NEWNow you can hearken to Fox Information articles!
An Australian man was convicted of the chilly case homicide of his spouse Tuesday after a real crime podcast introduced widespread consideration to the case in 2018.
A decide discovered that Christopher Dawson, a 74-year-old former highschool instructor, killed his then-wife Lynette Dawson in 1982.
On the time of his spouse’s homicide, Dawson was concerned in an extramarital affair with the 16-year-old babysitter of their two daughters, ages 2 and 4 on the time, in keeping with a 2003 courtroom continuing referred to as an inquest. She was a former scholar – and days after Lynette Dawson’s disappearance, the teenager moved in with Christopher Dawson. They married after she turned 18 and cut up 4 years later.
Hedley Thomas, an investigative reporter for The Australian newspaper, chronicled the case on his podcast, “The Trainer’s Pet.”
‘TEACHER’S PET’ PODCAST SUBJECT, WHO MOVED IN WITH STUDENT WHEN WIFE VANISHED, ACCUSED OF WIFE’S 1982 MURDER
Chris Dawson and group arrive at NSW Supreme Courtroom on August 30, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. Dawson, a former Newtown Jets rugby league participant, is accused of murdering his spouse Lynette and disposing of her physique in January 1982. Inset: Lynette Dawson
(Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Photographs, Inset: New South Wales Police)
Australian courtroom information present Dawson, a former skilled rugby participant who turned a highschool instructor, had requested for a trial by decide, giving up his proper to a jury, citing the podcast’s massive viewers.
Thomas didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday afternoon – the early morning native time.
The conviction was “40 years overdue,” he wrote in an essay revealed after the decision.
Hedley Thomas speaks to the media at NSW Supreme Courtroom on August 30, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. Former Newtown Jets rugby league participant, Chris Dawson was discovered responsible of murdering his first spouse, Lynette over 30 years in the past in January of 1982, in a trial made common by the podcast, “The Trainer’s Pet.”
(Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Photographs)
US MARSHALS CAPTURE TOP 15 MOST WANTED MURDER SUSPECT RAYMOND ‘RJ’ MCLEOD
“It was a hopelessly one-sided spectator affair,” he wrote of the proceedings. “Nearly everybody there wished Dawson in handcuffs earlier than lunch.”
The podcast attracted a world viewers of roughly 60 million and forged renewed scrutiny on the case. Australian police arrested Dawson at his Queensland residence in December 2018.
Dawson reported his spouse lacking on Feb. 18, 1982, in keeping with New South Wales police. However her final identified contact got here greater than a month earlier, when she spoke along with her mom on Jan. 8. They made plans to for lunch the subsequent day. She did not present up.
Her physique has not been discovered.
Chris Dawson arrives on the Supreme Courtroom of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022. Dawson was convicted of murdering his spouse 40 years in the past after a renewed police investigation that was triggered by a preferred podcast.
(Dean Lewins/AAP Picture by way of AP)
“The entire of the circumstantial proof satisfies me that Lynette Dawson is useless, that she died on or about Jan. 8, 1982 and that she didn’t voluntarily abandon her residence,” Choose Ian Harrison stated in courtroom, in keeping with the Related Press.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
He stated that Dawson had lied about receiving telephone calls from his spouse following her disappearance and referred to as the argument that she might have run out of her household “ludicrous.”
Dawson faces as much as life imprisonment.
Fox Information’ Katherine Lam and The Related Press contributed to this report.
