Chris Dawson walks into the Supreme Court to face justice after claiming for decades to know nothing about his wife's disappearance. Photo / Getty Images
Chris Dawson walks into the Supreme Court to face justice after claiming for decades to know nothing about his wife's disappearance. Photo / Getty Images
Police believe they know where Lynette Dawson is buried – but "there is no possible way to search" the area.
On Tuesday, Justice Ian Harrison SC found former teacher and rugby league player Chris Dawson guilty of the murder of his wife Lynette in 1982.
He said he had three motives to kill her: a deep animosity towards her, a desire to have "unfettered" access to his teenage lover and a determination to avoid the financial implications and custodial arguments of a divorce.
Justice Harrison said Dawson's lover's wish to end their affair had pushed Dawson, now 74, to kill his wife.
Chris Dawson walks into the Supreme Court to face justice after claiming for decades to know nothing about his wife's disappearance. Photo / Getty Images
"I am satisfied that distressed, frustrated and ultimately overwhelmed and tortured by her absence up north Mr Dawson resolved to kill his wife," he said.
Chris Dawson and Lynette Dawson from a Simms family photo album tendered to the NSW Supreme Court. Photo / Supplied, File
He will be sentenced at a later date. Dawson's lawyers have said he is likely to appeal.
The judgment follows earlier rulings that Lynette died around January 1982, and a claim that she left the family home voluntarily was not true.
The 33-year-old nurse was last seen on Friday, January 8, 1982, when she spoke to her mother on the phone. She was never seen or heard from again, and her body was never found.
However, police believe Lynette's remains may be somewhere in the Central Coast region, north of Sydney.
Chris Dawson and JC on their wedding day in 1984. Photo / Supplied, File
The couple lived in Bayview Heights, on Sydney's northern beaches, within easy reach of the Central Coast.
Police dug up the property but Lynette's remains were not found.
"There was the theory that he travelled to the Central Coast on January 9," a police source told the Daily Telegraph.
But the police said there was no evidence that suggested the body was in any particular location. The Central Coast is around 550 square kilometres in size.
"The problem is that there is a lot of regional bush area between their home and when he went up the coast.
The Central Coast, north of Sydney, includes the 150 square kilometre Ku-Ring-Gai National Park. Photo / Google Satellite
"There is no possible way to search it, it's so vast," the source told the Telegraph.
Justice Harrison, in his marathon five-hour judgment, said that Dawson had ample time to dispose of his wife's body as his children were staying with a friend on January 9.
No one can vouch for his whereabouts during that time.
"The Crown case is that [Dawson] used that time to dispose of the body," Justice Harrison said.
