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A scorned Lynette Simms might have voluntarily left her husband and their two youngsters due to his affair with a teenage babysitter, Chris Dawson’s lawyer has argued as he fights his conviction for her homicide.
The previous rugby league star and ex-teacher has returned to a Sydney courtroom two years after he was jailed for the homicide of his spouse Lynette Simms, who disappeared greater than 40 years in the past.
Dawson has taken his case to the state’s highest court docket – the Court docket of Felony Enchantment – in an effort to have his conviction overturned and be launched from jail.
Ms Simms disappeared from her Bayview house, which she shared with Dawson and their two younger youngsters, in January 1982.
Dawson’s barrister Belinda Rigg SC advised the court docket that Dawson’s conviction should be quashed due to the unavailability of key proof and witnesses 4 a long time on from the time of the offence.
Chris Dawson (pictured) is making an attempt to get his homicide conviction overturned. He maintains his spouse Lynette Simms may have run away
She added it couldn’t be established past an affordable doubt that Ms Simms was not alive after her final recognized contact on Friday January 8, 1982.
The previous Newtown Jets rugby league participant was sentenced to 24 years in jail, with an 18-year non-parole interval, after Supreme Court docket choose Ian Harrison discovered him responsible of homicide on circumstantial proof.
Justice Harrison discovered that Dawson killed his spouse to be with a younger pupil, JC, who moved into Dawson’s Gilwinga Drive house within the days following.
Ms Simms’ physique has by no means been discovered and she or he has by no means contacted her buddies or household, together with her two youngsters.
‘REASONABLE POSSIBILITY’
Ms Rigg on Tuesday morning advised the court docket that there was proof that Dawson was keen to hold on his relationship with JC even when he stayed married to Ms Simms.
‘He was little doubt able to persevering with that relationship if JC was keen, no matter his spouse both dwelling with Mr Dawson or extra doubtless separated from her,’ Ms Rigg stated.
Dawson’s authorized staff argues that the one obstacle to his relationship with JC was the younger girl’s want to name it off quite than the actual fact he was married.
The court docket was advised that earlier than Christmas 1981, Dawson and JC packed up his automobile and tried to maneuver to Queensland; nevertheless, she turned in poor health, requested him to return to Sydney and subsequently expressed a want to go away him.
‘Lynette was by no means an obstacle so far as JC was involved,’ Ms Rigg stated.
‘And (Dawson) demonstrated himself to be effectively ready to lose his relationship along with his spouse if JC would proceed the connection with him.’
The court docket was advised that in early 1982, JC travelled to South West Rocks in northern NSW to vacation with buddies and her sisters and was requested to name him at his house on daily basis.
Throughout the trial, the court docket was additionally advised that on the day she was final seen, Ms Simms attended marriage counselling with Dawson.
The mom of two ladies went lacking in 1982 when she was solely 34 (pictured an undated image of Lynette Simms and Chris Dawson)
Dawson later advised detectives that on that Friday night, he mounted his spouse a glass of wine and was upbeat concerning the prospects of resolving their issues.
‘It was presupposed to be a horny celebration,’ Dawson advised detectives in 1991.
Ms Rigg raised the state of affairs that JC had phoned Dawson at house on that night and that prompted Ms Simms to resolve to go away him the next day.
‘Ms Dawson’s coronary heart was wholly dedicated to the applicant, and she or he had little management as of 8 and 9 January 1982 over what would occur in her marriage,’ Ms Rigg stated.
‘And a call to go away her house to suppose issues by and display to the applicant her dissatisfaction is clearly an affordable risk.’
THE POOL
Throughout a 1991 police interview, Dawson advised detectives that he dropped off his spouse at a Mona Vale bus cease and she or he was supposed to satisfy him later that afternoon on the Northbridge Baths, the place he labored as a part-time lifeguard.
Dawson advised police that whereas at work he obtained a long-distance telephone name from his spouse saying that she wanted time away.
Lynette Simms has by no means contacted household, buddies or her ‘adored’ two daughters since she went lacking in January 1982
Ms Rigg advised the court docket on Monday there was a ‘affordable risk primarily based on the proof’ that Ms Simms was alive on the afternoon of January 9, 1982 and that she made the telephone name to the Northbridge Baths.
Dawson has maintained that his spouse walked out on him and their youngsters – regardless of the court docket listening to that she underwent a process to conceive a baby.
Justice Christine Adamson on Monday questioned whether or not it was believable that she would have walked out on the household given there was proof that she was ‘actually determined to be a mom’ and ‘adored’ her daughters.
THE 40-YEAR DELAY
Central to Dawson’s attraction, which might be heard over three days, is his declare that he suffered a ‘vital forensic drawback’ owing to the almost 40 years between his spouse’s disappearance and the matter going to trial.
A number of witnesses, together with Sue Butlin, who died in Could 1988, had been unable to offer proof at his extremely publicised trial in 2022.
Ray Butlin – a Dawson household buddy – advised the court docket through the trial that his former spouse Sue labored a weekend job at a fruit and vegetable store on the Pacific Freeway at Kulnura on the Central Coast.
Ray Butlin (pictured) gave proof that his former spouse had seen Ms Simms after her disappearance
Mr Butlin advised the court docket that Ms Butlin had advised him that she noticed Ms Simms throughout one among her shifts, after the date of her disappearance.
‘The substance was that (Ms Butlin) noticed an individual that she believed was Lyn Dawson,’ Mr Butlin stated through the trial.
‘She walked in direction of her and the girl proceeded, with out turning round, and acquired right into a automobile and drove off.’
Ms Rigg advised the court docket that Ms Butlin by no means made a police assertion and Dawson misplaced the prospect of her coming to court docket to contribute to an affordable doubt.
‘The one proof to be positioned earlier than a court docket by a witness was a rumour account by her husband of a dialog which occurred 40 years earlier,’ Ms Rigg stated.
One other key witness who died earlier than the matter went to trial was Phillip Day, who was current on the Northbridge Baths on the afternoon Ms Simms didn’t arrive to satisfy her household.
He gave an announcement to police in February 2001 wherein he stated he noticed Dawson being summoned to the pool workplace and when he returned Dawson stated he had obtained a name from Ms Simms.
In a grounds of attraction, Dawson’s legal professionals argue he suffered a ‘miscarriage of justice’ as a result of Justice Harrison discovered past an affordable doubt that he didn’t obtain a telephone name from his spouse.
Ms Rigg advised the court docket that due to the passage of time, telephone information had been misplaced.
She stated Dawson ‘may have obtained a name from his spouse from the Central Coast’ saying she wanted time away.
Chris Dawson (pictured) stated he had hoped to resolve relationship points along with his spouse
Nevertheless Justice Adamson – one among three judges who’s listening to the attraction – identified that in his judgment, Justice Harrison had explicitly stated he had taken into consideration the numerous delay.
‘I have to stay consistently vigilant to establish and allow for the chance that Mr Dawson’s skill adequately to answer the Crown case might have been unfairly compromised by the truth that he faces a trial for homicide in 2022 and never 1982,’ Justice Harrison wrote.
Throughout the trial, the Crown prosecution argued that Dawson ‘cunningly’ organized for Mr Day to be current on the pool to drive his youngsters to Ms Simms’ mom’s home that day.
Ms Rigg advised the court docket it was by no means recommended through the trial that another girl might have made a long-distance telephone name to Dawson on the pool.
‘There was nobody else recommended who may need known as (Dawson) there, far much less an STD name,’ she stated.
Final yr, Dawson was additionally convicted of 1 depend of carnal data after a choose discovered he engaged in sexual actions with one among his college students at a Sydney highschool in 1980.
He was sentenced by Choose Sarah Huggett to 3 years in jail and had one yr added onto his non-parole interval.
His non-parole interval is because of expire in August 2041, by which period he might be 93 years previous.
New ‘no physique, no parole’ legal guidelines handed by NSW parliament – dubbed ‘Lyn’s legislation’ – imply that Dawson is not going to be paroled till he reveals the place Ms Simms is buried.
The listening to earlier than Justices Julie Ward, Anthony Payne and Christine Adamson continues.
