An Australian former high school teacher who was the subject of the hit podcast ‘The Teacher’s Pet’ has been sentenced to 24 years in jail for murdering his wife 40 years ago.
Mother-of-two Lynette Dawson disppeared in January 1982, at the age of 33.
The cold case against her husband Christopher Dawson was reopened after the 2018 podcast, by veteran Australian investigation journalist Hedley Thomas, gripped the nation and put pressure on the police to revisit their investigation.
The hugely popular series was called The Teacher’s Pet because Dawson, while working as a PE teacher on Sydney’s northern beaches, had an affair with one of his teenage students whom he moved into his home just days after Lynette vanished.
The girl even wore Lynette’s clothes and her wedding rings. They later married, had children of their own, and divorced.
A 2003 inquest had recommended charging Dawson with Lynette’s murder but prosecutors declined, citing a lack of evidence.
“Dawson has enjoyed until his arrest 36 years in the community, unimpeded by the taint of a conviction for killing his wife, or by any punishment for doing so,” New South Wales Supreme Court Judge Ian Harrison said during the sentencing on Friday.
“In a practical sense, his denial of responsibility for that crime has benefited him in obvious ways.”
Dawson‘s lawyer Greg Walsh said he planned to appeal the sentence.
“Our system of justice and our democracy is based upon the presumption of innocence,” he told media on Friday. “He maintains his innocence.”
Lynette’s brother, Greg Simms, said the family welcomed the sentence.
“We respect and thank Judge Harrison for his sentence, and hope Chris Dawson lives a long life in order to serve that sentence,” he told media.
Dawson will be eligible for parole in 2040, when he will be 92 years old.
Dan Doherty, a homicide detective involved in bringing the charge, said while the sentence would bring comfort to the family, the case remained open as Lynette’s body has not been found.
In August, the Supreme Court found Dawson deliberately killed his wife in January 1982 to pursue a relationship with the teenage student he was having an affair with.
Dawson, now 74, claimed his wife had left him - a defence that Harrison said was fanciful.
Lawyers for Dawson, who was tried without a jury due to the publicity surrounding the case, argued that the podcast, produced by News Corp’s The Australian newspaper, denied him a fair trial because of the way he was depicted.
Harrison had agreed the podcast - a number-one hit that the newspaper says has been downloaded more than 50 million times - had cast Dawson in a negative light, but had not factored into the verdict.
