Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. On March 27, 1982, a 15-word message appeared among the lonely hearts missives on the personals page of a Sydney newspaper, urging “Lyn” to call “Chris”. Forty years later , a NSW Supreme Court judge found Christopher Michael Dawson had murdered his wife, Lynette Joy Simms, 11 weeks before it was published – recasting his apparently loving plea as a chilling ruse.
The body of the 33-year-old mother of two has never been found. Dawson would claim the message in The Daily Telegraph was timed for the couple’s 12th wedding anniversary. It appeared in print a day late.
The 33-year-old PE teacher and former Newtown Jets rugby league player had already moved a vulnerable former student, JC, into the marital home. In 2022, Justice Ian Harrison found Dawson had killed Lynette by midnight on Friday, January 8, 1982, or in the early hours of January 9, “for the selfish and cynical purpose of eliminating the inconvenient obstruction she presented” to a new life with the 17-year-old JC. Now, Dawson has urged the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to overturn his murder conviction .
The 75-year-old was jailed in December 2022 for a maximum of 24 years and is likely to die in prison unless his appeal succeeds. The appeal court will deliver its decision later this year and will examine the evidence persuading Harrison of Dawson’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. This is some of the evidence marshalled by the state’s .
