Christopher Michael Dawson described allegations he killed his wife and disposed of her body in January 1982 as lies and fiction in intercepted phone calls played during his murder trial.
On Wednesday, police phone wiretaps were played of conversations between Dawson and his friends and family in 2018.
In these calls, he rejected claims he killed Lynette Dawson so he could then move one of his former high school students, known as JC, into their Bayview, Sydney home.
Twin brothers Paul and Chris Dawson expressed anger at the press, claiming journalists could just lie and make up any claim they liked in what was described as conviction by media.
“How can a f***ing journalist, Chris, go on national television and basically say you’re a murderer and should be charged?” Paul Dawson said, referring to an episode of Australian Story on the ABC in September 2018.
Investigative journalist Hedley Thomas, the voice behind The Teacher’s Pet podcast, was referred to as a “f***ing wanker” who had created a fiction regarding Mrs Dawson’s disappearance and profited in the process.
The Teacher’s Pet was released in 2018 and delved into the disappearance of Mrs Dawson. It strongly suggested Dawson murdered his wife and has been racked up 60 million listens worldwide.
In the phone calls, Dawson claimed he’d received more publicity than Karl Stefanovic’s marriage break-up or former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.
JC was blamed for making up lies about Dawson to the police and press due to a bitter custody dispute when the couple broke up in 1990. The twins said she should have been the prime suspect in Mrs Dawson’s disappearance, having the most to gain from it.
Damian Loone, the detective who conducted an investigation into Mrs Dawson from 1998 to 2015 was also discussed, with Dawson giving him the nickname “Loony”.
Dawson told a friend that Mr Loone, now retired, got into trouble for painting his face black and making fun of Aboriginal deaths in custody while working in northern NSW.
Dawson, now 73, was arrested in December 2018 for the alleged murder of his wife. The Crown alleges he wanted to get her out of the way so he could have an unfettered relationship with JC while holding onto assets such as the Bayview home.
He has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Detective Senior Constable Daniel Poole, who took over the Dawson investigation in 2015, also returned to the witness box on Wednesday.
He gave evidence that concerns had been raised about how witnesses’ recollection of events around Mrs Dawson’s disappearance four decades ago could be negatively impacted by either listening to The Teacher’s Pet podcast or speaking with Thomas.
Det Poole agreed with statements from Dawson’s barrister Pauline David that care had to be taken to ensure witnesses were impartial when giving statements to the police.
Thomas’ approach to interviews was inappropriate because he had told some potential witnesses what others had said. This, along with simply listening to the podcast, could lead to unconscious contamination, Justice Ian Harrison heard.
“The difficulty with unconscious contamination is that the person believes what they are saying is accurate and doesn’t recognise the manner in which they are influenced,” Ms David said.
“Yes,” Det Poole agreed.
The police were then cautious with the reliability of witnesses who had appeared on or listened to The Teacher’s Pet, the Supreme Court heard.
Crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC told the court that although some witnesses called in the long-running trial had made police statements after they spoke to Thomas, the majority had talked with police and given evidence at inquests over a decade before speaking to the journalist.
“They’d already said what they had to say long before Mr Thomas spoke with them,” he said.
Det Poole admitted using The Teacher’s Pet to the police’s advantage, tapping the Dawson family phones to see if any conversations were stirred up as a result of the podcast. However, he stressed this was not done in cooperation with Thomas.
The trial continues.
© AAP 2022
