Chris Dawson murder trial hears ‘bus stop’ and Antiques Roadshow sighting claims of missing Lyn

Chris Dawson’s murder trial has heard extraordinary claims by the accused’s brother-in-law of seeing Lynette Dawson at a Sydney bus stop and on an Antiques Roadshow episode taped in England – long after her disappearance.

But Ross Hutcheon did not reveal the alleged 1982 bus stop encounter until after his wife’s younger brother was charged with murder to anyone but his wife, the NSW Supreme Court heard on Monday.

The trial also heard an intercepted phone interview between Chris Dawson and his sister in 1999 after police had quizzed her, in which the accused asks repeated questions about what police wanted to know about him. 

In a 2019 taped police interview played in court Ross Hutcheon, who has since died, relates seeing ‘Lynette Dawson’ in 1982 when the former insurance surveyor was driving his work car past Gladesville Hospital towards Parramatta.

 ‘I glanced to my right and saw Lyn standing at a bus stop,’ he said, adding that the fact Lyn had been a nurse and was opposite a hospital where ‘she’d been at work’ strengthened his conviction it was her.

‘She looked just like the Lyn I knew, same-coloured hair, same hairstyle … fullish type blonde hair … no sunglasses, no attempt to disguise.

‘She was quite an attractive girl. I thought I’ll stop and say hello and thought that’s pointless, she walked out.’

A woman featuring on a 2006 Antiques Roadshow episode taped in Cornwall, UK and aired in Australia in 2010 has been cited by Chris Dawson’s family as evidence she is still alive

The court heard on Monday that members of Chris Dawson’s family and friends from his ‘football club’ had claimed to see Lynette Dawson (above) in the months and years since she vanished in January 1982

Ross Hutcheon, the accused’s brother-in-law, said he saw Lynette Dawson at a bus stop across the road from Gladesville Hospital in 1982 with ‘fullish blonde hair’ looking ‘quite attractive’

Mr Hutcheon told police he had a change of mind, did a U-turn, and when he returned ‘Lyn’ had gone.

Although he had told no other family member bar his wife Lynette Hutcheon until after her brother Chris Dawson was charged in 2018 with Lynette Dawson’s murder, he says he told police.

In the 2019 interview, Mr Hutcheon appears to believe police knocked on his door  in about 1983, but the actual police interview by two detectives of himself and his wife at their Cromer House in Sydney’s northern beaches did not take place until February 1999.

Shown a transcript of the interview, which prosecutors in Chris Dawson’s trial attest contains no mention of the ‘bus stop sighting’, Mr Hutcheon becomes upset and says, ‘That is wrong. That is absolutely wrong’.

He also claims in the interview to have seen a woman on Antiques Roadshow who looked ‘very like’ Lyn, and appears confused when asked if he had not read about that in media reports (about a 2006 episode taped in Cornwall, UK). 

The Crown’s case is that the Gladesville bus stop ‘sighting’ was never aired or told to police until after Chris Dawson’s 2018 arrest (above) for the alleged murder of his first wife Lynette

Prosecutors have attempted to paint Chris Dawson (above with Lynette and one of their daughters) as a violent, controlling and abusive husband, but his defence contends Lyn left the marriage of her own accord, abandoning her children

Mr Hutcheon also described  his allegedly murdered sister-in-law as a difficult woman who in her marriage to the accused ‘used to run their life really’ and who would go ‘mad … about the most trivial things’ with a supposedly easygoing house builder.

Christopher Michael Dawson, 73, is accused of murdering his wife and disposing of her body in January 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with his babysitter and former student, known as JC. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge

His defence case is that Lyn left her marriage to Chris Dawson of her own accord and abandoned her two young daughters, then aged four and two. 

The accused’s older sister Lynette Hutcheon told the trial on Monday that apart from her husband’s bus stop incident, Lynette Dawson had been sighted post January 1982 by unnamed football friends and by her Auntie Audrey ‘at some markets’.

Testifying via videolink from Western Australia, Ms Hutcheon said the detectives at her Cromer home in 1999 had asked her for family phone numbers, including that of Chris Dawson.

She was played an intercepted phone call she had made to the accused after the detectives’ visit, in which he asks what the police wanted, if they’d asked for his address, and if they had interviewed the schoolgirl wife he’d since divorced, JC.

The trial heard an intercepted phone call between Chris Dawson and his sister in which they discussed his schoolgirl second wife JC (centre) which Lynette Hutchon said had been ‘difficult, causing custody problems’ in the 1990s

Several alleged ‘sightings’ have been made by the accused’s family or friends, Chris Dawson’s sister Lynette Hutcheon told the court on Monday

 Ms Hutcheon tells Chris Dawson on the taped call that JC wasn’t mentioned but she wondered if the police questions weren’t a result of JC  ‘being smart … you don’t need her two cents worth like a hole in the head’.

Asked on Monday by crown prosecutor Craig Everson SC what she meant by JC “being smart’, she said JC was ‘being difficult, causing custody problems’.

Asked why she hadn’t mentioned the Gladesville bus stop sighting, Ms Hutcheon said ‘it didn’t some up … it wasn’t important for me to tell him at that stage’.

Mr Everson pointed Ms Hutcheon to a police statement she made in 2019 when she was interviewed about the 1999 Cromer detective visit which he said stated ‘Lynette Hutcheon was unable to supply a contact telephone number for Chris Dawson.

Asked by Mr Everson, ‘did you tell police you didn’t have his telephone number’, Ms Hutcheon replied, ‘No … there’s no reason why I wouldn’t have. to I gave them his address, it would have been in same book’.

Asked about the Teacher’s Pet podcast about her brother’s alleged role in Lynette Dawson’s disappearance, Ms Hutcheon said ‘I heard they were accusing him  of something, killing her I think’ but said she hadn’t listened to it.

‘I didn’t want  anything to do with it.’ 

Asked why she didn’t contact her brother with the details of her husband’s ‘bus stop sighting’ after hearing the alleged murder claims against Chris Dawson of the podcast, Ms Hutcheon said ‘I didn’t think it was necessary’.

‘I didn’t realise it was going to be that important. just thought commonsense would prevail,’ she said. 

Under cross-examination by Chris Dawson’s barrister Pauline David, Ms Hutcheon said that the police who had interviewed her ‘were obviously very laid back and didn’t record everything’ including her husband’s bus stop sighting of Lyn. 

Ms Hutcheon also related an incident of when Lynette Dawson’s  four-year-old daughter bit her two-year-old and said Lyn ‘broke down, she couldn’t cope … said “I shouldn’t have had children. Chris wanted to have … so we did”.’

The sister of Chris and Paul Dawson (above in a Levi’s jeans ad in the 1980s) said she was visited by detectives in 1999 and asked for the phone numbners of family including her twin brothers

The murder trial began in early May and  is into its fifth week, with a one week adjournment interrupting proceedings when Mr Everson contracted Covid. 

The crown’s witnesses have attempted to paint Dawson as a violent, controlling and abusive husband, with testimony emerging that Mrs Dawson had been seen variously with a black eye, and bruises around her throat and on her arms and thigh.

Witnesses have said they saw him shove his wife’s face into the dirt, swing her into a doorframe, and demean her with insults such as ‘fatso’.

Dawson’s legal team has argued the witnesses’ testimony has been contaminated because they had talked about the case with each other and had listened to The Teacher’s Pet podcast about the mystery surrounding Mrs Dawson, arguing it was broadcast with an assumption that her husband was guilty.

They have also argued that because these events happened four decades ago and memories have faded over time, the testimony given now is not an accurate portrayal of what happened.

Dawson claims JC’s allegations are lies spurred by a bitter custody battle which occurred after their 1990 break-up.