Four main claims in Dawson’s new court battle

Former teacher Chris Dawson claimed it was “inappropriate” for a judge to find him guilty of the murder of his wife Lynette Simms, a court was told as he made his application to be released from prison.

Dawson, 75, will appear before the state’s highest court – the Court of Criminal Appeal – in May next year to try to have his murder conviction overturned.

The former Newtown Jets rugby league player was sentenced to 24 years in prison after a Supreme Court judge found him guilty last year of murdering his wife, who disappeared from their Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches more than 40 years ago.

After a lengthy trial, Judge Ian Harrison found that Dawson killed his wife so he could be with the family babysitter, whom he later married.

Mrs Simms disappeared in January 1982 – her body was never found and she never contacted her friends or family, including her two children.

On Thursday, Dawson’s lawyers appeared before the Court of Criminal Appeal after he appealed the sentence.

The court was told that his appeal would be heard over three days starting on May 13 next year.

Dawson has appealed on four grounds, including that the sentence was “unreasonable”, the court was told on Thursday.

In the appeal, Dawson’s lawyers argue that the former football player was at a “significant forensic disadvantage” because four decades had passed between Lynette’s disappearance and the trial, meaning evidence and witnesses were no longer available.

In his judgment, Judge Harrison found that Dawson had told several lies and said: “I consider that those lies are evidence of Mr Dawson’s guilty conscience for the murder of Lynette Dawson.”

Dawson’s lawyers argue that the conclusion that he showed a sense of guilt is incorrect.

They also argue that the verdict is “unreasonable” and not supported by evidence.

They claim there is “insufficient” evidence that Ms Dawson was no longer alive after January 9, 1982.

They further argue that “based on the totality of the evidence” it is “not possible” to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Dawson is guilty.

Dawson will pursue his appeal via audio link from prison and will be represented by public defender Belinda Rigg SC.

In his sentencing last year, Judge Harrison said the case against Dawson was based on circumstantial evidence, but noted that a guilty verdict was the only “rational conclusion” he could draw from the circumstances.

Mrs Simms was 33 when she was last seen on Friday 8 January 1982 and her last known contact was a telephone call with her mother Helena Simms that same evening.

Judge Harrison found that Dawson had a “possessive infatuation” with the family babysitter, who had moved into his Bayview home after Lynette’s disappearance.

Dawson’s murder came just weeks after his unsuccessful attempt to run away with his teenage babysitter to start a new life in Queensland.

Dawson always maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to the murder charge at trial.

His defense argued in court that he had neither the opportunity nor the motive to kill the mother of his two children.

In 1991, Dawson told investigators during a police interview that he had dropped his wife off at a bus stop in Mona Vale so she could go shopping and that she had planned to meet him later that afternoon.

However, she did not arrive at the Northbridge Baths, where Dawson worked part-time as a lifeguard.

Dawson was sentenced to 24 years in prison with 18 years probation.

Earlier this year, Dawson was also found guilty of one count of sexual intercourse after a judge found that he had engaged in sexual activity with one of his 16-year-old students at a Sydney high school in 1980.

He was sentenced by Judge Sarah Huggett to three years in prison, with his probation extended by one year.