0:01

This podcast contains allegations of

0:03

sexual and family violence. It

0:05

won't be suitable for everyone. You

0:07

can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic

0:10

and Family Violence Counselling Service

0:12

on 1800RESPECT.

0:18

Christopher Michael Dawson, you did murder

0:21

Lynette Dawson. Decades

0:23

in the making. Chris Dawson. Chris Dawson.

0:25

Chris Dawson. Chris Dawson found

0:27

guilty of murdering wife Lynette at Bayview 40

0:30

years ago. A

0:32

four decade campaign for justice has

0:34

come to an extraordinary end. Mr

0:36

Dawson, I sentence you to imprisonment

0:39

for 24 years. The former school

0:41

teacher is destined to die behind

0:43

bars. I find you guilty.

0:47

My name is Hedley

0:48

Thomas and I'm a journalist with a particular

0:50

interest in podcast investigations

0:53

into the murders of women in Australia. This

0:56

is episode two of The Teacher's Accuser.

0:59

It's brought to you by The Australian. Last

1:03

year, Christopher Michael Dawson was convicted

1:05

of the 1982 murder of his wife Lynette. After

1:09

four decades of freedom, Dawson

1:11

is now serving a 24 year

1:14

sentence. It's justice at long

1:16

last for his terrible crime.

1:18

And now Dawson faces

1:20

allegations that he groomed and sexually

1:23

assaulted a former female student

1:25

at a Northern Beaches high school where he

1:28

taught in the early 1980s. The

1:30

trial will play out in the New South Wales

1:32

District Court in Sydney. You

1:35

can follow the case at the newspaper's

1:37

digital site and at theteachersaccuser.com.au

1:51

I'm

1:51

Clare Harvey, Editorial Director at The

1:53

Australian and host of our daily news podcast,

1:55

The Front. Christopher Michael

1:57

Dawson has been back in court for less

1:59

than a year. than a week, and already the

2:02

bombshells are dropping. In this

2:04

episode, you'll hear the trial come into focus

2:06

through the opening arguments made by

2:09

Prosecutor Emma Blizzard and Defence

2:11

Council Claire Wozli. We'll

2:13

also talk about the man who isn't here,

2:15

Christopher Dawson's twin brother Paul.

2:18

He's alleged to have had dealings with at

2:20

least two schoolgirls, both of

2:22

whom are on the witness list and may

2:24

give evidence in this trial. And

2:27

of course, we'll hear the evidence of the woman

2:29

at the centre of all this, the 59-year-old

2:32

former pupil and former

2:33

wife of Chris Dawson. We can

2:35

only use the pseudonym A.B.

2:38

for her. Day

2:42

two began with the reading of the indictment

2:45

and Chris Dawson entering his plea. Let's

2:48

hear that now. These are voice actors

2:50

bringing you the words

2:51

that were spoken in court. Mr

2:55

Michael Dawson, you stand indicted by

2:57

that name for that you on a day between

2:59

the 1st of July 1980 and the 12th

3:01

of December 1980 at Marubra in

3:04

the state of New South Wales did unlawfully

3:06

and carnally know A.B., a girl

3:09

above the age of 10 years and under the age

3:11

of 17 years, namely 16 years,

3:14

and who was at that time a pupil

3:16

of you?

3:17

How say you? Are you guilty or

3:19

not guilty? Not guilty.

3:23

Thank you. Sit down, Mr Dawson.

3:27

It was Tuesday, May 30. And

3:29

Dave, I think Emma Blizzard, the prosecutor,

3:32

might have heard you in episode one saying that she spoke

3:34

a little bit too fast because her delivery,

3:36

I thought of her opening statement was extremely

3:39

powerful. It was slow. I thought

3:41

she did a great job.

3:42

That's right. She was very

3:44

centred. She was completely in control.

3:48

In fact, it's an impressive all-female team.

3:50

So not just

3:51

the prosecutor, Emma Blizzard, but also the

3:53

defence lawyer, the public defender, Claire

3:56

Wozli and the judge, Sarah Huggitt,

3:58

they are all very often.

3:59

obviously across their jobs

4:02

and we're seeing

4:03

exactly what you'd want to see in a very serious case

4:06

like this.

4:07

It's early days yet obviously, but we

4:09

had the opportunity to actually sit

4:11

in the jury section of the court. This is

4:13

Judge Alone, so we had a unique view

4:16

of proceedings. And what I noticed with this triumvirate

4:20

of women

4:21

in control of this trial was that there seemed

4:23

to be an almost unwritten politeness

4:26

and understanding which allowed

4:28

proceedings to flow very smoothly.

4:31

There didn't seem to be any aggression

4:33

between any of the parties and I think

4:35

that played well into

4:38

how it has run so smoothly thus far

4:40

and I think that will continue. There

4:42

was only one piece of tension

4:45

so far that came

4:47

from Judge Sarah Huggett

4:49

and her honour was concerned that

4:51

there were people who were not media

4:54

eavesdropping on the proceedings

4:57

via the secure audio visual

4:59

link that the court's officers have helpfully

5:02

set up for journalists not inside

5:04

the court. And at one stage, Judge

5:07

Huggett said that she would shut

5:09

the link to all media unless those

5:11

people who were not entitled to be watching

5:15

AB give her evidence got

5:17

off the call. Yes, there

5:20

are a whole lot of protections for complainants

5:22

in sexual matters to give their evidence.

5:25

For example, the reason that the media were sitting in

5:27

the jury box is that that is out of

5:29

line of sight of the courtroom cameras

5:31

that AB would be

5:33

seeing on her screen. It meant

5:35

that she didn't have to see members of the media

5:37

or members of the community sitting in court

5:40

if there were any.

5:40

In fact, Judge Huggett closed

5:42

the court to everyone except media, brought

5:45

media out of the line of sight of the cameras

5:47

and she also didn't have to look at the face

5:50

of Christopher Dawson. That's another protection

5:52

for complainants in sexual matters in

5:54

New South Wales. They don't have to

5:57

confront physically or otherwise the

5:59

person accusing. Judge Huggett is

6:01

concerned on two levels. She

6:04

doesn't want there to be any suggestion

6:06

of witness contamination. By

6:08

that I mean if a witness who

6:10

has come onto the audio visual

6:12

link listens to the evidence of other

6:14

witnesses and then gives their

6:16

evidence, which might be tailored based

6:19

on what they've heard via the link,

6:21

that's a no-no. The other issue is

6:23

around the welfare of AB. It's

6:26

also the case that

6:28

we have not seen AB

6:30

yet in this court

6:32

case in person. AB

6:34

is giving her evidence via

6:37

a video link

6:38

from an undisclosed location, but with the

6:41

assistance of officers from

6:43

the DPP.

6:45

Emma Blizzard began her opening address

6:47

by outlining how AB came to

6:50

be at this school that is at the centre of all of

6:52

these events. That's Cromer High School on Sydney's

6:54

northern beaches. She talked about how AB

6:56

first went there as a Year 7 student

6:59

and that was back in 1976. Fast

7:02

forward to 1979 and AB is in Year 10. At

7:06

that point Emma Blizzard says

7:08

AB had virtually nothing to do with Chris Dawson.

7:11

He was a teacher at the school, but

7:14

he did see her in the playground and

7:16

apparently

7:16

she caught his attention and so he

7:18

arranged for her to be in his class

7:21

the following year, grade 11, when she

7:23

was 16 years old.

7:24

I noticed Chris Dawson shaking his head at that

7:26

point when Emma Blizzard

7:28

said that he had noticed her around the school playground

7:31

in the year that she was 15. Did

7:33

you notice a lot of reaction from him Matt in

7:35

court?

7:37

It was the only time he reacted to

7:39

these allegations. I

7:42

mean the appearance of Dawson compared

7:44

to for example his murder child last

7:46

year, I felt he'd aged

7:49

substantially. He was jowly. The

7:51

look on his face was that he was largely

7:55

disinterested in what was going on

7:57

around him. However,

7:59

when When Emma Blizzard got

8:01

down to the nuts and bolts of the narrative

8:04

timeline, most definitely

8:06

there was this

8:07

almost imperceptible but

8:09

noticeable shaking of the head

8:11

on a number of points.

8:13

One of the concessions that the judge has given

8:15

to enable us to be able to cover these events is

8:17

that we don't talk about the precise details

8:20

of the actual alleged sexual offending.

8:23

So at times you might wonder why we're not referring

8:25

to specific types of sexual

8:27

activity. That's because that's what we've been asked to

8:30

do, to just refer to it more generally. Emma

8:32

Blizzard said the first instance of

8:35

this alleged sexual offending was

8:37

at Chris Dawson's parents' house at Maroubra.

8:40

These are Emma Blizzard's words. It's

8:42

not her voice. And

8:46

it is the Crown Case that from that day at his

8:48

parents' home in Maroubra that sexual intercourse

8:51

and sexual activity took place frequently,

8:53

and that that continued frequently into 1981,

8:56

and that it would occur at various locations

8:58

including his office at school, his car

9:01

and later his home.

9:04

Emma Blizzard ran through for the judge

9:06

the names of witnesses who are going to give

9:08

evidence in this matter. Many of those cannot

9:10

be identified by us because they were

9:12

children at the time of this alleged offending.

9:15

You will hear us use some names during

9:18

this podcast, but those are people who have expressly

9:20

given us their permission to be named.

9:23

Robin Wheeler is an example. Dave

9:26

Emma Blizzard also ran through the sequence

9:28

of events that led to A.B. appearing

9:31

in court.

9:32

Yeah, this was a really fascinating part of

9:35

Emma Blizzard's opening address because we hadn't

9:37

actually heard some of these details before.

9:40

She talked about how A.B. made

9:42

her first statement to police back in 1990. That

9:45

was largely around the disappearance of

9:48

Chris Dawson's wife, Lynne.

9:50

However, someone had talked to the

9:52

Education Department in 1997, reporting that

9:54

there had

9:56

been an inappropriate

9:58

relationship between...

9:59

Chris Dawson and A.B. and

10:02

then a department official went and actually

10:04

followed up and tracked down A.B. and

10:07

she made a statement to the Education

10:09

Department about these events. And I think

10:11

that's going to become quite central to this trial.

10:14

What was the first thing that she told the Education

10:16

Department? Does it match what she

10:18

is now saying in court?

10:21

In 1997, the Department of

10:23

Education received some information not

10:25

from the complainant alleging that the accused had

10:27

had improper relations with a schoolgirl from

10:30

Cromer High School that he went on to marry.

10:32

After taking some efforts to track her down, an

10:34

officer from the Department of Education and

10:36

who's now deceased, his name is Pat Clear,

10:39

C-L-E-A-R, contacted

10:41

A.B. and she agreed to meet with him and make a

10:43

statement. And that statement

10:45

was made on the 12th of June 1998 and

10:48

was the first real in-depth account to

10:50

the authorities of the events that are the subject

10:52

of this trial.

10:55

The timing is really interesting because

10:57

we know from the interview that was

11:00

done with the Detective Senior Constable

11:02

Damian Loon that A.B. spoke

11:04

to him on Monday the 27th

11:06

of July 1998

11:09

and that became the basis

11:11

of a statement that she signed in

11:15

September of 1998. And that was

11:17

really the start of Damian

11:19

Loon's

11:20

major murder investigation in 1998,

11:24

eight years after the first failed

11:27

homicide squad investigation which

11:30

fizzled out in 1991.

11:32

Emma Blizzard then got to the Teachers

11:35

Pet Podcast. So in May 2018

11:37

when the podcast first came out, it detailed

11:40

not only the

11:41

suspicions around Chris

11:43

Dawson and the disappearance of his wife

11:45

Lynne but it also opened up this can

11:48

of worms about

11:49

sex rings, teachers preying on students

11:51

not just at Chroma High but other schools

11:54

on Sydney's northern beaches. This

11:55

is one of the wonderful things I think about a judge

11:58

alone trial from the media's point of view. is

12:00

that we get to hear context. If this

12:02

was before a jury, we wouldn't be hearing about

12:04

any allegations against anyone else or any

12:07

culture of sexual offending at these

12:09

schools. It would just be, did

12:11

this particular event happen? So

12:13

it's a big difference about a judge alone trial.

12:16

Yeah, it would probably be a much shorter podcast, I

12:18

think, Claire. And so what happened

12:20

was after the teacher's pet podcast

12:22

was launched,

12:23

as we know, Mick Fuller, the then police

12:25

commissioner of New South Wales, set up Strikeforce

12:28

Southwood to investigate these claims of

12:30

inappropriate student-teacher relationships.

12:33

And almost immediately after that, A.B.

12:36

came forward and made a statement about

12:38

her relationship with Chris Dawson, and that's what

12:40

led to the charges that we're examining

12:43

in this trial.

12:44

Here's Emma Blizzard again. Her words

12:46

have been read by a voice actor.

12:50

And that a few days after that Strikeforce was

12:52

set up and that was made public, that

12:54

the complainant made contact with investigators

12:56

through a solicitor, and that following that

12:58

contact, a lengthy further statement was

13:00

made in September 2018. On

13:03

the 26th of April, 2019, the

13:06

accused was arrested in relation to this matter

13:08

and was offered an interview and exercised his right

13:10

to silence.

13:13

Crown prosecutor Emma Blizzard outlined

13:16

what was critical in this particular

13:19

case, and that was the timing. So

13:22

the argument and the timeline that

13:24

the Crown hopes to present places

13:27

the activities that are the basis

13:29

of this carnal knowledge charge, it

13:32

renders A.B., the complainant,

13:34

under the age of 17, thus under

13:37

the umbrella of the carnal knowledge

13:39

charge as of 1980. So the

13:42

year 1980 is absolutely critical. And

13:45

for the Crown to succeed, they must

13:47

prove beyond reasonable doubt that these

13:49

sexual activities occurred when she was 16 years

13:51

of age. On one level, this trial

13:54

is all about that fine detail, the

13:56

matter of timing, when did this occur, but

13:58

in the opening address of Emma.

13:59

blizzard, it also became clear that it is bigger

14:02

than that. She brought in very quickly Chris

14:04

Dawson's identical twin brother, Paul

14:06

Dawson, and his relationships

14:09

with other schoolgirls that were occurring at the same

14:11

time that Chris Dawson was pursuing AB.

14:15

At this time in

14:17

her life, AB did not tell anyone that she

14:19

was having sexual intercourse or sexual activity

14:21

with the accused.

14:23

In support of the timeline contended by the Crown,

14:25

a number of witnesses will be called as to observations

14:28

they made at the time. Largely,

14:31

students from Cromer High School and two from Forest

14:33

High School who were known to the accused's identical

14:35

twin brother, Paul Dawson, who was a physical

14:38

education teacher at Forest High.

14:41

Emma Blizzard pointed specifically to

14:43

the fourth witness on the list, someone

14:45

who was two years below AB at

14:48

school and a student at Forest

14:50

High where Chris's twin brother

14:52

Paul taught.

14:53

I anticipate that she will say that she started babysitting

14:56

for Paul Dawson in 1980 when she was

14:58

in year 9 and that not long after she

15:00

started babysitting that she met the accused

15:02

and AB. I anticipate she

15:04

will say that the four of them spent a lot

15:06

of time together in the car at the beach and that

15:08

the two girls attended fitness classes at

15:11

a school in Linfield and those fitness classes

15:13

were run by the Dawson brothers, that is, the

15:15

accused and his brother Paul.

15:17

It is alleged at those classes that one brother

15:19

would instruct the class whilst the other was

15:21

behind closed doors with one of the girls

15:24

and that at times after these classes that

15:26

they would use the pool and that sexual activity

15:28

may occur in that pool. Paul

15:32

Dawson is the elephant in the courtroom. The

15:34

number of times all of us

15:37

are asked by listeners and

15:39

people who have followed this tragic

15:41

story

15:42

why Paul Dawson has

15:45

not faced a court is just

15:47

beyond counting. And it's

15:49

a really interesting question because the evidence

15:52

that we have seen, the evidence

15:54

that goes all the way back

15:56

to AB's contact with and

16:00

then the evidence that has come from

16:03

female students of Forest

16:06

High and of Cromer High about

16:08

Paul Dawson is

16:10

damning

16:11

in relation to his alleged conduct

16:13

and connections with students

16:16

at the same time that Chris Dawson and

16:19

A.B. were in a sexual

16:21

relationship.

16:22

So why has Paul Dawson

16:24

thus far escaped being charged

16:27

over some of these very serious

16:29

matters? Well

16:31

we can only speculate that in

16:34

his case while there are women

16:36

prepared to talk about what they allege

16:39

he did they have not lodged

16:41

a formal complaint that

16:43

would lead to an attempted

16:45

prosecution or alternatively

16:48

they have wanted to do that and

16:50

the Office of the DPP has determined

16:53

that the evidence is insufficient. We

16:56

do not know but it is a matter

16:58

of record that we have reported repeatedly

17:02

over the last five

17:04

years that Paul Dawson is alleged to have been

17:06

involved in these events that

17:08

Paul Dawson denies having had

17:11

unlawful underage sex with

17:14

any of his

17:15

former students. However

17:17

he did admit to police

17:20

in one of the interviews that he did during

17:22

the murder investigation that

17:25

he had sex with a

17:27

woman who had been a student. He

17:30

insisted that that relationship

17:32

started after she had left school

17:35

and when she was over the age of consent.

17:38

Her evidence in a police statement that

17:41

was signed in 1998

17:44

is that she was just a few months off turning 16

17:47

when that sexual relationship with

17:49

Paul Dawson began and she was a student

17:52

at Forest High. Let's be

17:54

clear we're not just talking about

17:57

Chris and allegedly Paul

17:59

Dawson.

17:59

The statement given by that student

18:02

from Forest High is

18:04

a very distressing, sad

18:07

illumination of the conduct,

18:10

allegedly,

18:11

of a number of teachers,

18:14

some of whom were leading apparently

18:17

respectable married lives

18:19

and engaging in

18:21

group sex with Paul Dawson

18:24

that when you read the account of

18:26

it, it actually leads to revulsion.

18:33

Yeah, I think it's clear that women

18:36

know that giving evidence in a sexual

18:38

assault matter is extremely

18:40

harrowing. You are likely to be cross-examined

18:42

very hard. And that's why all

18:44

those protections we were talking about earlier exist,

18:47

that the complainant doesn't have to look at the accused,

18:50

that they don't have to see the faces of any members of the public

18:52

or any media. All those things are

18:54

designed to help complainants

18:57

give evidence in

18:58

court and to try to change

19:02

the shockingly low conviction rates

19:04

that exist for sexual crimes.

19:06

In 2018, in the teacher's pet,

19:09

we referred to this former

19:11

Forest High student with a pseudonym

19:13

of Alice. I reached out

19:16

to her in early 2018

19:18

and promised her that we would anonymise

19:21

her and invited her

19:24

to consider being part of

19:26

the podcast. And she politely

19:28

declined.

19:30

I haven't had contact with her since because

19:32

we just did not want to put any pressure on her

19:34

and we have been very careful to ensure

19:36

that she would not be identified.

19:39

And Headley, she and at least one other

19:41

student that Paul Dawson

19:43

had a relationship with, are

19:45

on the witness list for this trial.

19:48

The question is, how far will their evidence

19:50

go at this trial if they are

19:52

called to give evidence? Will what they

19:54

say be quite limited to what they saw with

19:57

AB and Chris Dawson? Or will

19:59

we hear?

19:59

a far bigger story

20:02

about what was going on in the northern beaches at the

20:04

time. And that's a live question,

20:07

Dave. We haven't yet heard

20:09

from the student who is

20:11

alleged by AB to have been in the pool

20:14

with Paul Dawson. And it may be that

20:16

her evidence, if she's called, will

20:19

be that no, they didn't have sex then, there was

20:21

just cuddling and kissing or perhaps nothing

20:23

at all. So we wait to know what that is.

20:25

But certainly the student who was referred to by

20:28

AB in that evidence has

20:31

previously talked to me and

20:33

to police about the connection,

20:35

a very strong, intimate connection that she

20:37

had with Paul Dawson.

20:39

You have to wonder what Paul Dawson is doing

20:41

as his trial unfolds, because he's not in court.

20:45

Chris Dawson's older brother, Peter Dawson,

20:47

came for the first day, but he didn't show up

20:49

on the second day. Chris Dawson was left in court

20:52

on his own with no support. Paul

20:54

Dawson, is he following these events of this

20:56

trial? Is he worried?

20:58

That's something I'd like to know.

21:00

You'll recall that in the murder trial, Paul

21:02

Dawson was missing.

21:05

He didn't turn up except for

21:07

Verdict Day. And some of us

21:09

believed that that was because he

21:11

did not want to risk potentially

21:14

triggering women now in their

21:16

late fifties who, if

21:19

they saw him in court with his brother

21:21

or saw him outside being

21:23

filmed by the cameras, would be

21:26

motivated to go forward

21:28

with a complaint against him for carnal

21:31

knowledge, similarly to what Chris Dawson

21:33

is facing now.

21:34

By keeping a very low profile during

21:37

Chris Dawson's murder trial, his closest

21:39

ally, his brother Paul, minimised

21:42

the risk of former

21:44

students now in their late fifties

21:46

coming forward with a, I've had enough. That's

21:49

it. I'm going to do this space again, representing

21:51

his murdering brother, and I'm going to

21:54

do him for what I

21:56

will allege he did to me as a 15

21:58

or 16 year old.

22:01

Claire was indicated that her opening would

22:03

be just five minutes and it was.

22:05

It was extremely efficient. Matt,

22:08

what was your take?

22:08

Yes, efficient is

22:10

a perfect word. She was quietly

22:13

spoken. She was very, very

22:16

measured. And I felt just as an observer

22:18

that she was walking

22:20

a very narrow plank just

22:22

to make sure that all the T's were

22:24

crossed and the I's were dotted at

22:27

this early stage of proceedings. I didn't see anything

22:30

overtly dramatic or unusual

22:32

about her approach. It was very civilised.

22:35

Here's some of what Claire was least said

22:37

in her opening statement to the court.

22:40

These are her words, but not her voice. Your

22:44

Honour has heard him plead not guilty to that charge

22:46

before you and by that plea of not guilty,

22:49

he denies the charge against him.

22:51

Mr Dawson is presumed innocent

22:53

of the charge. It is your Honour's chance

22:55

to determine whether Mr Dawson is guilty

22:58

or not guilty. And before you return

23:00

a verdict of guilty, the Crown has to

23:02

prove Mr Dawson's guilt beyond reasonable

23:04

doubt.

23:05

Mr Dawson does not have to prove a

23:07

thing. Your Honour has heard the Crown

23:10

summarise what it expects to hear the complainant

23:12

say in her evidence. And I encourage you

23:14

to pay close attention to her evidence

23:16

in this trial, particularly what she

23:19

said during the initial departmental and police

23:21

investigations about the timeframe

23:23

within which the first instance of sexual

23:25

intercourse

23:26

occurred. It's not in dispute

23:28

that the accused commenced having sexual intercourse

23:31

with the complainant while he was a teacher

23:33

and while she was a student at Cromer High School

23:36

and while she was under the age of 18. It

23:38

is in dispute that the first instance of sexual

23:41

intercourse or any instance of sexual

23:43

intercourse occurred while the complainant

23:45

was a Year 11 student in the accused

23:48

sports coaching class in 1980.

23:50

Your Honour is not required to judge the accused

23:53

against contemporary moral and legal standards

23:55

and judgment of the morality of Mr Dawson's

23:57

involvement with the complainant against

23:59

the

23:59

standards of the early 1980s is

24:02

not an issue for determination in this

24:04

trial.

24:05

Similarly, what your Honour knows about

24:07

Mr Dawson's conviction for murder of Lynette

24:10

Dawson should have no bearing on

24:12

whether your Honour is satisfied beyond reasonable

24:14

doubt of his guilt of the charge of

24:16

unlawful carnal knowledge.

24:18

This case is about whether you're satisfied beyond

24:21

reasonable doubt

24:22

that the count of unlawful carnal knowledge

24:24

occurred within the period particularised

24:27

on the indictment and specifically while

24:29

the complainant was a pupil in the accused

24:32

sports coaching class.

24:34

By listening to and evaluating the evidence

24:37

of those who will be called to give evidence, particularly

24:40

the complainant, I anticipate

24:42

your Honour will not be satisfied that the crime

24:45

has proven Mr Dawson's guilt beyond

24:47

reasonable doubt.

24:50

At one stage when she talked about how

24:52

he cannot be judged morally,

24:55

it was like she was accepting

24:58

that many people would see Chris Dawson

25:02

as a grub, but that's

25:04

not necessarily evidence

25:07

of him being a criminal grub, just

25:09

a grub. It's difficult as a human

25:11

being sitting in that court to exorcise

25:14

or avoid any form of moral

25:16

question, is it not? When juries

25:18

are hearing trials, we all know that despite the

25:20

warnings that they get from judges, they do make

25:23

moral assumptions and moral judgements. In

25:25

this matter, being heard by a judge alone,

25:27

just like the murder trial, we can expect

25:30

that Judge Sarah Huggett will separate

25:33

her legal reasoning from any questions

25:36

of morality. And

25:39

that's why Claire Wozli's opening

25:41

was so spare. She doesn't need

25:43

to appeal to the judge's emotions. And

25:45

it's a fascinating challenge for Judge Huggett

25:47

too, because she already knows, as most

25:50

people in Australia would know,

25:52

that Chris Dawson is a convicted wife

25:54

killer, so this additional offence of carnal

25:56

knowledge, a very serious

25:58

offence for a better life. be, but a much

26:01

lesser offense in the

26:03

crimes act would be for most

26:05

people the kind of thing that you would

26:07

say, well, he's a wife killer, so why

26:09

wouldn't he be guilty of that as

26:11

well?

26:12

But she has to look at them separately and judge

26:14

the facts only in this

26:16

carnal knowledge case and not

26:19

take into account anything that

26:21

unfolded in the murder trial that

26:23

was heard by Justice Ian Harrison

26:25

last year. We'll

26:30

be back in just a moment.

26:38

Welcome

26:41

back to The Teacher's Accuser. It's

26:44

been 43 long years since

26:46

the complainant known as A.B. says

26:49

she was first abused by Christopher

26:51

Michael

26:51

Dawson. Dawson has already

26:54

faced a reckoning in the form of a murder trial

26:56

and conviction, and now A.B.

26:58

finally has the chance to tell her

27:01

story. Here's Matthew Condon.

27:04

A.B. the first witness was called.

27:07

There was a little bit of ajibaji technically

27:09

to get the matters smoothly into

27:12

the courtroom, but ultimately she did appear.

27:15

She's a woman in her late 50s. She

27:17

had shoulder length, auburn hair,

27:20

very respectable, well presented. She occasionally

27:25

deferred to using a pair of

27:27

glasses, and in fact there were moments where she

27:29

made a little bit of a joke about her failing

27:32

eyesight. And look, her manner

27:34

was extremely measured.

27:36

She seemed very comfortable. There

27:38

were no signs whatsoever that

27:41

it was an annoying or aggravating

27:43

position to be in for her. She seemed

27:45

very natural. That's how it struck me.

27:48

Chris Dawson of course can see her, and

27:50

he's looking front and centre at this gigantic

27:53

screen at his ex-student

27:54

and his accuser, who's

27:57

cataloging the actions of a much younger

27:59

Chris Dawson. and taking him back in time

28:01

to the man he was in his early 30s

28:04

when he had all the power. Now he

28:06

has to listen quietly while she tells her

28:08

story.

28:08

That is such a fantastic point because it did

28:11

strike me looking at him hunched

28:14

and lowered in his prison

28:16

greens in the corner of the dock and then above

28:19

him

28:19

in full colour on the

28:21

screen, this pretty

28:24

confident woman detailing

28:26

a tawdry story and

28:28

they were both in your eyesight, as

28:30

you said, with the passage of 43 years

28:33

having travelled forward.

28:35

And you look at her life journey, as

28:37

you say Matt, 43 years

28:40

since these events are alleged to have occurred, 25

28:44

years since she was interviewed

28:47

in a Northern Beaches police station on

28:49

the record by the then Detective

28:52

Senior Constable Damian Loon and

28:55

this is where many listeners will remember

28:57

her from the first episode

28:59

of The Teacher's Pet. Let's hear a

29:01

little piece of that.

29:05

Well he was a teacher at the school,

29:07

he came to the school in 1979 and took the class that

29:09

I was in in

29:13

sports coaching class in year 11, 1980. How old were you

29:15

then? 16. All right,

29:17

can you tell me what

29:21

sort of ambulance she was formed after

29:26

that?

29:28

It was a big moment because she was a key

29:31

witness at Chris Dawson's murder trial

29:33

but now here she is all these years

29:35

later and she finally is the complainant

29:38

at the trial.

29:39

I studied her very carefully on that monitor and

29:41

shook my head in admiration, as

29:44

you said Hadley too, to have to carry

29:46

the burden of this singular story

29:49

for over four decades and

29:51

to appear as well as she

29:53

did in court is absolutely extraordinary.

29:56

The early part of AB's evidence was all about

29:58

the nuts and bolts of establishing finishing dates and

30:00

times. And this is all going to go to how

30:03

she knows she was 16 and it

30:06

was 1980 when various things happened. Emma

30:08

Blizzard is

30:10

putting her back in that moment where

30:12

were you living, who was in which bedroom, to

30:14

try and establish that kind of architecture

30:17

of timing so that her

30:19

memories can be placed according

30:22

to things that we know

30:22

happened, the date that she got her learner's

30:25

permit, the date that Elise was taken

30:27

on a certain property.

30:29

And one of the key things the prosecutor wanted to know

30:31

from AB was, well, when did you start actually

30:33

interacting with Chris Dawson,

30:35

the teacher at Cromer High School? One

30:38

of the first things we heard that I had never heard before

30:40

was that in 1979 when AB was a 15-year-old girl,

30:44

she was in year 10, a topless

30:47

photo of her had gone around the school

30:49

and this photo had ended up in Chris Dawson's

30:51

hands.

30:53

Let's hear what AB said about that

30:55

during her evidence in chief. Look,

30:59

I do recall there was a photograph of me topless

31:01

that someone had taken when we'd been out somewhere

31:03

and on a picnic and I had been drinking because

31:06

we drank from 14 in those days. And

31:09

that was somehow handed around the school and

31:11

he got his hands on it and he brought it back to me

31:13

and sort of said, here you go, I've just found

31:15

this. So he'd seen what I looked like

31:18

in a vulnerable position. So I guess

31:20

that was his introduction to me.

31:21

We heard her describe

31:24

him as very

31:26

deliberate, methodical. He

31:28

then went to her with this image

31:32

and almost in a, you

31:34

got a sense fatherly way

31:37

attempting to sort of cast himself

31:39

as her protector, told her

31:41

that he had come across this and it was

31:44

part of, I think, in her mind,

31:47

the grooming process. She goes

31:49

on to talk about his driving

31:51

lessons, his determination that

31:53

she would be the babysitter in the house, his

31:56

introduction of her to Lynn while playing

31:58

tennis. things,

32:00

giving her a sense that he can be trusted. He

32:03

is a charismatic, popular,

32:06

well-built, former first grade rugby

32:08

league footballer who's also a teacher at that

32:11

school. Most of the students know

32:13

him and like him, and he's showing

32:15

an interest in a girl whose own

32:17

home is fundamentally broken.

32:21

Matt,

32:21

AB described the marriage of

32:24

her parents breaking up, and then she

32:26

and her sisters moving to various places,

32:29

then back in with their mother at

32:31

a small two-bedroom unit in Sydney's

32:33

Northern Beaches.

32:36

How did she describe their home life in

32:38

that flat?

32:40

You could only say that it was

32:42

a disruptive period for this young

32:44

woman. With the arrival of a

32:47

new stepdad, her mother remarrying

32:49

this individual, there were tales

32:51

of constant drinking, of alcohol,

32:54

of arguments, of the domination

32:57

of the stepfather, controlling

32:59

his new family life to the point where AB

33:01

recounted a story

33:03

of the sisters sitting and

33:05

watching television and the

33:07

stepfather actually severing the electrical

33:10

cord to the TV in order to control

33:12

their lives. So it was obviously

33:16

an unhappy, tumultuous

33:18

period for this young woman in 1980. It

33:20

was the crown's job

33:22

to elicit important

33:25

milestones for AB through that

33:27

year. And the most important

33:29

was this horrid family life

33:31

with the arrival of this man. Bedrooms

33:34

had to be reshuffled, children were squashed

33:37

into tiny rooms in this small flat. Very

33:39

disruptive for this young woman

33:42

in year 11, in one of her senior

33:44

years.

33:45

And of course the point of this evidence, apart

33:48

from establishing the timeline, was

33:50

to place AB as someone

33:53

who didn't have a safe, stable

33:55

home. She didn't even have a home where

33:57

she felt welcome. And this is where

33:59

it came across as a... so predatory because who

34:01

was there for her to turn to when all

34:03

of this was going down. It was Chris Dawson.

34:06

Yes, inviting her to babysit every Saturday

34:08

night, having her stay over. And

34:10

I learned something I didn't know, that she wasn't

34:12

paid for the babysitting.

34:15

I wasn't paid. It was never paid work.

34:18

And they would go out sometimes, but sometimes they

34:20

didn't. And I remember Lin being quite

34:22

upset saying, why aren't we going out? And

34:25

he would say, we're just staying home tonight.

34:27

I don't feel like going out. And I would

34:29

be there and I'd be thinking, what am I here

34:31

for? Like I don't want to be here doing

34:33

nothing. I'm the babysitter.

34:35

But I didn't say anything. I was a child.

34:38

The unpaid hired help.

34:40

That adds another layer to the evidence

34:43

A.B. gave in Chris Dawson's murder trial,

34:45

where she described herself as a sex slave

34:47

and the reluctant stepmother of Dawson's two

34:50

eldest

34:50

daughters. Here's how she described

34:53

it last year.

34:54

I was 18. I was taking care of two

34:56

children. I was having to learn to cook, having

34:59

to learn to clean, having to learn to be the substitute

35:01

housekeeper, sex slave, stepmother, babysitter,

35:05

slave.

35:07

We heard how A.B. actually met Chris's wife,

35:10

Lin, for the first time at a tennis match.

35:12

And Chris had organised this because he

35:14

wanted A.B. to do the babysitting. He

35:16

wanted to introduce her to Lin so

35:18

that he could get her into his family home

35:20

and looking after their two young children.

35:23

So there you have Chris Dawson with his wife, who

35:25

he would cold-bloodedly murder within

35:27

two years, and his young

35:30

student, who he would then develop a very

35:32

intense relationship with, the motive

35:35

actually for Lin's murder.

35:37

I mean, there's two narratives going on here, and it's

35:40

tragic to see it unfold because of what we

35:42

now know 43 years later. But

35:44

on one hand, A.B. was saying, well, here was this kindly

35:47

teacher who was providing an

35:49

anchor point for me in a very disruptive

35:51

year. But simultaneously, over

35:54

time, she is now recognised and described

35:56

it as predatory behaviour and

35:58

grooming behaviour.

35:59

On the surface, it looked like a very

36:02

concerned, mature man assisting

36:04

a troubled young woman. We now know that

36:06

was very different.

36:08

I thought it was notable that A.B.

36:10

never once referred to her former

36:12

teacher and husband

36:14

as Chris or as Dawson.

36:17

She always called him the accused.

36:20

It's like she has clinically, in

36:23

her own mind, decided that

36:25

he's going to go into that category. He

36:27

is a pedophile in her mind and

36:30

she's not going to give him the courtesy

36:33

of

36:33

a personal name.

36:35

She described Chris Dawson jostling

36:38

was her word to get her in his class.

36:41

And this is the point that made Chris Dawson shake his

36:43

head during the opening address. She

36:46

indicated that he had noticed her in the

36:48

playground when she was 15 and she went on to

36:51

say that he and another teacher

36:53

had competed and openly competed

36:55

to have her and her friends who

36:58

she described as the cool group in their

37:00

class

37:00

for the year of year 11, 1980.

37:04

One of his favourite stories, and it

37:07

might have been one of mine too, is

37:09

that he'd seen me in the playground when I was in year 10,

37:12

15 years old, and he thought to

37:14

himself, oh, I'd really like to get

37:16

to know her. She's beautiful. It

37:18

softened me. I felt special because

37:20

he'd said that. So very

37:23

early on, he singled me out to help him. I

37:25

was in the room when he was jostling to get our

37:27

class because all my friends were

37:29

in it and we were in the cool group. It

37:31

was like a war. And he was fighting with his

37:33

counterpart, Leslie Bush, about who

37:36

would have our class because it had all of

37:38

us in it who were well known in the school, I

37:40

guess.

37:42

Dave, A.B. is recounting events from 43

37:45

years ago and she said a couple

37:47

of times that this really was a long

37:50

time ago and it's hard to remember in

37:52

what exact order

37:53

things happened. What's the Crown case

37:55

about the way things unfolded? As

37:57

is typical in a criminal trial, you don't

37:59

always... get things in sequential order and

38:01

sometimes you have to piece things together. But there

38:04

does seem to be a pretty clear

38:06

progression of events. It started

38:08

with Chris Dawson putting his hand on AB's

38:11

bare knee at a sports carnival.

38:15

And I sat there at the bottom with him and he put

38:17

his hand on my knee as I was sitting next

38:19

to him in front of everybody. And I

38:21

just thought, oh my God, I can't react

38:23

to this. And that was the first time he paid

38:26

me that kind of intimate, as I recall

38:28

it, as I see it, intimate attention.

38:32

It progressed to drives in his car and

38:35

it was actually in his car that he kissed her

38:37

for the first time. That led

38:39

up to

38:40

the event that is really at the centre

38:42

of this trial. The first instance of sexual

38:45

activity, which she says was

38:47

at Chris Dawson's parents' house

38:49

at Maroubra.

38:52

He got me to undress in front of him. It

38:54

was dark. I didn't want the lights on

38:56

because I was afraid. He made sure

38:58

I was comfortable all the way. He kept

39:01

asking me, is this OK? This

39:03

is all part of the process. I'll help

39:05

you to get over trauma.

39:06

And then he asked me,

39:08

was that OK? Well, we've

39:10

done that. I hope this was helpful. It

39:12

was a good start. You did really well. And

39:15

I was, oh, thank you. Really

39:17

grateful.

39:18

I was told to keep it a secret.

39:20

So we learned through

39:22

the course of AB's evidence

39:24

that Christopher Dawson, when

39:26

he was actually teaching AB and

39:29

she was in his class

39:31

and it was astonishing evidence, she recounted

39:34

how he, Christopher Dawson,

39:36

then in his early 30s and as

39:38

we know, married with two young children, was

39:41

leaving love notes imprinted

39:44

with declarations of love and affection

39:47

in her school bag and that it wasn't just a

39:50

one off or once every month or once every

39:52

fortnight. Indeed, she recounted

39:54

that in the end, she said there were hundreds

39:57

of these little love notes secreted

39:59

there by her. teacher and that ultimately she looked

40:01

forward to going to her bag and

40:03

finding these cupid messages

40:06

from her teacher. I found this extraordinary

40:09

in the sense that

40:10

it threw me all the way back to my own

40:13

schooling and I felt

40:15

how extraordinarily infantile that

40:18

behavior, that action by a man

40:20

in his 30s with a family of his

40:22

own was towards this

40:24

particular 16-year-old. This degree

40:27

of adoration from an adult

40:30

to a child was gobsmacking.

40:33

He would put little notes

40:35

of love and affection in my bag and

40:37

the bag was a bag he had bought for me. So

40:40

I would come out from biology and in my

40:42

bag were these handwritten notes with

40:44

a picture of cute little babies on it and

40:47

there would be words of love on the back of it.

40:49

I had tens, hundreds of them. It

40:52

was every class, every time

40:54

I had that class and I probably

40:56

looked forward to going to my bag.

40:58

It made me feel special.

41:00

He asked me to marry him many, many times

41:02

when I was 16.

41:03

I always felt obligated.

41:07

Emma Blisard attended AB's school

41:09

reports from the year 1980. The

41:12

first, for the first half of the year, showed

41:15

Chris Dawson as AB's teacher

41:17

in a subject called sports coaching, which

41:19

is about getting the best out of athletes. Emma

41:22

Blisard asked AB to read aloud

41:25

the words that Chris Dawson wrote on

41:27

that report. This is what he wrote.

41:29

She is a very pleasant young lady. She is

41:32

working extremely well, CD.

41:35

At the end of that year, she got another report

41:37

and again Chris Dawson wrote notes. She

41:40

worked well in class and made valuable contributions

41:42

in discussion, a very pleasant personality,

41:45

a pleasure to teach.

41:47

But this time, according to AB, Chris

41:49

Dawson's writing on the report was

41:51

a secret code. In his

41:53

written comment, he alluded to

41:55

their sexual activity, according to AB.

41:58

teaching sports coaching.

42:01

He was referring to the lessons I'd learned in sexual

42:03

activity that he had taught me.

42:06

He told me that, and he thought it was very

42:08

clever to be able to put that on a public document.

42:11

He thought it was very cunning.

42:13

On day three of the trial, A.B. returned

42:15

to the witness box to continue her evidence

42:17

in chief. There was a fairly

42:19

long period in the morning where the court was

42:21

closed to the media, so we don't

42:23

know what happened during that period. When

42:26

the court reopened, A.B. was concluding

42:28

her evidence in chief, and Emma Blizzard

42:30

took her to the school exam

42:33

that she took in

42:34

the subject's sports coaching taught by Chris

42:36

Dawson towards the end of 1980. A.B.

42:40

said she also wrote something alluding

42:42

to their sexual contact, but that

42:44

Chris Dawson wasn't happy about

42:46

it. Here's what she told the court.

42:49

My friend who was next to me thought it would be funny

42:51

if I wrote something exotic, because we were

42:53

involved at that point, and I would have been having

42:55

sex with him for quite a long time before that. I

42:58

wrote something to that effect, and when he saw

43:00

my exam, I handed it to him hoping he

43:02

would like that.

43:03

He tore off that portion of the exam and gave me

43:05

a zero as a mark. Emma

43:07

Blizzard also flagged in her opening

43:10

address that there would be evidence about

43:12

Chris and Paul Dawson

43:14

hanging out with A.B. and another

43:17

school girl in a swimming pool. Here's

43:19

A.B.'s evidence about what happened.

43:22

They would alternate songs and exercises,

43:25

and in the times when one twin was running a

43:27

class, the other one was out the back with

43:29

whichever student was their property at that time.

43:32

I remember there was a pool there, and I remember

43:34

the four of us going in the pool with no

43:36

clothes on, and I felt I was doing the

43:38

wrong thing, because I didn't wear a bathing

43:40

cap, and you had to wear bathing caps in those

43:43

days in a public pool.

43:44

Paul and the other girl were up one

43:46

end of the pool, and we were at the other end of the

43:48

pool. I mean, there are a number of interesting

43:51

elements to the alleged

43:53

incidents at the Linfield School

43:55

Pool. This is the

43:57

introduction to

43:59

Twin Pools. Dawson

44:01

into this narrative. It's also

44:03

fascinating in the respect that we've learned

44:05

certainly from Headley's research, podcasts

44:08

and the murder trial of Christopher Dawson last

44:10

year that the brothers were

44:12

no slouchers when it came to extracurricular

44:15

work outside of their duties at

44:18

their respective schools. So we knew that they worked

44:20

together as part-time garbage

44:22

men on the Northern beaches. We

44:24

now know that they're running extracurricular

44:27

classes and exercise activities outside

44:30

of their normal

44:31

duties. So this is an example of that

44:33

whereby we're seeing the brothers working

44:36

and connecting beyond the parameters of their

44:38

respective school grounds. So I find that fascinating

44:40

as well.

44:41

And A.B. in her evidence, although we can't

44:43

give you all the details under the

44:45

judge's orders, she was making it clear

44:48

she wasn't just hanging out with Chris Dawson

44:50

in the swimming pool. This was sexual activity

44:52

that was going on in the pool with Paul

44:55

Dawson at the other end. We didn't hear

44:57

exactly what was going on with Paul and the other student,

45:00

but A.B. said

45:02

definitely she was in the pool with

45:04

Chris and that was one of the instances where

45:06

they had this sexual activity. Once

45:09

again, the most striking part

45:12

of this conduct is the

45:14

arrogance,

45:15

the lack of concern by two men

45:18

in their early thirties with children

45:21

themselves, their school teachers

45:23

and in public places with

45:26

girls half their age. They

45:28

are allegedly conducting themselves

45:31

this way. Anybody could have walked

45:33

in on them. Anybody could have walked around and

45:35

seen what was going on, seen a girl

45:38

in the arms of a male

45:40

teacher, clearly inappropriate

45:43

and criminal. If

45:45

as alleged it occurred as these women

45:48

now say it did. You have

45:50

to wonder what was going on in their

45:52

minds to think that this was something they

45:54

could just get away with or was

45:56

it the case that they believed even if they were

45:59

spotted it would be false? fine. Is

46:01

this why, for example, in the staff

46:03

room, Chris appeared to have no concern,

46:06

according to AB, about him

46:08

standing between her legs as she sat

46:10

on a staff desk. And

46:13

bear in mind that the other girl in the pool

46:16

is said to have been in year

46:18

nine, whereas AB

46:21

was in year 11. So

46:23

that much younger. I think

46:25

Dave's right in that we can say

46:27

that AB's evidence this week in court

46:29

very quickly ripped

46:32

back a curtain and gave us an

46:35

insider view of an incredibly

46:38

tawdry story that appears

46:40

to have broader parameters.

46:45

Perhaps clearly the most moving

46:49

moment on day three, a day that,

46:51

and this is not unusual in terms of court

46:53

cases, that jumped around a lot. There

46:55

were lots of breaks. We were in

46:57

and out of court, so it was a fractured

47:00

day in court. But near

47:02

the end of AB's

47:03

evidence, Emma Blizzard

47:06

took AB away

47:08

from the year 1980, which we've been concentrating

47:10

on almost exclusively, and

47:13

gave a small potted history

47:15

of AB's life after school.

47:18

And the dot points were that

47:19

she had married Christopher Dawson

47:22

in 1984. And then we went to the year 1985, and

47:24

Emma Blizzard raised the

47:27

fact

47:30

that AB had had a daughter

47:32

with Christopher Dawson. And

47:35

it appeared to me to be an extremely

47:37

emotional trigger for AB. She

47:40

had been

47:41

cool, calm, measured, and collected

47:44

right up until that point of the mention of her

47:47

daughter. And within an instant,

47:49

she

47:50

burst into tears and was unable

47:53

to continue. She was asked if she

47:55

needed a break. She immediately

47:57

consented. And the case

48:00

briefly came to a halt. That

48:02

moment also marked the end of A.B.'s evidence

48:04

in chief. She returned to the witness

48:07

box on Thursday for cross-examination

48:09

by Claire Wozli. Headly,

48:11

what was your overall impression

48:13

of A.B.'s testimony? That's the

48:16

first time I've seen

48:18

her give any evidence or

48:20

seen her image because

48:22

I didn't talk to her in the teacher's pet

48:25

and when she gave her evidence in Dawson's

48:29

trial.

48:31

I was unable to watch it because

48:34

I was yet to give my own evidence.

48:37

What was fascinating for me was just seeing

48:39

how much conviction and

48:42

determination

48:44

she demonstrated during

48:46

her evidence in this trial. I

48:49

think she wants to own this space.

48:52

She believes that her life has been destroyed

48:54

by Chris Dawson, that as

48:57

a child she was groomed, she didn't

48:59

know better, she then became

49:01

a stepmother to

49:04

Dawson's two daughters, she

49:06

became a piece of property. She

49:08

at one stage referred to the

49:11

students of Chris and Paul

49:13

Dawson as their property and

49:16

that's how she saw herself as this almost

49:18

inanimate sex object for

49:21

Chris Dawson's use and

49:24

that's how I think she was defined back

49:26

then. Now this feels like her

49:28

opportunity to reclaim her

49:31

space to say you

49:33

destroyed my

49:35

life, you murdered the

49:38

innocent loving mother of

49:40

two little girls and I'm going to make sure

49:43

that you were held accountable for all of it.

49:46

What's your impression about her credibility,

49:48

Headley?

49:49

Well I believe every word that she's saying.

49:51

It's very hard for me to

49:53

not believe that given what

49:56

I have read and heard in the murder

49:58

trial and what I have

50:01

understood leading up to the murder trial and

50:03

this trial I don't believe that there

50:05

is any embellishment in her story to

50:08

me it is coming across as 100% truth.

50:11

Here's a snippet from the closing moments of

50:14

A.B.'s cross examination by public

50:16

defender Claire Wozli. It came

50:18

right at the end of week one. We'll

50:20

be talking about the cross in detail in next

50:22

week's episode but for now we've

50:25

used a voice actor to bring you her words.

50:28

No I don't make these things up. This

50:30

happened to me. I'm so sick of this having

50:32

to justify everything I say and I

50:35

know it's just your job. This is my life

50:37

and this happened to me and I want something

50:39

done about it. I want you to believe what I'm

50:41

saying.

50:42

We'll

50:46

be back after this short break.

50:54

Welcome back. In the next episode

50:57

of The Teacher's Accuser we'll hear all about Claire

50:59

Wozli's cross examination of A.B. on

51:02

day three the crown began working through

51:04

its long list of witnesses and

51:06

the first was a former school student we're

51:09

going to call her M.C.

51:11

She was squeezed in between A.B.'s

51:13

evidence in chief and her

51:14

cross examination because M.C.

51:17

was scheduled to fly out of the country

51:19

the next day. It

51:21

was well into the afternoon of proceedings

51:23

that the witness

51:25

M.C. was formally called.

51:28

A woman clearly in her late 50s made

51:30

her way into the witness box. We

51:32

learned through initial evidence from

51:35

M.C. that in fact she had known

51:37

A.B. since

51:39

they were kindergarten children. They

51:41

had essentially gone through

51:43

schooling together all the way from that

51:46

very young age and into high

51:48

school at Cromer High where

51:50

we were given details of this

51:53

close-knit cabal of

51:56

year 11 students very thick

51:58

knew each other all their lives

51:59

and used to hang out not

52:02

just at school and in the school grounds during

52:04

recess and lunch but also socialised

52:07

extensively outside of the

52:09

school ground. So we learned significant

52:11

details about this very close-knit

52:14

group of school friends.

52:16

MC's evidence was all about what

52:18

she witnessed in 1980 when they were both

52:21

in year 11. She told

52:23

the trial that AB suddenly

52:26

started disappearing from the friendship

52:28

groups. She was no longer there at

52:30

recess and lunch.

52:32

Her friends would all sit in this particular spot

52:34

that caught the Sun as it started to become

52:37

cold around the middle of the year and

52:39

it was adjacent to the office of the physical

52:41

education teacher Chris Dawson.

52:44

These students, according to the witness

52:46

MC, knew that their friend

52:49

AB was going into Chris Dawson's

52:51

room and

52:52

spending long periods of time with

52:54

him. Here's

52:55

how MC described it.

53:07

Now as the weeks went on, MC

53:09

said that the concerned friendship

53:12

group, knowing that she was in Dawson's

53:14

office, would bang on the door,

53:16

would appeal for AB

53:19

to come out and join them and

53:21

there were instances she relayed

53:23

to the court whereby Christopher Dawson

53:26

became angry at this intrusion.

53:29

MC talked about her friend AB's

53:31

troubled home life. This

53:33

was all crucial evidence in support of AB.

53:36

So first we had AB talking

53:38

about what she said happened in year 11

53:41

when she was 16 years old and now

53:43

the first witness after her is essentially

53:46

backing her up and MC provided

53:48

unwavering support for

53:50

AB's story.

53:52

situation.

54:00

He was being kind to her. He

54:03

was listening to her. He was giving

54:05

her guidance. And this is why she

54:07

needed to be in his office. She

54:09

was adamant that these events that she witnessed

54:11

occurred in 1980 and not in 1981, the

54:16

following year in year 12.

54:18

Claire Wozli, the defence lawyer, had the chance

54:20

to cross-examine MC and she

54:22

got straight into that point. How

54:24

can you be sure you can't, can you, that these

54:27

events occurred when AB

54:29

was in year 11? MC

54:31

was having none of it. She said

54:33

she was absolutely sure about the year.

54:36

I'm sure it's in year 11. In

54:38

year 11, we were trying to figure out why she was

54:40

going in there. It was definitely year 11.

54:44

Claire Wozli brought up a statement that MC

54:46

had made in connection to a civil claim

54:49

that AB has against the

54:51

Education Department.

54:53

The defence lawyer pointed out that in that statement,

54:56

MC did not mention the fact that

54:58

Chris Dawson had proposed marriage to AB

55:01

in 1980, in year

55:04

11. MC confirmed that was the case, but she pointed

55:06

out that in her earlier police statement,

55:09

she did in fact talk about

55:11

Chris Dawson proposing to AB and

55:14

that was read aloud to the court. So

55:16

that line didn't appear to go anywhere for the

55:18

defence.

55:19

She also told us that year, by

55:22

the end of the year, that he loved

55:24

her. And she did say to us,

55:26

he wants to marry me. He's going to look

55:28

after me.

55:32

Since the Teachers Pet Podcast, several

55:34

students have launched proceedings

55:37

against the Education Department

55:39

of New South Wales and

55:42

they are alleging that the

55:44

department and its staff failed

55:46

their duty of care. They had a duty

55:48

of care to teenagers who

55:51

were children at the time, who

55:53

were very

55:54

deeply and profoundly

55:56

affected by the conduct of the school.

55:59

teachers employed

56:02

by the department. Given

56:04

the evidence in the murder trial, all

56:07

of the evidence that's been heard by the

56:09

coroners more than 20 years ago and also

56:12

the evidence that we are hearing now, you

56:15

would think that education officials would want

56:17

to be settling these cases as

56:19

quickly as possible. What happened

56:22

at Cromer and other high schools

56:24

on the northern beaches that went

56:26

unchecked for so long is

56:29

a shocking indictment

56:29

on senior officials of

56:32

the Education Department and

56:34

nobody should begrudge former

56:36

students

56:37

who have been affected from

56:40

seeking compensation and

56:42

receiving it.

56:46

Someone who's notable by his absence from

56:49

this trial is Craig Everson SC

56:51

who of course is the barrister who prosecuted Chris

56:53

Dawson successfully for murder.

56:55

Craig was always very polite to members

56:58

of the media which always endears lawyers

57:00

to journalists. I agree Craig

57:03

Everson was always very straight

57:05

and personal. He and Dan Poole

57:08

the investigator for police in the murder

57:10

trial also probably went to

57:12

the same school of non-disclosure

57:15

of confidential information because

57:18

try as we might we were

57:20

never able to get anything out of either

57:22

of them. They were thoroughly professional

57:25

but unfailingly courteous. And

57:27

in fact you ran into him Dave outside the

57:29

district court on day three of

57:31

this trial. He was in very

57:34

good spirits. He had just come from

57:36

his swearing-in ceremony as a district

57:38

court judge and naturally the Dawson

57:40

trial came up during that swearing-in

57:43

ceremony. It was the biggest

57:46

case of his career. I mean

57:48

cases do not come with a bigger profile

57:50

than the Chris Dawson trial. Probably

57:53

the biggest case in New South Wales in

57:55

terms of its profile since the backpacker

57:57

killer Ivan Malatz trial.

58:00

It was also a really difficult case.

58:03

40 years old, nobody, you

58:05

had a long history of inaction, and

58:07

he took that case on and he won.

58:10

Here's some of that recording from the swearing-in

58:13

ceremony. You'll hear in this recording

58:15

the voice of Gabriel Bashir SC. She

58:17

is the Bar Association of New South

58:20

Wales president.

58:22

The Crown case was led by your Honour, showing

58:25

complete command of a case with a

58:27

high degree of difficulty. Indeed,

58:30

there was no body in that case.

58:33

The trial itself, in which

58:36

your Honour played a starring role, was

58:38

the subject of a podcast and worldwide

58:40

attention. From beginning to end,

58:43

under pressure and immense scrutiny,

58:46

your Honour is said to have been unflappable in

58:48

the face of unexpected issues, perhaps

58:51

invoking the mantra that you are

58:53

known to often utter in response to wins

58:55

and losses. Chop wood, carry

58:57

water. In getting on

59:00

with the job at hand.

59:02

I, Craig Michael Everson,

59:04

do sincerely declare and affirm that

59:07

I will well and truly serve our sovereign

59:09

Lord King Charles III in

59:12

the office of a judge of the District Court of New

59:14

South Wales, and I will do right

59:16

to all manner of people after the laws

59:19

and usages of this state

59:21

without fear or favour, affection

59:23

or ill will. We

59:26

did ask him for an interview before

59:28

this podcast began, and when I

59:31

bumped into him, he apologised for saying

59:33

politely that he wouldn't be able to talk to

59:35

us. I made a similar request, Dave, and

59:37

Craig said that he had a career-long rule, that

59:40

he would not speak out or give

59:43

interviews, and

59:44

he apologised that he would maintain

59:46

that rule. And that's a real

59:49

feature of the Australian criminal justice system, unlike

59:51

in America where even jurors

59:54

talk. Prosecutors, defence lawyers

59:56

are happy to talk. In Australia, you

59:58

might get a defence barris. to give you an interview,

1:00:01

but it's very, very rare for a

1:00:03

prosecutor to speak to journalists

1:00:05

in any significant way to disclose

1:00:07

any information. It's also against

1:00:09

the law to approach jurors for comment

1:00:12

in jury trials. And of course,

1:00:15

judges don't talk at all.

1:00:17

We've reached the end of the first week of

1:00:19

this criminal knowledge trial. We've

1:00:21

heard the evidence of AB, we've

1:00:23

heard the opening, and we've also

1:00:26

heard some evidence from one of

1:00:28

AB's friends from Cromer High. This

1:00:31

trial has a little way to run, of course,

1:00:33

but thus far, in

1:00:35

my opinion, it looks very

1:00:38

damning of Chris Dawson. His lawyer

1:00:40

hasn't made any significant dents

1:00:42

in the witnesses.

1:00:43

And if you were tipping a result, you

1:00:46

would have to be siding currently with

1:00:48

the Crown.

1:00:54

Thanks for joining us for this episode

1:00:56

of The Teacher's Accuser. The

1:00:59

episode was written in part and

1:01:01

narrated by me, Hedley Thomas, with

1:01:03

assistance and contributions from national

1:01:05

crime correspondent, David Murray, senior

1:01:08

writer, Matthew Condon, and editorial

1:01:10

director, Claire Harvey. Our producer

1:01:13

is Kristen Amiet. Audio production

1:01:15

is by Jasper Leake. And our theme music

1:01:18

is by Wasabi Audio.

1:01:19

For all our reporting and

1:01:21

analysis, go to theteachersaccuser.com.au.

1:01:26

That's theteachersaccuser.com.au.

1:01:28

And each day during the

1:01:31

trial, we'll bring you live updates and

1:01:34

analysis in our daily news podcast,

1:01:36

The Front. Just search for The Front

1:01:38

wherever you get your podcasts.