Episode 8 - Hopeless

This is episode 8 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 Gets, Rabi Leek, star Chris Dawson. "I was going to get a hitman to kill Lynne, and he ran me and said Lynne scorned shoes that come back." "I just want justice, and I'd love her little girls to know she didn't leave them." There are stirrings of public anger and frustration. A campaign is building to ensure that justice is not denied again to Lynne Dawson and her family. Three till six with Ben Fordham on 2GB, the power station. "I want to talk to you this afternoon about a very serious issue, and one that I think we all ought to care about. It's about a miscarriage of justice, about the death of a loving Sydney mum, and about someone who I believe has got away with murder." Ben Fordham, a prominent journalist for the Nine Television Network, an leading broadcaster for top rating radio station 2GB has been listening to the evidence and the witnesses in these podcast episodes. "What is needed now is a fair income, no holds barred, take no prisoners approach to solving this case." Ben's been doing his own research too, talking to senior cops for background briefings and interviewing members of Lynne's family. But sadly the director of public prosecutions has been of the view that there's not enough evidence to proceed with a case against Chris Dawson. There's a lot of history here, including accusations that back in the 1980s, local police were too close to Chris Dawson and too quick to believe he's story. The past can't be changed. We need to focus on the here and now. Everyone who has the power to bring justice to the family of Lynne needs to get off their arses and start delivering. That means a high energy approach from New South Wales police and police should consider digging for Lynne's body at the old family home in Bayview. It also means the director of public prosecutions Lloyd Babb giving his personal attention to this matter and considering whether there's enough new evidence and having a charge of murder against Chris Dawson. There's only ever been one suspect and right now he's a free man. In the days before this eighth episode, expressions of public support as well as anger came out during events hosted by the Australian in Sydney and in Brisbane and they pledged to help achieve justice. He's calling on people in the criminal justice system to act. Lynne's sister Pat and one of her brothers Greg were there with cousins, children, nieces and nephews, mingling with listeners and readers and former students of Chroma High. One of those former students, Michelle Walsh, was recently contacted by an officer in the New South Wales police. He has been tasked with the Dawson case. What Michelle disclosed to the public meeting was troubling. There were groans from the audience and audible exasperation from Greg. I was quite concerned after my conversations with the detective in charge of this. I actually asked Detective Pooley a few weeks ago if he was going to dig up the soft soil after listening to your podcast and he looked at me like I had three heads. I don't think he'd even thought about it. I asked him directly if Chris wasn't in jail because there wasn't a body. I got an answer that yes, that was the case. The same thing that came up. He said you can prosecute without a body. I said, well, why not Chris? And he said because someone that knew her very well had cited her. That was said to me three weeks ago. That's why they're not pursuing it. I'm actually really concerned that they are not in any way and did it appear in any way that they had any interest in listening to this digging up anything. He still believed and he looked at me and said she's been cited by somebody that knew her well, which I told you, headly. Any suggestion of a confirmed citing of Lynn Dawson after January 8, 1982 is a cruel hoax. And yet over the years, it's been put to Lynn's family by lawyers representing the office of the DPP that they had in fact been such a citing, possibly by Lynn's own mother. And that this was one of the reasons there had not been a prosecution. It's absolutely wrong. But if it's true that the DPP has balked at prosecuting because of this completely misguided belief about a so-called citing of Lynn, heads in there should roll. After Michelle told the audience that the lead detective in the current murder probe had made the same claim, Lynn's brother Greg looked flawed. The next day, that detective, seeing a constable Daniel Poole, assured Greg it was a misunderstanding. He assured Greg and Marilyn that if he had said that to Michelle Walsh, he really meant something very different. But Michelle insisted that she had misunderstood nothing when she spoke to him. He made it really clear. There's nothing you can misunderstand or misconstruer about, one sentence. And it was a really clear sentence. Michelle said he was as clear as a bill. And she left the interview deflated, believing the Dawson case must be a lost cause. Do you reckon that he set it to you to throw you off? What do you reckon he set it to you because he genuinely believed it? He looked like he genuinely believed it. And he said, you know, this stuff that heavily doesn't know. There is a person, there is a starting. I think it's appropriate to put something else on the record now too. I have never been assisted by New South Wales police in this podcast investigation. When I wrote to Commissioner Mick Fuller's office seeking interviews with key officers and cooperation months ago, I was refused. None of the detectives involved in investigating this case contacted me at any stage during these episodes to ask about any of the leads pouring into the teacher's pit. Some of these leads are really promising and they haven't been aired. Bev Staniforth, who has described seeing Chris lash out violently at Lynn in the family home. And Michelle Walsh told me that based on their own direct experiences, there just doesn't appear to be a lot of police energy or optimism. He told me not to talk to you. What did you just say? He basically told me not to talk to anyone about it, especially you. He was cranky that you guys had actually put it in print and in the podcast that they were even coming to see me. But we found you. You know, he goes, I'd rather you not speak to anyone anymore. He gave me the impression that he was only there because he had to look like he was doing something. It wasn't influenced about the case at all. And he said, well, you know, without a boy with basically got nothing. Bev's describing a recent talk to the detective on this case. The same one he left Michelle believing it was all the waste of time. To be completely clear, need to stress, we're not talking about the detective Damien Loon, who got the ball rolling in 1998. The case was transferred away from him years ago. Five weeks ago, Bev came forward for the first time in an episode of the teacher's pit. She's the only known witness who describes seeing Chris being violent to Lynn. But Bev's statement about it hasn't been finalised by police. They told us she's a key witness, yet they're moving at a snail's pace to get it into evidence. I said something to him about, you know, why are we doing that? You know, have we got a chance? And he went, no, we're basically just going through the motion and that they were bowing to public pressure. But he didn't think it was going to get us anywhere. Well, how did you feel about that? I'm angry. I'm angry now. You know, I was frustrated I was scared it before. But I'm angry now. And to look at those people's faces and see the hope in their faces. And while looking at them, know that the police aren't really doing what the police are saying they're doing, it's disappointing. You're talking about Greg in the past. Yeah. All of them, I mean, they were such lovely people and they just had this hope in their faces. And that's what made me feel good after the night. But to know that inside, I knew the police weren't really enthusiastic about the whole case. Just disappoints me, but it makes me angry. You don't think you could have misread the signals? I've learned a lesson that I do read people quite well now and I don't think so. What he was giving me was negative. He said there was evidence to suggest that it wasn't going to go. forward. He just said, "Oh, you know, without a body, we don't have much of anything." Do you think the police need the kind of high energy boosts the benefitiveness, talking about a bit of a kick up the ass? Yeah. I think they're trying to save face. And if they find something out now, they'll find out that it was all a couple of before. All about saving face. That's what makes me angry. I'm going to test these concerns in coming episodes. Lens relatives are increasingly troubled by them. If the police once again fail in Dawson, commission a Mick Fuller can explain it. These concerns were raised with the police. Detective Superintendent Scott Cook sent a statement. This is what the top detective in charge of homicide wrote in his statement to us. It's not his voice. I reject any comment that infers any detective involved in the current reinvestigation into the murder of Lynette Dawson has expressed disinterest in the case or lacked professionalism at any time. In fact, this team has been working tirelessly since 2015 to bring the matter to a successful conclusion. Should criminal proceedings be commenced in relation to this matter, it is vital that any prosecution can proceed in a proper way. It's not in the interest of the victim, her family or justice for the NSW police force to make any further comment at this time. When Lynne's brother Greg and his wife, Marilyn, first spoke to a senior homicide detective months ago about my proposal for this podcast investigation. The police officer was opposed to it. But I've now become aware of an encouraging and different approach on the northern beaches. A police detective is going to investigate the serious disclosures in these podcasts about the teachers in the high schools on the northern beaches, men in their 20s and 30s, who were praying on schoolgirls aged 15 and 16 for 6. Many students and some teachers have told me that those girls were treated like classroom fringe benefits by the teachers, and there's a long trial of ongoing damage. One girl in particular, we've referred to her repeatedly as Alice, that's not her real name, has told her being subjected to shocking group exploitation by multiple teachers. The willful blindness of the education department allowed these things to happen in the 1980s. I've heard nothing to suggest that education officials are concerned even now about investigating what went on. But the northern beaches police detective has now begun contacting former students who want those offending teachers brought to justice. Some are still working as teachers. Aside from the police, the office of the director of public prosecutions is not accountable at all in its decision making. And when the DPP gets it hopelessly wrong, it has a level of protection. The DPP invokes secrecy and flatly refuses to disclose its reasoning. The DPP's written reasons for not prosecuting this case in the past have never been exposed to public scrutiny. Very few taxpayer-funded departments have permitted to hide behind this kind of immunity. And what would a jury in your view make of Christ Orson with his pattern of behaviour with schoolgirls? That's Peter Lavaq, a longtime criminal defense barrister and prosecutor in hundreds of trials in Australia and Hong Kong. Peter lives on the northern beaches of Sydney these days and he's following a Dawson case closely because he has staggered that the New South Wales Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions hasn't taken it to trial. All the pieces of circumstances to the inhabitants when you put them together, it's like a gig show when the police is all coming together, a clear picture of murders. It's almost overwhelming if you put all that together in a murder trial, a hub convinced that you would have no difficulty. The fact that they didn't find the body is neither here nor there. Many cases or not many, but cases have been successful and prosecuted in the absence of a body. One that comes to mind is what I did in Hong Kong where a body disappeared, probably eaten by sharks and then the waters off Hong Kong. After hundreds of trials he returned to Australia and continued to work at a high level in the criminal justice system. I asked Peter about Chris Dawson's lying statement to police. This is the statement that was among documents lost by the police years ago, only to recently be recovered. But a lying statement like that, like would you as a prosecutor see that as gold? Absolutely, that is gold. I mean number one, it shows that he's lying about something very important. He's lying about his relationship with the girl and his relationship with the girl is he's motive for murdering his wife. So if he's lying about past to the police, lies can always be used in evidence in a prosecution against an accused to go a guilty mind, to fensalize, of course, or say, well, he denied it and covered it up because he didn't want to come out that he's having a relationship with a student, you're old girl. That's bullshit because everyone knew about that. Everyone already knew about that. That was known or was common knowledge by everyone. He was seen by the students kissing and cuddling on the football level. So that lie, that lie is gold for any prosecutor. A lie can always be used to evidence in a trial as evidence of consciousness of guilt that he murdered him. So Peter, if you were prosecuting this case and you had that kind of statement up your sleeve, what would your confidence levels be like? Confidence would assume that sort of evidence is absolutely crucial to your prosecution because it's just another now in the coffin of his defense, namely that he's lying to the police about a very important material issue when he reports he's watching missing. I'm absolutely dumbfounded that any DPP would refuse to run with that. The other case that comes to mind is the recent trial of those two men who raped and killed that Aboriginal woman on a beach and split the death and she died in very tragic circumstances. Peter was talking there about the violent death after a sustained sexual assault of a Lynette Daley who was 33 when she bled to death in 2011. The New South Wales DPP, Lloyd Babcusi, would not prosecute two men despite a solid brief of evidence from police and strong recommendations to take the case to trial. Later, a coroner ran and enquiry into the case and he recommended a trial too but the DPP still refused. The Travesty of Justice was highlighted by journalists. There was a public outcry. Eventually, Mr. Bab commissioned a criminal lawyer to provide an external legal opinion and the opinion was that those two men should be on trial over Lynette Daley's excruciating death. In September 2017, after justice had been delayed for six years to Lynette's family, Mr. Bab issued a public apology. He resisted calls from Lynette's family for his resignation. Peter's view is that the Dawson case needs fresh eyes before it's too late. Peter is scornful of the counter-argument that Lynette had willingly left the house at bay view with little more than the clothes on her back and somehow began a new life without contacting anybody she knew. That proposition flies in the face of all commonsense and logic and mother does not just disappear overnight. The band and the kids never to be seen again. That's absolutely absurd. The fact that Chris Dawson was involved in this whole agency with this young girl who is their babysitter that provides a powerful motivation to get rid of his wife and get swathed out of the way. The fact that he wanted to cook the house at bay livky and provides powerful motivation for committing that murder. And that's what, in fact, happened after the war I've disappeared. He got to keep the house and he got to keep going with his relationship with his young girl. Powerful motives, evidence of powerful motives. And when you put it all together with the other circumstances, for evidence in this case, you've got a very powerful prosecution case which could matter trial, which I am pretty certain if it went to trial, will ultimately result in a conviction. I asked Peter to describe his qualifications to make these bold statements. Well, a medical lawyer for 42 years, a practistic, exclusively in criminal law, I've never done anything else, I've got prosecuted and defended in dozens of murder trials. So I know what happens in a murder trial. I know whatever the insistent involved, one of the insistent needed to get a conviction. So I am pretty qualified to comment on this particular case. And if you were Christosan's criminal defense lawyer in a case such as this, would you be concerned? I'd be very concerned. The evidence against him is extremely powerful. I'm just amazed and puzzled and dismayed as to why the authorities haven't taken up the case and prosecuted it on the advice and findings of two very experienced and capable colonists. Lessage received, lane 22nd, and 317, P.M. Herb Leads, turning from state records. No, that's item isn't back yet. I'll let you know when it does arrive. Thank you. Bye. I've been down many rabbit holes searching for new evidence. Little clues, forgotten witnesses, and old documents. Anything that could breathe life into a reinvestigation of the probable murder of Lindorce and 36 years ago. Most times I come up empty-handed. But on a few occasions it feels like unearthing hidden treasure. I staked out one promising rabbit hole after talking to Sue Strath in her home at Ocean Grove on the northern beaches. So, after probably a couple of years, I can't even remember how many years I wrote to the Ombudsman and complained that I didn't think the police did enough. And did he seem to be concerned as well that a possible homicide was involved here? No. Sorry. I don't think he lost. So because the case never went any further, I don't think he really was, I don't know why he thought. So I've never seen the report that you're talking about. Sue Strath is remembering a bold decision she made in early 1985 to write to the office of the Ombudsman in New South Wales about police in action. Sue did this out of grave concern for her friend, Lindorce from the Child Care Centre at Worrywood. In early 1985, Sue was heavily pregnant with her son. And at that time of her life, she was thinking more about Lynn. But Lynn's devotion to her own small children. Lynn had been missing without a trace for three years by then. Of all Lynn's friends who might have met and talked to over the past eight months, only Sue makes me feel slightly nervous at times. She doesn't pull punches. Sorry, I'm very blunt. I just tell it as it is. In early 1985, Sue suspected Chris and Paul Dawson's police mates were turning a blind eye to probable foul play and not looking at the blindingly obvious when Lynn vanished. But soon knew back then that she would be kicking a closed door by taking her concerns of foul play to the local cops, some of whom played football with the Dawson twins, or just wished that they had. Sue thought that the cops on the Northern beaches would dismiss her as a pregnant and possibly neurotic nagging woman who shouldn't worry her pretty head about policing. She could just imagine their refrain. So Sue did something I think most people would never contemplate. In February 1985, Sue filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman. A legion police had failed to investigate properly. And did you think that the Ombudsman would be able to say, "Guys, get moving. I need to resolve this." I just thought up until this stage, the police had done nothing. So maybe I need to go a step above them and get something done. The Office of the Ombudsman was then and is now an independent, well-funded and powerful part of the state government. The Office describes itself as an impartial public watchdog. The Office points out today that the Swedish word "Ombudsman" loosely translated means the "Citizens Defender." With its significant resources and legislative powers, the Ombudsman performs a vital function to investigate and severely castigate public servants and the government when citizens are let down by incompetence or worse. Now police are public servants who carry guns. Sue decided in 1985 that they were fair game. She sailed right over the heads of the smug northern beaches playing clothe detectives, the Constables doing patrols. And the senior cops running the stations. Sue simply bypassed all the boys in blue who wore the badge. By going directly to the Ombudsman, Sue went around those who might have been influenced by the Dawson brothers. The twins, Chris and Paul were captain coaches of the local Belrose Club. Right at the time one of the club's strongest backers was a senior copper with manly detectives. That senior copper can't defend or answer for himself. He died three years ago. I haven't seen evidence that the former police officer, a rugby league fanatic, pulled strings for Chris after Lynn had vanished. But with those caveats, it's time to disclose his name. When Chris Dawson gave his lying handwritten statement to police in August 1982, Chris wrote this on the second page. Sergeant Brian Gardner, manly detectives, is advising me on procedure. And it was like, oh, pat on the head, Paul, man's, his wife's walked out on him. Why do you think it was true like that? I think because he was a high profile sports person. I would hate to think I went missing and no one ever, ever complained or came looking for me. So that's why I wrote. And complained about that no one followed out that when she went missing. You recall whether you debated it with your colleagues at work to work out how you should manage it? No, they just said stop complaining and do something about it. So I did. But it did take me three years to do it. Sue has kept no documents from her former complaint and she couldn't remember what the ombudsman had found 33 years ago. So I used to always say, oh, she's under the pool and no one's caring about her. And, you know, that's just dreadful. No one needs to care for her or look out. You can't just have a person disappearing and no one goes looking for them. And then I expected something to happen, but nothing happened. You didn't talk to Lynn's family before you made you complain. No. And I wonder whether that was because you were a bit frustrated that they hadn't gone on the front foot. Yeah, I was. I wondered why aren't they following it up, but they could have been following it up and we weren't told. They were certainly really worried. Yeah. Lynn. But how many years later? Well, I think that they believed, they wanted to believe she was still alive. If they went to the police suspecting foul play, murder, they lost all hope. I just kept waiting. I even know I think I should have gone in earlier than three years, but I kept thinking, oh, no, someone else is doing something. Police knew by the late 1990s that most of the police files in Lynn Dawson's case from 1982 was somehow lost. Something which is very troubling in light of Chris's police contacts. Here's the criminal lawyer Peter Lavack again. The second thing I'm worried about is missing police files. Missing police files. I've seen a lot of police bungling in my time. The only time I've ever experienced missing police files was a trial I was prosecuting in Hong Kong. And those police files were missing because they were made to be missing. Which means in this case there is a crime or face in case of an attempt to pervert the course of justice by making those files disappear. You know what I'm saying? But while the police files certainly disappeared, surely the investigation files from the ombudsman wouldn't go missing too. I decided to find out by drafting a letter for Sue Strath to send under her name. I'm just interested in the ombudsman angle. I think it's really hard for us to see. And I've written something that I was hoping you would be happy to send to the ombudsman. Again? Well, just because I think it's really important to work out what the ombudsman found at the time. And you can plan for the ombudsman about the lack of police activity. But you don't recall ever seeing anything from the ombudsman. Not. No, the wonderful thing is, bureaucracy is a really good at preserving documents and keeping things. They archive everything. Sue Strath emailed her courteous request to a senior public servant in the office of the Ombudsman in December 2017. Sue's email explained that she had kept no records from her complaint in 1985. And as she remained interested in the case, she would appreciate the retrieval of a copy of the Ombudsman's investigation file for her 1985 complaint to the public watchdog. Sue's email set in part that as she was the original complainant, she hoped that there would be no privacy issues over documentary material that would have or should have been sent to her at the time. A public servant from the office of the Ombudsman promptly replied to Sue in writing. I have searched our complaint management system and our document management system and could not locate any documents relating to your complaint. I have also spoken to our records officer who confirmed that records that old would not have been migrated onto our current system and would have been disposed of after a certain number of years of storage at the government records repository. This was a major disappointment, but a few months later, while looking at the website for the government records repository, I saw some encouraging headings for documents held there. Its official title is New South Wales State Archives and Records. It appeared from the website that many historic Ombudsman documents including investigation files from the 1980s involving complaints against police were in fact kept. A really helpful staff member from State Archives and Records, Jenny went looking for me. On a day in April, Jenny found Sue's complaint file, the file that we were told had been disposed of. The file is identified as number 54534 in container number 14 of 697 dated 1985. It was a eureka moment, but Jenny then told me that these files were sealed, closed to general public access for 90 years to protect sensitive personal information. Top secret files held by spy agencies such as the CIA in the United States and MI5 in Britain aren't concealed that long. It had been 33 years since Sue complained to the Ombudsman and under the law it would be another 57 years before we could look at her own complaint file. I wrote to the Ombudsman on behalf of Sue, seeking an exemption, a release of the file now. The highly professional Jenny from State Archives gave me the news. So we heard back from the Ombudsman he's allowing access to that file. What we're waiting on is for the file to come back from his office. Because it's kind of an unusual thing because he's opened that one file, but none of these other files. So the Ombudsman's investigation file. Oh, I see. So he said that that one is open to the public? Yeah. That's just a completely missing file on this case, isn't it? Yeah. In anticipation about what might be in the long forgotten pages of the file, it felt like ages waiting for these documents to wind their way back through the system. Finally, there was word. Received today at 5.56pm. Sadly, it's Jenny from State Records. The file has come back to us. I will get it called up tomorrow and count the pages so that I can send you off the course. Thank you. Bye. When the documents from the file were emailed to me, I was shocked, relieved, and exasperated, but even more suspicious of the conduct of police. Su's eyes fell on the 33-year-old copy of her three-page handwritten letter of complaint. She became upset, she choked up, and her husband had to finish reading it aloud. I wrote it for my heart, actually. It was, and I was actually a little bit curious when I read it again. I felt like it just felt like yesterday. In her 1985 complaint, Su set out fundamental facts. Su noted in her complaint that shortly before Lendorson suspiciously disappeared. Her husband, Chris, was in a sexual relationship with a schoolgirl student who was 16 when Chris first started sleeping with her. And Su wrote that this girl, Joanne Curtis, had been staying at the family's house prior to the wife's disappearance. Su's complaint also noted that Su spoke to Linn on the Friday when she was last seen, when Linn and her husband, Chris, returned from marriage counseling that day, with Linn excited that their marital difficulties would be resolved. Su described Linn's sudden disappearance the next day without another word from Linn. And Su set out Linn's inability to drive. Her extraordinary devotion to her two young daughters, and her love of her Bayview home, which Su estimated was worth more than a quarter of a million dollars in January 1982. Su also wrote in her complaint that Linn had no apparent interest in religion. She didn't even attend church. This was a response to Linn's husband, Chris's claims that she had apparently gone off with a religious group. I've asked Su to read a couple of paragraphs from her newly recovered complaint letter, pulled from a government storage container in a place called Kingswood about 50 kilometres west of the heart of Sydney. A person cannot become religious overnight and most religious groups are very family-oriented, so a woman with children would be acceptable rather than a woman without. Her husband was so sure she would not return, his girlfriend was moved in the following week. He has now married his schoolgirl lover, has a beautiful home and established family. Everything seems too easy. He got exactly what he wanted and his wife, who wasn't up to his family, has vanished from the face of the earth, having no further contact with any family or friends. Chris has said he received a phone call, but I put that down to the extended story. It doesn't seem possible that a person can be stripped under the rug and forgotten. I would like to know what the police have done in this matter. Why won't her workmates interviewed as to her last 24 hours? Why were her husband's words used as sole evidence as to her wereabouts? It appears to me the police have taken the view that Lin left her husband, family and work friends or her own free will. I wonder if this is true. Can a person just disappear? And be accepted because she was over 6-10 when we only have her husband's words that this is what happened? Could you please throw a little bit of a light on this mystery? I've seen her in the missing person poster and just cannot accept the explanation or reason I'll wear about. Your faithfully says in bright. I think the investigation by the enforcement and the police has been incompetent. I do too. I'm feeling a little bit sad that I didn't push it a bit more, but I didn't have any more evidence. But you gave them the evidence? I did give them the evidence. They said they couldn't go any further with what I gave them. You told them about Joanne and they never even bothered to investigate that. They can tell me that. I mean it's just stunning. You think of all the things that have let Lin down and now you add to that list, this investigation. See I write that letter when I was really heavily pregnant and I think I think this daughter's I know how much she loves those girls and you think, wow, we don't ever walk out on your children. A mother would never do that. Oh my kids, all their lives have listened to me talk about this case. Now I'm going to spend some time stepping through the documents in the Ombudsman's investigation file. It's important to get this right. The file includes documents generated by very senior police because the Ombudsman's investigator asked the police to provide explanations. Fortunatously, one of the documents that the police copied and gave to the Ombudsman during its investigation was Chris Dawson's handwritten statement to police from August 1982. It's the statement which we've already covered, the one that includes Chris's lies and deceptions by our mission. It's the statement the police subsequently lost. Meaning it was not available to the DPP. When he rejected the recommendations of two coroners in 2001 and then in 2003, that Chris Dawson should be prosecuted for murder. Thanks to Sue's 1985 complaint, a copy of Chris's handwritten statement was provided to the Ombudsman back then, but forgotten. It is clear from the documents in the Ombudsman's investigation file that in the three years from Lynn's disappearance to the date of Sue's complaint in February 1985, police had never interviewed Sue or any of Lynn Dawson's colleagues or friends or neighbors. In those three crucial years, police merely asked Lynn's alleged killer Chris as well as Lynn's mother Helena and father Lynn, whether they had heard from Lynn, so the police didn't do any actual investigating. Now you might think that would all change in 1985. You might have thought that Sue's [BLANK_AUDIO] complaint in which she set out so many suspicious facts about Chris and Joanne, as well as the inherent unlikely hood of Lynn leaving with nothing and contacting nobody, would have jolted the Ombudsman and police into starting a significant investigation. Because alongside Sue's letter of complaint, the Ombudsman's office and the police held the August 1982 handwritten statement from Chris to police, in which there was not a single word about the existence of the girlfriend, Joanne. The two documents, Sue's letter of complaint and Chris's handwritten statement are like chalk and cheese. They scream out for investigation. It's hard to believe that any sensible officer reading those documents side by side would not be suspicious over the stunning contradictions. And you might think that the Ombudsman's office would have done its job and would have checked that the police had thoroughly and independently investigated at the very least the assertions of Sue and the crucial schoolgirl sexual relationship. After all, Christos and Waza public servant himself at the relevant times. He was a schoolteacher who had been employed by the New Southwiles Department of Education. But despite the complaint from Sue, there is no record of any attempt whatsoever to interview Joanne Curtis or her parents and friends. It was not even flagged by the Ombudsman as a possible line of inquiry. And bizarrely, it didn't seem to occur to the police. Putting aside the flapping red flags around foul play raised by Sue, why did none of the investigators concern themselves with a possibly unlawful sexual relationship between a schoolteacher and his female teenager student, with evidence that this occurred under the noses of the education department. If the Ombudsman's office would have received a similar letter of complaint today, alleging that a teacher and his 16 year old student had been in a sexual relationship, would it be similarly glossed over? Staring them in the face were powerful leads pointing to at least the real prospect of foul play over Lynn Dawson. This is how those investigators responded. It all comes from the investigation file, which has been posted in full on our website that teaches pet.com.au. About a month and a half after her complaint was lodged with the Ombudsman's office, one of the staff there, investigation officer Sue Thompson, made an internal file note. Mrs Thompson wrote, "This is a bit of a sensitive complaint. It's about the alleged disappearance of a woman some three years ago and an allegation that the police may have failed to properly investigate this matter should be allocated carefully." At the start of the process, there were no misunderstandings about the potential seriousness of the matters being raised in Sue's complaint. The paper trails show that Mrs Thompson wrote directly to the Commissioner of Police at the time. A copy of Sue's written complaint was sent to Mr Avery to comment on. And Mrs Thompson raised the prospect of a piece of legislation, the Police Regulation Alligations of Misconduct Act, which could be used to investigate Sue's allegations of police in action. Police Commissioner Avery asked very senior officers to reply in writing, "And this triggered action down the line for an assistant commissioner, a chief superintendent, a superintendent, and then an inspector, Jeff Shattles." So at the first hint of possible police reputation damage, top cops from the police chief down are all on notice and working hard to deflect potential criticism over the hopeless response to Lin's disappearance. If they had put this sort of energy into investigating a probable murder, things could have been very different, but none of these top cops ordered questioning of key people. The result was a two-page report by Inspector Jeff Shattles. This internal report is lamentable in my view. Even after Sue's complaint highlighting the glaring contradictions between the statement of Chris Dawson, Inspector Shattles faithfully quoted what Chris Dawson had already told police. It was as if Chris was some unimpeachable oracle of the truth. You might have thought that senior police doing their jobs professionally would have properly read Sue's complaint, identified the contradictions, and decided to question Joanne as well as friends and neighbours. They had information of alleged domestic violence, but the Shattles report put the owners back on Lin's mother, a trusting and hopeful woman aged 69, who had not accused her former son-in-law of foul play. Police had last talked to Chris in November 1984, shortly before he moved to Queensland. Here's a part of the Shattles report. They're his words, but it's not Jeff Shattles' voice. She thanked police for all the inquiries that had been carried out and stated she would like inquiries to continue until early in the new year when it would be three years since her daughter disappeared. It might be noted that at no time has Mr or Mrs Sims ever hinted that there were any suspicious circumstances regarding the disappearance of their daughter or any foul play on behalf of Mr Dawson. A few days after the two-page report was sent up the line by Inspector Shattles to his bosses for approval, before being sent on to the ombudsman, a detective sergeant Richardson dropped by Sue's home and talked to her. And afterwards, Inspector Shattles noted in a further internal memo that Sue was "Unable to assist with any information in regard to the disappearance or present whereabouts of Mrs Lynette Joy Dawson, and stated that her reason for writing the letter was to regenerate interest in the matter. But it was not surprising that Sue didn't have more information. She'd already laid it all out in her complaint. The police were knocking on the wrong doors. Logic dictates that the detective should have been making a beeline for the high school, talking to the teachers like Beverly Balkind and the deputy principal Hilton Mace. They should have been questioning Joanne Curtis, and the police should have been up and down Gilwinger Drive at Bayview, talking to the neighbours. Julia Andrew would have told them about Joanne's installation in the house within 48 hours, and the bullying of Lynne and her bruises. These were things that Lynne's parents, her two brothers and her sister didn't know about for years. I found Ritide and Inspector Jeff Shattles living on the northern beaches. Oh, she was missing? Yes, and there was a complaint to the Orbsman. Yeah, and I was wondering whether you remember whether there were any certain chances that the courts should have been considered it was foul play. It's so far back now, I just forget the hell. I just remember that she was missing in the and Shae for a while. There was a bit of suspicion that he was driving the husband in some school, or something. I think it was. I put everything in there at the time, and I think I added the detective side and look into it. Shae for a while. I can't help you anymore, thanks. Okay, what about if I was out of the camera and show it to you? Would that help you at all? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not interested anymore. Thanks very much. Experienced detectives like to say that every touch leaves its trace. Christorston's traces were so blatantly obvious, like a bleeding elephant trudging across snow. But the hopeless responses by police and the weak follow-through by the Orbsman's office ensured that a probable murder was concealed. The importance of Joanne Curtis as a person of interest for questioning is writ so large it's inescapable, and yet Joanne does not figure it all when police got sus complaint via the Orbsman. The discovery of the Orbsman's investigation file in state archives has highlighted one of the most disgraceful chapters in this 36 year old Travesty of Justice. It was yet another failure, another letdown of Lynn Dawson, but this one was much bigger and more stunning than most of the others, and by senior police who should have known much better. The two page report from Inspector Shaddles in early 1985 was sent to his boss, Achieve Superintendent at DeY station on the Northern beaches, and he wrote to the police department's assistant commissioner in charge of the internal affairs branch, Robert Shepard. This is what the chief superintendent wrote, it's not his voice. The police investigation, while not being successful so far as locating Mrs Dawson, has not at any time indicated that there has been either foul play or suspicious circumstances involved. Under the circumstances outlined, I'm satisfied all avenues of investigation were covered at the time. Assistant commissioner Shepard then wrote to the Orbsman, George Masterman QC, who had been a well-regarded barrister, and Mr. Masterman asked his senior investigator, Chris Wheeler, to reply to Lynn's friend, Sue Strath. With Sue's complaint having been in the system almost eight months, Mr. Wheeler was ready to close the matter out. He'd actually written to Sue a busy young mum a couple of times to keep her updated on the letter writing and to ask her for any further input. The files give the appearance of bureaucratic concern for ticking boxes, for letters going out on time rather than hard-nosed investigating. In my opinion, the Orbsman's office operated like a mailbox in this man's house. It filed its duty to be a public watchdog to be the citizens defender. Chris Wheeler is now the deputy ombudsman, and it was his decision to release this 33-year-old file to me. I'm grateful for his decision. It was transparent and brave. It exposed Mr Wheeler to public criticism in this podcast. In concluding his work on the matter back then, Mr Wheeler wrote to Sue at her home in Ocean Grove in September 1985. "This is what he wrote. It's not his voice." As I have not received a reply from you, it is assumed that the matters you've raised have been satisfactorily resolved. After reviewing the situation and in view of the fact that you have not expressed any comment concerning the letter from the police department, it has been decided that no further action will be taken in this matter. And at that time in my life, my father had died at the beginning of May. I had a brand new baby and life was chaos. And I didn't have any more information to give them. I had fed it all out what I wanted to say. And there was nothing new. I just knew they would do what I asked them to do. The main thing they needed to do was go and talk to Joanne. And they did? No. She wasn't at the part of what I looked at. What's she? But do you find that strange? Yes. Yes, definitely strange. Or would have expected them to interview her. I asked Sue about a curious file note. It states that Sue had told one of the ombudsman staff when her complaint was being wrapped up that police had told her Christosan was still the number one suspect. It's a very odd line that appears in the file because if Chris was a murder suspect in 1985, why was there no investigation of murder in 1985? I can't remember speaking to them about that. The new ombudsman, Michael Barnes, defended the handling of the complaint in 1985. He said it was satisfactory. Here are some key points from the ombudsman's written response over four pages. It's not his voice. Based on a review of the file and given the limited jurisdiction and resources of the ombudsman in 1985 and the apparent acceptance of the outcome by the complainant, the response was satisfactory. The office at that time was struggling under the burden of a large number of complaints with limited resources. This meant its primary focus was on resolving complaints to the satisfaction of the complainants. However, with the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to see that a more proactive investigation by police of the missing person report was warranted. It is also fair to say that there was at the time a degree of hostility within the New South Wales Police Force to the ombudsman's police jurisdiction. He gave me a lengthy statement and you can read it on theteacherspet.com.au website. There was one final flourish near the end of the two page internal report of Inspector Jeff Shattles in 1985. At the time police were responding to the formal complaint to the ombudsman of police in activity. Further to this, the brother of the missing person is a senior constable in the New South Wales Police Force and he at no time contacted police at this station in regard to any suspicions he has had regarding the disappearance of his sister. In all of my conversations with Greg Simms about his sister, I have a sense that he bears a much heavier burden than his brother Phil and his sister Pat. Because people cannot help but wonder why Greg, who was a copper in a rural station when Lynn vanished, was not more suspicious early in the peace. Greg adored his sister Lynn, yet he didn't raise a human cry. He didn't scream blue murder to his bosses as the months became years and nobody heard from Lynn. I think one of the reasons Greg didn't raise the alarm is because he didn't know what Lynn's friends on the northern beaches knew. Those friends didn't tell Greg or anyone in the Simms family about the bruising or about Lynn's descriptions of how she got bruised. Greg didn't know until many years later that on their way to marriage counselling, according to Lynn, Chris had said I'm only doing this once and if it doesn't work I'm getting rid of you. But Greg does look back on other clues and wishes that he had been more skeptical. Some of Lynn's friends who waited for action from police but saw virtually none in those early years took it as a sign that perhaps their own suspicions were misguided. His soostrath Lynn's friend from the childcare centre. Yeah, I was. I wondered, surely, you know, and I knew her brother was in the police force thinking surely they're looking for her. Surely something is happening. Lynn's neighbour, Julie Andrew and Lynn's friends on the northern beaches knew that her brother Greg was a copper. So if the police weren't treating the case as foul play, then maybe they knew that there was nothing untoward. Greg remorse is compounded by the fact that even though he was angry with Chris for having misbehaved so badly in the marriage that Lynn had apparently cracked and just taken off, according to Chris, Greg tried to quell his father Lynn's suspicions of foul play. And then he just actually said to him, you know, you can't talk like that. You've got no evidence in relation to it and we didn't have any evidence at the time. That's only once all the bits and pieces of the puzzle started to come together that we actually thought, bloody hell, what's going on here? Here's Linda Sims, who is married to Greg's older brother Phil. I think because Greg was in the police force, I think it's made it worse for him. I do. I really do. I think it's made it harder on him than probably anyone else because he was in the force. And he probably feels he failed him to a degree, I would think. I was sort of in a catch 22 situation, I wasn't happy with him, but there's nothing I could really do. Your sister goes missing. In those days, the police used to with the missing person till the person to wait a few days if they haven't turned up, come and report the missing. You'd fill out a report and then that'd be it and it'd go to missing person to make a few enquiries. It's not like today, as soon as someone goes missing, the police are on it like a missile. They do all the searches and everything to try and find out what's happened. In those days, it was very laks. Greg left the New South Wales Police in 2001, the year of the first inquest which found that Chris had killed Lynn. Greg had anxiety and depression. Greg drove me over the Sydney Harbour Bridge one rainy day after a long interview at his daughter Renée's apartment. How important is it to catch a killer? A killer of your sister. It's extremely important. We get a result for not only Lynn's family and friends, we get a result that puts someone away who's been hiding it for so long. And hopefully we can put it to rest. That's the main thing. If we find her, what's more important to you to find her remains or to catch a killer? Can I be greedy and have both? I'll have both because I think he said enough freedom and he needs to actually be punished for what he's done. And if we can find Lynn in the process, I'll just keep thinking about the backyard, the bare backyard at Bayview. I think if Paul Dawson wasn't there, would he be cunning enough or smart enough to get on Bay Area in these brothers' backyard? August 20, 1984. Dear Chris, it grieves and saddens me that you would issue an edict that should I come to the school I was not to see my grandchildren. Caring for their happiness, as you say you do, I don't know how you could expose them to my public humiliation and the bystanders' entertainment. Joanne had been married to Chris for seven months when Lynn's mother wrote this letter. The property settlement was just days from being finalised fully in Chris's favour, leaving Lynn with nothing. Helena clung to hope that her daughter was alive. There is no doubt that you can be proud of your young, present wife. She carried out your orders to the letter, adding a few of her own on the side. I will never forget those big brown eyes of Sharon's looking at me in bewilderment. On the day in question, Helena had gone to the school to give her granddaughter some gifts. But Chris was furious because Lynn's father, Lynn, had told Chris he needed to repay $8,000. This was money lent to Chris and Lynn to buy the property at Bayview. Here's Lynn's sister, Pat Jenkins. And Joanne had treated Mum very cruelly. I'm sure at Chris's instigation, she paid everything he said, Mum had given Chanel her gift. Sharon's birthday was today's latest and Mum went all the way from Calvelli across to Bayview, which take hours to do. And Joanne was there to pick up Chanel. And Mum was calling out to Sharon. Sharon, Sharon, now there's got a little gift for you. Sharon and Sharon's looking back like this very bewildered because she's been dragged along. And Joanne just turned around and said, "We don't want anything from you." You know, this is the children's grandmother who'd lost the daughter. So that was to do with that later, Dad had written a business letter and Chris had got very angry about that. Chris owed Mum and Dad money. So Dad asked to have it returned. Because this is when Chris was divorcing Lynn. And I mean, then Chris got everything. He got the house, he got the girls, he got the whole house which half was Lynn's. And Dad felt that the money he had lent, he had lent Lynn, his daughter. He was no longer there and wasn't being considered in the divorce at all. Dad wanted his mother back. Those children wouldn't have known what was happening and it could create a scene outside the school. Because all the parents were picking up their children. And this is terrible sort of backwards and forwards of words going on and the children being dragged along. Here's the last part of Helena's letter to Chris. It would seem you have achieved what you said out to do. "Rid yourself a Flynn to whom you said, 'I don't love you anymore, I hate you' and I have no feeling for you, I don't want to be married to Lynn anymore' and that's enough to break anyone's spirit. I've never condoned mothers leaving their children. I don't know how they could, but by the same token, I do not condone a father either who takes off instead of facing up to the problem. You've wielded the big stick and cut me out of yours and Lynn's children's lives. I love my granddaughters and don't you ever tell them differently, Chris. Now they are lost to me as well as their pretend mother. The burden is great. Induspear, Helena Sims. I'm not going to just tell you what the other thinks. I'm going to tell you what I know. And that's the difference in a political vessel like me who will bring to your nightmare news. What happens to my head? Peter Kredlin, the former Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, is now a leading commentator on Sky News. And Peter's calling for action on her nightly TV program, Kredlin. As with all these organisations, they don't want to admit they've got it wrong, but eventually they get mugged by reality. You're not going to go away, headlet Thomas. I am not going to go away. Viewers, the more that they can write and get engaged on this issue, and listen to the podcast and talk to other people and agitate for change here. I'm not going to go away. Here's retired Judge Brian Jordan, who practiced criminal law before his appointment to the bench. DPPs aren't infallible, are they? No, there's some history in the law of decisions that turned out to be very poor decisions by DPP officers. Is there anything stopping a DPP whose office has previously declined a prosecute from reviewing the evidence again and saying, "Okay, we think we may as should prosecute." Absolutely not. In the next episode of The Teacher's Pet, Chris and Paul Dawson are settled with their families on the Gold Coast where they are game-build homes close together on acreage. The twins go back to teaching in high schools, and Lynn's daughter, Chanel, speaks publicly for the first time about her own quest for answers. The Teacher's Pet is a podcast series investigated and written by me, "Headly Thomas." The series is produced by Slade Gibson and me, with original music and audio production by Slade Gibson Audio, and additional audio editing by Zachary Wommel. Anyone with information about Lynn Dawson's disappearance can send it 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. [Music] 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 traveling around Australia and making new friends at places like Ula Ru in this vast countries 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 Theos in the 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 Hensworth. 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.