getting inside it and making it
S7: logical and making sure that when all these contracts take
S7: effect in a couple of weeks time, we've actually got
S7: a system that helps long term unemployed people.
S4: That's Employment Minister Tony Burke on Sky there. The new
S4: system will replace the job active program that required people
S4: to lodge 20 applications a month. Mr. Burke has said
S4: he supports the flexibility of the new system but is
S4: concerned about parts of it that are meant to be automated,
S4: bringing back memories of course, of the Robodebt disaster.
S2: And pressure is growing on the Australian Government to do
S2: more now that Julian Assange is facing extradition to the US.
S2: On Saturday, the British Home Secretary approved the extradition order
S2: and if carried out, it will mean Assange will face
S2: a US court.
S4: He is, of course charged with breaching the US Espionage Act,
S4: facing up to 175 years in jail. If convicted. There's
S4: still a long way to.
S8: Go in terms of our appeals here in the United Kingdom,
S8: potentially all the way to the Supreme Court.
S2: So that's Assange's lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, speaking on ten there.
S2: So this case has been going since 2010 when WikiLeaks
S2: first published those documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars,
S2: as well as diplomatic cables. And now that he's getting
S2: one step closer to extradition, people are basically calling on
S2: the Labour government to put their money where their mouth is.
S2: They've been seemingly tight, more supportive of Assange plight than
S2: previous governments, saying that this has dragged on long enough.
S2: Anthony Albanese also says that loud hailer diplomacy is not
S2: the way to go here. So you would expect that
S2: behind the scenes they will be talking to Joe Biden and.
S4: I saw Jennifer Robinson, who is of course, Assange's lawyer
S4: we heard from earlier there, she said over the weekend,
S4: which I thought was an excellent point. You know, this
S4: is a huge precedent for journalism and journalists in general.
S4: You know, does that mean, therefore, if you publish controversial
S4: documents that may. Expose government mistakes or alleged cover ups.
S4: Does that then mean journalists can go to jail?
S2: Speaking of which, there were a few at the Logies
S2: last night. What journalists.
S4: Or criminals?
S2: Good question, Tasha. I'll leave that call to you. The
S2: Logies were back after three years of not happening thanks
S2: to the pandemic. So apart from all the glitz and glamour,
S2: some of the results, Hamish Blake took out the Gold
S2: Logie for most popular personality on Australian TV, as well
S2: as the inaugural Bert Newton Award for most popular presenter.
S2: We really couldn't.
S9: Do it without the people that are watching at home.
S9: And if you're watching this, you're an insomniac, but if
S9: you're also somebody that supports Australian TV and we would
S9: not be here without you. So thank you.
S4: Hamish Blake there. Good on him for getting gold. Guy
S4: Pearce won most popular actor for Jack Irish and Katie
S4: Flanagan won most popular actress for How Good was Kitty
S4: and Fisk? Did you see it, Tom?
S2: No, I didn't. Sorry.
S4: It was really, really fantastic. Tony Armstrong won the Graham
S4: Kennedy Award for most popular new talent for ABC News Breakfast.
S4: You might remember him celebrating on air, of course, following
S4: the Socceroos win over Peru. He was a bit excited,
S4: wasn't he?
S2: Yeah, he was. He's had an amazing time on television.
S2: I mean, he's sort of really only come to prominence
S2: in the last year, but people love him. He's such
S2: a fun guy. And I guess, you know, in that
S2: ABC News Breakfast format, which is, you know, a pretty
S2: relatively serious kind of show for breakfast TV, he really
S2: likes it up. He's indigenous as well. So he brings
S2: a really interesting background to the show. I've met him.
S2: He's an awesome dude, so good on him. And yeah,
S2: it was good to see everyone frothing up and doing
S2: what they used to do. And of course the Gold
S2: Coast was absolutely the right place for such a wonderfully
S2: trashy event.
S4: Do you know what I do think, though, on a
S4: serious note, you know, people think it's all this glitz
S4: and glamour. What I love about it is the fact
S4: that it recognizes all the people behind the scenes that
S4: work incredibly hard to put together. Often these great shows
S4: and also great recognition of some fantastic Australian dramas. The
S4: newsreader was amazing. Did you see that on the ABC? Yeah,
S4: I did, yeah. Yeah. So great recognition for, you know,
S4: an industry that does employ tens of thousands of people.
S2: All right. Thanks so much, Tosh. We're jumping out of here.
S2: Anika and Katrina bring you the latest on the Chris
S2: Dawson trial.
S10: Annika. I'm actually not that much of a true crime junkie,
S10: but when the Teacher's Pet podcast came out, it was
S10: honestly one of those ones that got me completely hooked.
S10: I reckon it was one of the first true crime
S10: podcasts that got on my radar. I know I'm not alone.
S10: Millions of people around the world have become obsessed with
S10: this story. It's from the outside looking in a seemingly
S10: perfect marriage. It involves Lynette and Chris Dawson. He was
S10: a star footballer and she was a devoted mum. They
S10: shared a beautiful home in Sydney's northern beaches. But all
S10: of that unravelled when Lynette went missing in January 1982.
S4: Yes, I listened pretty religiously to I can.
S11: Remember getting to work, walking to work, listening and stopping
S11: and not starting work until I could finish an episode.
S11: It was, you know, a really gripping series. And obviously
S11: it created huge interest. And her disappearance has remained a
S11: cold case. It's been 40 years now. Chris Dawson, Lynette's husband,
S11: went on to marry their teenage babysitter and one of
S11: his former students. And for many years, there's been no
S11: movement on this case. And what happened to Lynette? There
S11: were always whispers and speculations about what might have happened.
S11: There were sightings, alleged sightings and questions raised about the
S11: relationship between Chris and Lynette, just how happy they were.
S11: But nothing was done until a group of journalists dug
S11: into the story, made it a podcast. And now with
S11: fresh evidence, Chris Dawson is on trial for murder.
S10: Yeah, So it's been quite a few weeks of this trial,
S10: and we wanted to know what exactly has been brought
S10: to light since this trial has begun and where is
S10: the court case at now? Joining us on today's briefing
S10: is Matthew Condon, who is one of the journalists behind
S10: the teacher's pet podcast. He's been in court every day.
S11: It's been 40 years since Lynette Dawson went missing. And
S11: for those that haven't followed the case or the wildly
S11: popular podcast, can you explain how this latest court case,
S11: so long after she went missing, actually came about.
S3: As you said, 40 years literally this year since Lynn
S3: Dawson disappeared? There were sporadic investigations into this. I mean,
S3: for many years she was treated as a missing person.
S3: An investigation heated up again in late 1989, 1990. And then,
S3: of course, along came the incredibly popular podcast The Teacher's Pet,
S3: by Hedley Thomas, the award winning journalist. So that, of course,
S3: revived interest again in the case. I think it had
S3: over 60 million downloads that podcast around the world. Witnesses
S3: came forward certainly to Hedley for his podcast. Again, police
S3: reignited their investigation and subsequently Christopher Dawson, Lynn Dawson's husband,
S3: was finally charged with her murder. So after all these years,
S3: we arrive at Court nine D in the Supreme Court
S3: in Sydney.
S11: And why do you think it's taken so long to
S11: get answers for the family? Was it a case of
S11: police negligence at the time? Was it just a different
S11: time when I guess these cases were treated differently? What
S11: do you put it down to the fact that she
S11: wasn't found?
S3: So Lynn disappears in at the end of January 1982,
S3: and then Chris Dawson alleges that his wife contacted him
S3: on a few occasions by telephone after the date of
S3: the end of the first week of January, people came forward,
S3: friends of the Dawsons and indeed a relative. This has
S3: been examined in the case with sightings of Lynn Dawson.
S3: So there were there were sightings, you know, a few
S3: years after she went missing, working as a nurse, for example,
S3: at a hospital in Cocoa in Sydney, a relative gave
S3: evidence that he indeed sighted Lynn in Gatesville on busy
S3: Victoria Road, believing that she was working as a nurse
S3: at a nearby hospital. So you have all of this
S3: doubt about is she alive? Is she not in the
S3: narrative as it's moved forward?
S10: We've got this court case happening right now. What is
S10: it that the court is being asked to decide and
S10: what could that mean for Chris Dawson?
S3: Well, he's facing the most serious charge of all, and
S3: that is that he murdered his wife, Lynn Dawson. And
S3: that alleged crime occurred around the end of the first
S3: week of January. In 1982. His defense team successfully argued
S3: for what's called a judge alone trial. That means no jury.
S3: I mean, the basis was that with the popularity of
S3: the teacher's pet and the Teacher's Pet podcast has come up.
S3: Day in, day out in this trial from the defense,
S3: in terms of the allegation that the podcast had of
S3: serious influence, given its popularity and certain thematics that it took,
S3: that it may have indeed influenced witnesses in the trial.
S3: The judge alone decision was because, they argued, Christensen could
S3: not possibly get a fair trial before a jury. Given
S3: the popularity of this story, I mean, the publicity. You know,
S3: fair enough. How could he get a fair trial with
S3: a jury of his peers so its judge alone before
S3: Justice Ian Harrison.
S11: And how much of the evidence being presented is historic
S11: such are those police interviews or intercepts from the time
S11: versus witnesses coming forward in the years since Lynn disappeared?
S11: Is it a 5050 split? Is there a huge amount
S11: of new evidence? What's the court sort of hearing?
S3: The court is hearing piece by piece, brick by brick.
S3: The building of the narrative behind the disappearance of Lynn Dawson.
S3: Such is the nature of serious trials. For example, though,
S3: since the trial began six weeks ago, people are still
S3: coming forward and contacting Crime Stoppers and are offering new information.
S3: Whether that will be admitted and become part of the
S3: trial is unknown at the moment, but it's been very
S3: carefully systematic. So the case began, for example, with evidence
S3: from the neighbors of the Dawsons up at Bayview Heights
S3: on Sydney's northern beaches. It then went to the workmates
S3: of Lynn who worked at the wayward Childcare centre up
S3: there as a nurse. There was evidence, of course, over
S3: several days from JC, who was the young babysitter at
S3: the epicentre of this story and this trial. And then
S3: it moved to, of course, family members were giving evidence.
S3: It was heartbreaking in many instances. And now we've moved
S3: on to the police and their investigation. So it's been
S3: very carefully plotted. In any case, a narrative takes time
S3: to sort of come into focus. It is a building
S3: of a picture.
S11: Has the court heard from Chris's second wife? And what
S11: do we know about their relationship, both before Lynne went
S11: missing and of course, after.
S3: Chris's second wife was the babysitter? We can't name her
S3: because she was underage at the time of this situation.
S3: So she's known as Jake to cut a very long
S3: story short. JC was a student at Cromer High where
S3: Chris Dawson was a teacher in late 1981. JC She
S3: briefly moved into the house at two Gill Wingard drive
S3: Bayview into Chris and Lynn's house. The explanation was that
S3: she had a troubled home life. She was trying to
S3: complete her HSC, which obviously required stability. And JC, who
S3: had been their babysitter for some time, briefly moved into
S3: the home. Now, if you spool forward to around Christmas 1981,
S3: the evidence in court has been that Chris Dawson and
S3: JC hopped in a car through some clothes in the
S3: car and headed north, ostensibly to Queensland, to start a
S3: new life together as they travelled north. JC felt physically
S3: unwell and was missing her family and said, Can we
S3: turn around essentially and back? They went to Sydney. Christmas
S3: Day has been an epicentre of this case. It's an
S3: important day, 1981, in that the Dawsons, a very close family,
S3: have always celebrated Christmas and held it to be very important,
S3: like a lot of families do. But on this Christmas Day,
S3: where there was a gathering at Chris Dawson's parents house
S3: in Sydney, Chris Dawson wasn't present. He was at his
S3: twin brother, Paul's house, which is only a couple of
S3: doors down from his home in Bayview, and Lynn Dawson
S3: went to the function on her own. So there was
S3: evidence about discussions about Chris, and Lynn's understanding was that
S3: he needed some time out to himself at that point.
S3: Go forward now to January and Lynn and Chris Dawson
S3: come back together. They agree to see a marriage counsellor.
S3: Everything looks great. Lynn's happy. Chris Dawson says he was
S3: happy that there was great hopes that they could make
S3: this work. And then come that first weekend in January,
S3: there's evidence that Lynn Dawson made a phone call to
S3: her husband, who was working at the Northbridge Baths as
S3: a lifeguard on that particular Saturday. And she basically said,
S3: according to evidence, look, you had your time out. I
S3: think I need a little bit of time out for myself.
S3: So that sort of mutually agreed on that. And that
S3: was the last any. One had ever seen Lin Dawson.
S10: What has it been like covering this case and why
S10: do you think that certain cases like this capture the
S10: national attention?
S3: Why they catch the attention. And it occurred to me
S3: sitting in the court, you know, watching witnesses come and go,
S3: listening to arguments from the crown and the defense. It
S3: occurred to me that, in essence, this is a very
S3: simple story. It's about a husband and a wife. It's
S3: about the fraying of a marriage. And it's about that
S3: scenario resulting in where we are today. I think it
S3: touches on a lot of common things that we all
S3: share in terms of a relationship, in terms of having
S3: young children in in terms of trying to make something work.
S3: This is a story from the 70 seconds and the
S3: early 80 seconds, but it's all about raising kids and
S3: how difficult that is and keeping a roof over your
S3: head and being able to afford the mortgage. And it's
S3: just that classic suburban drama that touches us all really.
S3: You know, it has its incredibly poignant moments, too, when
S3: you look at the family and they're hearing evidence day in,
S3: day out about their missing sibling.
S11: Now, there's been no evidence that Lin is still around.
S11: There hasn't been a body that's been found. There's been
S11: a few sightings. All of this leaves a really uncertain
S11: situation for the family. So importantly, do you think we're
S11: ever going to get any answers and from this trial
S11: about what happened to Lin?
S3: Well, the assumption of finding a body is the assumption
S3: that she is indeed dead. So the defense contends that
S3: she disappeared and indeed that it was of her own
S3: volition that she made a break from the family at
S3: that point. And the case is been trying to examine
S3: all sides of this story and whether, indeed that's a
S3: valid conclusion to reach and probing Lin's character and her
S3: state of mind leading up to her disappearance, per se. So,
S3: you know, this is a trial. We have to obviously
S3: balance everything, taking every view from the crown, from the defense.
S3: And the ultimate answer to this question rests with his honor,
S3: Justice Ian Harrison.
S10: And that was journalist Matthew Condon, who's been covering this
S10: case every day. Annika, interesting that Chris Dawson, I mean,
S10: so many years have passed. He's he's in his 70
S10: seconds now for so many families who their loved ones
S10: have gone missing and they've never been able to get answers.
S10: I guess it's people power that have brought cases like
S10: this particular one and other cases to light and led
S10: to either fresh evidence with people coming forward or inquests
S10: or even court cases, as is the case with this one.
S11: Yeah, it's a bit of a double edged sword, isn't it?
S11: You get the prominence in the media and often, you know,
S11: in this case you actually get a trial, but of
S11: course it can be used against you. You know, Chris
S11: Dawson has tried to use the podcast as a reason
S11: why he says he's not getting a fair trial. So
S11: it's a fine line, but obviously a great way of
S11: trying to deliver outcomes and answers for families. Listener.