Episode 16 - Arrest

This is episode 16 of The Teacher's Pet. Listeners are advised that this podcast contains course language and adult themes. This podcast series is brought to you by the Australian. Lynette Dawson was reported missing by her husband, former Newtown Jets, Rabi Leake Stark, Chris Dawson. "I said I was going to get a hitman to kill Lee, and he ran me and said, "Lynn's gone, she's a comeback." "I just want justice, and I'd love her little girls to know she didn't leave them." You'll listen to Sydney Live 3-6 with Ben Fordham on 2GB-873, the power station. "You are with Ben Fordham on 2GB, as you know, we've spent a lot of time talking about the case of Lyn Dawson, and today big, big news." Lynne Sister Pat Jenkins was out shopping in Sydney when detectives turned up unannounced at Chris Dawson's investment property. Former rugby league player Chris Dawson has been arrested, and will be extradited to New South Wales to be charged with the murder of his ex-wife, Lynne. Chris has been living in a quiet street near Runaway Bay on Queensland's Gold Coast. It's a couple of 100 kilometres from the beach side on Claim of Coulomb, and the principal place of residence he owns with his third wife, Susan. Today, New South Wales police have confirmed the following facts. Just before 8 o'clock this morning, a 70-year-old man from Coulomb on the Sunshine Coast was arrested at bigger awarders on the Gold Coast. The 70-year-old was arrested by homicide squad detectives from Queensland police. The man in custody is Chris Dawson. He's been arrested in relation to the disappearance of his ex-wife, Lynne, in the Sydney suburb of Bayview in 1982. Lynne's brother Greg Sims was at his home near Newcastle when the arrest was made. Greg's wife, Marilyn, was just heading out in the car as the phone rang. My friend and crime reporter colleague at the Australian Dave Murray called me at 8.25 in the morning. He sounded slightly out of breath. Dave kept it brief. He just said, "Mate, Chris Dawson's been arrested. My telephone began running hot." The New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has confirmed today that this man will be charged with the murder of Lynne Dawson. And this is a massive development in what has become the most talked about cold case in the nation. In a Queensland court today, Chris Dawson was refused bail and will be extra-dited to New South Wales to be formally charged with Lynne Dawson's murder. Here's journalist Wendy Page who came to know Greg and Pat back in 2003 when Wendy produced a documentary about the case for the ABC's Australian story. I felt completely gobsmacked actually. I was really shocked when I heard maybe half an hour ago, or 45 minutes ago. I mean, what a journey. What a journey for that family. What a journey for all of Lynne's friends and colleagues. Within minutes of hearing about the arrest, Greg Sims spoke and he sounded ready to shed tears of relief. "Hello, my friend." "Oh, nice. How you feeling?" "As though there's a weight off our shoulders, we're at the time until someone getting a bit emotional, but that's expected, but we are just ecstatic." Marilyn was by his side and trying to hold it together. "We're bit numb. We're bit shocked. We're very relieved. Let's see where we go from here." "What we've decided to say is a massive thank you to everybody involved in being in this decision forward. We're very grateful for all the help and interest we've received from so many different areas. But it's now a matter for the court." And when Pat finally got back from the supermarkets, she received a pleasant surprise. News of the arrest of her younger sisters alleged killer. Alison Jennings found it hard to talk when she took a call from Dave Murray. Alison's been running the Facebook site, looking for Lynette Dawson, with Pat's daughter Pauline, and they've worked tirelessly to try to give a public profile to their relative Lynne's case. "Are you okay?" "I'm just shocked. And yeah, I never thought this day would ever come. I really did it." Dave Murray called again and he described the next steps in a courtroom in Southport. That's where the wheels of justice would turn first. Lynne's alleged murder occurred in New South Wales. And that's where a trial would need to be held. But Queensland is where Chris has been living since late 1984. And the courthouse in Southport is where he would have his first appearance. So, every time we get a argue medical, a medical ground, you can't be far down there or something like that. So, it's just one thing. Yeah, okay. So, I heard from the detective who came up from New South Wales with Dan Poole. Yeah, yeah, I spoke to him as well. Okay, he telephoned me and it was all very straight, courthouse. And he just explained he where it was at. And one thing he said was that I would be a witness proceedings because of my contact with some of the witnesses. And some overlapping there. So, I think it was meant as a sort of a, you know, just be mindful of your responsibilities in terms of, you know, work goes from here. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Do they tell you that? They did. Yeah, they mentioned that. But I mean, they said primarily you because you have been doing interviews, but they asked me if I had done interviews as well. I said you had been doing the interviews, but I've done some conversations, but primarily it was your interview. So, it's like the same thing with me. Police Commissioner Mick Follow was giving blood on the morning of Christosan's arrest. The top cop, fronted journalist, an hour later, at a media conference in Sydney with the head of the homicide squad, Scott Cook. In 2015, New South Wales police force unsold homicide squad, under strike force, Scriven, commenced a re-investigation into the disappearance and possible homicide of Lynette Dawson. Detective Cook met with a DPP this week with very positive information for us. That information enabled New South Wales police to get an arrest warrant for a 70-year-old man currently living in Queensland. From my perspective, I've said from the start what is important to me was justice for Lynette Dawson and her family. And today is an important step forward in that. We spoke to the family of Lynette Dawson this morning who was certainly relieved to hear this result. Mick Follow granted me a brief telephone interview. I asked him if something had happened to trigger the arrest a couple of hours earlier. This week, the DPP and New South Wales reached out to the head of our homicide squad, Detective Superintendent Scott Cook, and asked to have a meeting and that meeting revealed some positive news that they supported the brief evidence that had been submitted and felt that a 70-year-old man currently living in Queensland had a case to answer for the murder. But Lynette Dawson, detectives from the unsolved homicide squad, obtained a warrant for the resident of that 70-year-old man, and that warrant was executed this morning. A 72-year-old man has been taken in custody using the Queensland Court system. We were waiting for the first mention and we'll be seeking an extradition of that man back to New South Wales to face the charge of homicide of Lynette Dawson. You've become more engaged in this case as the public interest in it has grown. What does it mean to you and your detectives to get this result today? It's important on a number of levels. At least as a commissioner, you're trying to care equally for all the victims in the state. You and I met some months ago about this matter and spoke to Lynette about it. And the starting point for me was about trying to make sure people understood that we did care. I had to take some personal responsibility to get that message out. Which was unusual. I think it's important that people maintain confidence in the police force. To put in that all aside, you and I both wanted the same thing again the day which was justice for Lynette Dawson and her family. I feel like the great weight has lifted off. all of us today with this warrant we're executed. In terms of the public interest and the ability of the public to help the police, has that been beneficial? Absolutely. It has had been your podcast, generated the enormous interest, but also additional evidence as well and we welcome that evidence and hopefully as this manner progresses into a criminal trial there will be more and more people who potentially will have the courage to come forward to assist this matter. Was there a particular trigger for it going this week for the DPP to be talking to Scott Cook and your top people on Monday? It took a number of months which I felt was reasonable. The tens and tens of folders and evidence that I felt that we needed to give them time to really review the new evidence to give the brief every chance and the combination of all that this week was that they believed that the similar year in Old Man Town, Olivia and Queensland had a case to answer for the murder of Lynette Dawson and I think that's a wonderful outcome to Lynette family and really anyone who has been listening to your podcast. Do you believe that there may be more arrests of others in relation to the allegations of abuse of students on those Northern beaches high schools or any other offences? There is a strong force currently running looking into those murders. I'm certainly hopeful that any victim that comes forward, either on historic matters, gets justice, our child abuse and sex crime squad looking into all of those matters that I know that people have come forward and will continue to investigate those matters with the same passionate figure that we have since 2015. This case is 36 years old. How rare is it to be able to level a charge after three and a half decades and be confident and positive as you and Scott Cook were today at the media conference that is a solid brief and could lead to a successful prosecution? For good reasons, Mick Fuller could not go into the substance and detail of the evidence, but he was in no doubt about the determination of the detective who has been running the reinvestigation since 2015, Daniel Poole. I have a guy who had confidence in Dan who I met with him personally and he was absolutely passionate. And some fortunate sometimes to give you good for those investigative clues to show that passion. The Southport courthouse is a short drive from where Christ Awesome was arrested. It was surrounded by media. My colleague Charlie Peale sped down the motorway from the Brisbane office of the Australian to be in court when Chris was led in. I spoke to Charlie soon afterwards. So we just out the front of the watch house now, they're just working out logistics of how we're when he'll be taken. Can you describe what you're seeing there, Charlie? He was interesting, so he's in a really light sort of car key color t-shirt and he just came in pretty quietly and he's still got that powerful sort of build for a 70-year-old which is sort of out of the fire end of the dock as far from the media as possible. He mostly just stared straight ahead but then the magistrate took about 20 minutes to read through the case against him. And for most of that time, Dawson was just watching the magistrate, almost trying to gauge what he was reading. Magistrate Dennis Kinsella took his time to read the police case against Christopher Michael Dawson. He did not read aloud the summary of the brief. There was some legal argument over bail but it was quickly resolved. In murder cases, bail for and accused is extremely rare and the magistrate had already made up his mind. Because of the seriousness of the charge, it was just too high risk. The magistrate summarized Chris's relationship with Joanne Curtis, the allegations of domestic violence against Lynn and their ongoing conflict. Then he said that Lynn was going about her normal life prior to her disappearance. She was also preparing for a birthday party and preparing child's school around the time of her disappearance. And she didn't pick up her paycheck. The police summary also stated that Lynn was not financially viable when she vanished. That's when Dawson, if he went quite red and had his head resting in his face resting on his hands, just looking down at the ground. He looked pretty calm for most of it. No head shaking or anything like that that I saw. But just that head in the hands and going quite red. The whole back bench of the gallery probably ate seats, taken up by his new self-wells detectives and suits. Now the plan for this episode of The Teacher's Pet has necessarily changed since Chris Dawson's arrest. On legal advice, several interviews have been dropped from this episode. There's a number of the disclosures made for the first time, including by two former babysitters who went to Chroma High and looked after Chris and Lynn's small children in 1979 will be provided to police. Later in this episode you'll hear from Julie Andrew, Lynn's good friend and neighbour, as she absorbed the news of Chris Dawson's arrest. Now let's step back two months to a sunny day. It honored Lynn Dawson. Even from the Northern beaches who had never known Lynn Dawson helped ease the disappointment of her family in the days after the unsuccessful dig at Lynn's old house in Bayview. They came up with the idea of a public walk to long-reaf headland lookout via the beach boardwalk. Once the idea took hold, Bev McNally started to organise it with Alison Jennings, the daughter of Lynn's cousin Wendy. We realised that no one had ever done anything as a memorial or anything for her. As a teenager from Chroma High and a babysitter in the Dawson home, Bev had been touched by Lynn's caring ways. Lynn loved nursing. She encouraged Anne to help Bev to choose her preferred career path as a nurse. Lynn gave Bev sound advice on the best way to enter the caring profession. Lynn wouldn't believe it, but she should hear what was happening. The waves at DIY crashed nearby as Pat Jinkin's told me how she felt about the plan for a public walk in Lynn's memory. "I think it's a lovely idea. I'm people nice to think of that sort of thing. Yeah, no, I think it's a lovely idea. It's always like a little memorial to her." Lynn's good friend and former next door neighbour, Julie Andrew, the first woman to talk about Lynn in this podcast series was holidaying in Europe while the digging took place at Bayview. "There's a walk on. Have you heard about this walk?" "Yeah, look, I'm in two lines for these sorts of things. I just don't. It's sort of like it makes people feel better that they're doing something and their memory positive, but it definitely does. Greg Simpson is going. "Maryland's coming, Pat's coming. So the family's right behind it and she's considering coming down for it as well. And most of the students who have dealt with are on it. They're all going to go on it. So maybe seeing those public displays of support could trigger a witness who hasn't come forward to do so. It just has. Beverly came forward when she started hearing people like you in the podcast. This is quite incredible. Now I've had a count. There's probably close to 400, maybe a tad over 400." 2GB radio presenter Chris Smith came along with Ben Fordham and Chris spoke to Greg Simpson and others who took a couple of hours out of their Sunday in a poignant expression of support for Lynn, her family and friends. "We weren't aware of how many people would turn up for this and just seeing this many people just to see if people walking up the wall. One of the most interesting people I've met on this walk is actually Chris Dawson's own cousin, Judy. Give me an idea of Lynn's devotion to those two little girls." "Okay. We knew Lynn very well growing up and I knew how much trouble she and Chris had to go to have those two girls and I knew that she was absolutely devoted to them and would never have left them for a day. You know, finally I think we'll get justice for you." "You think you're confident of that?" "I'm very confident, yes. And I think we'll see that for the family, yes." Judy and her husband Ray have told me they actually suspected foul play right back at the start but they didn't want to think about it. It was the time he introduced Joanne Curtis and it came at a gathering of the Dawson family soon after Lynn's disappearance. Over the years Lynn became an unmentionedable subject at these doors. an extended family events. Judy's mother and Chris's mother were sisters. Judy, Chris and Paul are only 11 months apart and they spent a lot of time together as they grew up. In the decades after Lynn's disappearance, Judy and her husband Ray would stay in casual contact with Chris and Paul, exchanging Christmas cards and meeting at occasional family reunions and funerals. But they've decided to draw a line in the sand to want to Lynn, a woman they knew well and liked a lot. You'll hear more from Judy and Ray later in this episode. And the community, and I just mean this local community on the northern peninsula, but I'm in the Australian community, is following this case with so much interest. It's extraordinary. There's walks in Newcastle, Port McCoy, up on the Gulf Coast. Even I know there's some friends we know in Hong Kong going to walk down the harbour and actually put a flower down there. Joanne Curtis worked with my friend Rebecca Hazel at a women's refuge on the northern beaches years ago and the two women became close. You've heard Rebecca in earlier episodes. She's almost finished her book about the case and we're still exchanging ideas. Rebecca sounded less confident though about charges being leveled when we talked on the drive to the golf club for a breakfast with Lynn's family before the walk. Lynn's eldest daughter Chanel had flown in from Harvey Bay with her young daughter. They mingled with Chanel's family on her mother's side and later with Wellwishet who thronged the coastline path to the lookout. Hundreds of people, some total strangers have marched to remember missing in northern beaches mumble in Eddorson. When Eddorson would have turned 70 last Tuesday, this was a bit of a birthday present. Flowers and tributes in pink her favourite colour to remember a woman the world had once forgotten. Walker's talked about why they came. There is no answer. There's no answer for her for a family for anybody. So, yeah, just come here pay our respects. Lynn's brother Greg spoke to everyone before they set off. Today not only have we family friends supporting us forever but many new friends and I can't all your people here today as that and if on the walk if you want to have a talk please. Lynn would have been 70 last week so this is a fitting tribute to her for a 73rd day. I know she would have if she was here she'd be here but we all made the truth otherwise it wouldn't be here. Greg's daughter Renee Sims spoke to seven news reporter Robert O'Valia. Obviously, as a family we've never forgotten her but the justice system has just let us slip through the cracks. It is somewhat calling to say a person's entire life slipped through the cracks but sadly that is exactly what happened to Lynn Dorson all those years ago. They've just released a shorty investigation played its part and they are doing everything they can today to make up for it. They're pulling historic school records from the former Chroma High where Christoson taught to investigate allegations teachers habitually prayed on students there. Christoson maintains his innocence. A parade of pink. A fair fair that the humble in Dorson would have probably shined away from. So today hundreds of people have taken steps to honour her memory travelling from all over the country armed with a flower in her favourite colour on wood wood have been the weekend of the 70s Thursday. By going on the walk Judy Brown and her husband Ray knew they were effectively severing ties with Judy's cousins Chris and Paul as well as with the twins backers in the Dorson family and this can't have been easy. Blood ties mean a lot to many in this clan. Weeks later Judy talked to me about these family ties. She disclosed some of the things that she and Ray saw and heard in family gatherings around the time Lynn disappeared and in the decades afterwards. Could you tell me why you went on that walk? When Chris and Paul were playing rugby for Eastern suburbs Judy and Ray would be there with other family to cheer for the high performing twins. My mother was one of seven so there were a lot in the extended family and I didn't see a lot of most of the cousins but I probably saw more of the twins than anyone else and then I actually went to teachers college for two years with Paul and his wife Marilyn because he met Marilyn at teachers college. So for two years I'd more or less see them every day and Chris he used to come across quite often to visit Paul and then we also used to go to their home to in fact that's why we chose certain tiles for our bathroom at the back of Chris and Chris and Lynn had a similar tile. And then when they played for Newtown we used to go and watch them play as well you know and sit with the family, sit with the family there and all on the hill. Yeah. Sounds like you were very close. We were more close to them than any of the other members of the extended family put it at that point. You know I always thought they were very clean living boys you know they were and to me they always seemed loyal to their partners. Judy has fond memories too of her auntie Joan and uncle Sid Chris's parents. She was a lovely person yeah she was really a lovely person and then her husband said where there was hilarious. He was a rather errone with a love of a rogue. He used to put bets on for Hollywood George at the at the race and you know because Hollywood George was banned from the track. Yeah he used to talk at 100 miles and now you know you'd have to really concentrate to work out what he was saying. And Judy and Ray have been close to Peter Dawson the twins older brother. How do you feel they're listening to all of you? Well it's very difficult in fact the ride would say I'll look over. I can't listen it's just too depressing you know he get really upset afterwards. All we knew was that he had the affair with Joanne and he did eventually marry her that was more or less all we knew. I do remember Marilyn and Peter's then wife Lennel talking together and I was there and I remember Marilyn saying to Lennel Chris's had Joanne at home sitting on his lap while Lenn is there you know so. And was she making a comment on Lennel's apparent acceptance of the situation as well? No no no not at all no no nothing was mentioned about that just the fact that she was shocked that Chris would do that. She just thought it wasn't right that Chris had taken Joanne home for a start I think yes and then also did that in front of Lennel you know how to sit on his lap. These husband Ray who went to the same event confirmed that the conversation occurred after Lennel had vanished. All I can remember is that conversation which has never left me. Marilyn, Paul's wife, right and Lennel who was then Peter's wife there solicited her older brother right his first wife they were talking together and I was there I just remember it that Marilyn said Chris had bought and home and he had her sitting you know as a babysitter supposedly and he had her sitting on his lap while Lennel was there you know in the home and I thought my God that is bizarre because I always knew that Chris and Lennel were very close like they were childhood sweethearts they'd met at school and then to us they always appeared very close and loving. I didn't ever know the period where they weren't. Judy and Ray recall going to a family picnic Lennel was gone she'd only recently disappeared and a young girl was on the scene Chris was clearly involved with her. Because Ray just remembers Chris coming up to us saying oh this is Joanne. Would you you know Chris's cousin having known him for so long would you not have said always Lennel. Where's Lennel yeah yeah we did and apparently that's what Ray remembers anyway and he said all Lennel's gone and this is Joanne you know and we're like okay. And did you drift apart then or did you? Yeah yeah well I mean they we still saw them. Would you have ever said to Paul or Marilyn look we're concerned about Lynn do you think no no it was like don't mention the war it was like that you know no one ever you know everyone tread you know trod wearily around it nothing was ever said in their company. And you were very fond of Lennel is that right? Oh yes yes she was a lovely she was a lovely person yeah yeah and it was lovely to see I'm so pleased that you recovered the checkerboard program you know to actually see her you know I could still hear her voice I can still see her. And why was the war important for you? Well it was a wide honoring Lynn and her family but because you and your wife are probably the only you know representatives of Chris's side of the family. Yes yes well well we'll be different. We're carrying people. We're full of that plan. I asked Ray if there had been feedback from the family since. He said it was a blackout subject to boo. It's been that way for a long time. Well, Navi talks about it. Navi talks about what happens. Yes, Navi talks about the disappearance. Nothing, nothing as if I mentioned when they're there. And how do you believe you will be perceived by Chris Paul? Well, I guess I won't get any more Christmas cards. I don't know. Judy remembered the twin 70th birthday earlier this year. But I didn't send the Macarta. I was loads to send the Macarta. I would have done normally, but when all this had come out, I thought, no, can't do that. It's going to be really hard to have any contact with them now. I don't feel good about it. No, not at all. But I just think it's all very sad. It's just all very sad because they were all really nice people. And it's just really hard to believe that it has happened. And all the other bits too about the girls at school and whatever. It's just really hard to believe. I just had no idea they had another life like that. Mr Speaker, silenced voices, muffled cries in the darkness, unacknowledged tears, the tyranny of invisible suffering. The never heard pleas of tortured souls bewildered by an indifference to the unthinkable theft of their innocence. Australia's political leader, Scott Morrison, rose to deliver a national apology to all women and men, girls and boys, including those from Northern Beecher's schools like Kramer High, Forest High and Beacon Hill High. Today, Australia confronts a trauma, an abomination hiding in plain sight for far too long. Today, we confront a question too horrible to ask, little unanswered. Why weren't the children of our nation loved, nurtured and protected? Survivors of sexual abuse watched on from the great hall of federal parliament in Kramer. They watched from the privacy of their homes and workplaces around the country as the broadcast was beamed live from the nation's capital. The apology came at the end of Australia's newly completed Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. It went for years and uncovered thousands of shocking cases and it exposed the conduct of predators in schools, religious groups, governments and homes who inflicted terrible suffering while adults who suspected or knew what was going on failed to step up to protect the young and vulnerable. Why was there trespass trade? Why did those who know cover it up? Why were the cries of children and parents ignored? Why was our system of justice blind to injustice? Why has it taken so long to act? Why were other things more important than this, the care of innocent children? Why didn't we believe? Today, we dare to ask these questions and finally acknowledge and confront the lost screams of our children. A fortnight after the Prime Minister's National Apology in late October, Dr. Jim McKebidn published her own insightful analysis about how we perceive, discuss and label sexual abuse and exploitation of children, particularly in this podcast series. I think we think about relationships, we think of them as equal and as mutually satisfying and as consensual. But the issue of consent becomes very blurry when there's sexual exploitation. Jimma has spent much of her career understanding the impact on children and teenagers. It's incredibly confusing and it takes years and years often for victims of sexual exploitation to see themselves as victims and to realise that what happened to them was wrong and was not okay. One of her points is that it's neither right nor fair to view as a so-called relationship, the pairing of teachers or any adult, with teenagers half their age. The Oxford Dictionary defines the word relationship as "the way in which two or more people are connected". Jimma believes that the word on its own is deeply misleading and potentially harmful and less preceded by adjectives like abusive or exploitative. Phil Webster is a former Chroma high student and you've heard from him in previous episodes. He idolised Christ Orson and a number of other male teachers who were having sex with Phil's friends at the school. Phil's a senior teacher in Sydney and he told me that Jimma's measured analysis was a wake-up call to everyone to be mindful of the labeling. "It's just putting it in the context that you're now looking back on it. We have to talk about it from now on whenever we write about it back then. We have to write it how it was back then." Phil talks of the conscious and subconscious conditioning that he and other male students got from their teacher, male role models at Chroma high. It affected Phil for years. "It sent me a message, a really powerful message, that it was okay. It was okay. All of the students in the teacher as well and that something might come my way as well. You never know that. If it did, it would be alright, mate. If you're similar with a girl in 12, some of your way to sort of to the end of your 12, you might meet a lot of chicks. "That's the message I was giving from those guys in the early years after I left high school too. They're directly and indirectly because I have a bit embarrassed myself, but I actually thought it was okay too. "The teacher, a young teacher, 20/24, as long as I was single, they weren't cheating on their wife. It was kosher to pick out a girl on 11 and 12 and see what happens. They've got no sense of judgment, no sense of, we're just totally immoral. It's one thing to think it. It's another thing to act on it and make phone calls and drive them home and ask them to come and base it for them. With the view to think, 'Maybe I'm going to get into their parents.' Which is what they did. They planned it." "Nothing we can do now will write the wrongs and flicker on our nation's children. Even after a comprehensive royal commission which finally enabled the voices to be heard and the silence to be broken, we will all continue to struggle. The crimes of ritual, sexual abuse, happened in schools, churches, youth groups, scout troops, orphanages, foster homes, sporting clubs, group homes, charities and in-family homes as well. It happened anywhere a predator thought they could get away with it and the systems within these organisations allowed it to happen and turned blind eye. It happened day after day, week after week, month after month, decade after decade, unrelenting torment. The pain didn't stop with adulthood. Relationships with partners and children became strained as survivors struggled with the conflicting currents within them." Hetty Johnston has helped many hundreds of survivors of sexual abuse in their quests for justice and recovery. She's the founder and leader of Brave Hearts and we've worked together to highlight predators and expose wrongs in the criminal justice systems handling of some cases. I asked Hetty if she had come across many victims who were able to retrain and live normal lives. "No, it's very difficult for them. It's very difficult. I don't know how you want to think about it. Whole different reality and whole different minds there. Because it's a belief system in there. It's like, you know, incomplodic paper, they just, they just, you see, go through the victims' mind, body and soul and just take over. And even if they're not there, there's that there's legacies there. They're still there in their mind. They're still there in their memories. They're always there. And children lose their power. That's what makes them weak and vulnerable and scared and frail and shameful and all those things. And it's not until they take their power back, until they understand that they actually have the power to put this person in jail or to get this person in trouble, to call or mount on it. And they understand that. They've got their power back. They understand it wasn't there for nothing that happened to them. It says anything about who they are. It says everything about who, who they are. When we get, when we get people, young people and even adults to that point and you can almost see their power coming back. You can see it in their eyes and in their back straightens up. It's just, it gives me, I've got to do something to talk about and it's just quite extraordinary. It's really about sending a message out there to say you won't get away with it. And again today we say sorry to the children we failed. We can never promise a world where there are no abusers, but we can promise a country where we commit to hear and believe our children. To work together to keep children safe, to trust them, and most of all, respect their innocence. For many years, Julie Andrew has dealt with her own feelings of remorse and guilt. She's long regretted not having raised the alarm about Lynn's disappearance when it happened in January 1982. When the Northern Beach's Detective Damien Loan used the local Manly Daily newspaper in 1998 to appeal for witnesses over Lynn Dawson's disappearance, Julie went forward immediately. But it was 16 years later and the investigation was that much more challenging. I spoke to Julie about an hour after Chris Dawson's arrest. Hi, how you going? Oh my gosh, can you believe it? Yeah, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Oh wow. I am stunned. Yeah, this is just the first part. This is good. This is great. It's a long way to go. But for Lynn's family, oh my gosh. You know, we're the only way to go. But I can't actually contain my emotion. I feel like running through the streets and screaming at the top of my voice. It's something that I didn't think we'd ever get to. Before I met you, I thought her face or history, her legacy was just forgotten forever that now. She's always going to be remembered and she's going to be, she's going to be indicated. She didn't leave her kids. And the kids will know that. For everything that everyone's gone through for so many years, living day to day, year to year, takes fate to take away. And feeling no one was ever going to do the right thing and believe in Lynn. And hopefully that good will continue. And they keep their eye on the ball. So this is just the beginning. This is to me. This is like, you know, kicking the big goals, but not winning the game. It's taking my breath away. I might've had to say I'm never lost the words, but I think I might be. Which will be the first. It's a wonderful day. My dear friend is. The teacher's pet is a podcast series investigated and written by me, Headley Thomas, with original music and audio production by Slade Gibson Audio and additional audio editing by Eric George. The series will now pause pending further developments in this case. We are grateful for ongoing backup from Lynn's family, friends, the former students of Chroma High and other schools and John Lehman, David Murray, Katrina Mathuson, Nicholas Gray, Paul Whitaker, Rebecca Hazel, Rob Lohanthor, Christopher Doer, Kell Southern, Nick Adams, Jasper, Ruth Mathuson, Ben Fordham, and Katie Page. Anyone with information about Lynn Dawson's disappearance consended in confidentially or contact me through the website, theteacherspet.com.au. This podcast series is brought to you by the Australian and proudly hosted by Wushka. Visit theteacherspet.com.au for additional documentary material as well as credits for the full team behind this multi-part production. The website includes further information about all of the key people, witnesses and interviewees in this series. Hi, I'm Headley Thomas and I want to introduce you to the Australian's latest investigative podcast, The Lighthouse, from my good friend and colleague David Murray. David's done a fantastic job. He's been working closely with people in the iconic community of Byron Bay to try to find out what happened to a young Belgian backpacker, Theo Hayers. Theo was travelling around Australia and making new friends at places like Uluru in this vast country's red centre. But then in May 2019, he disappeared from beautiful Byron Bay. David's podcast, The Lighthouse, has already generated a lot of interest in Theo's intriguing story and how he vanished. And I know there's a lot more information to come as the series unfolds. Byron Bay is home to the Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth. It's a haven for writers, poets, musicians and actors. And the good people of this laid back surfing community are pulling out all stops to help find Theo. Please listen to David Murray's podcast. It's called The Lighthouse. Search for The Lighthouse in your podcast app.