The first police interview with Chris Dawson has been published as part of the trial of the murdered wife of the accused accused of violence and an assassin put him on the grill for an hour.
It was January 1991, nine years after Lynette Dawson’s disappearance, when Dawson was asked to attend the Beenleigh Police Station in Queensland.
In the images reproduced on the court, Dawson can be seen leaning back in his chair with his lawyer by his side, giving him information about his marital problems.
Chris Dawson’s first police interview nine years after his wife’s disappearance was played out in court. (Supplied)
“I came to Queensland with a girl I was having an affair with at the time,” can be heard saying on the recording.
But the former footballer told detectives that he returned home shortly after and went to marriage counseling.
“Remember when you and Lyn were in the elevator together, you grabbed her by the neck and said, ‘If that doesn’t work, will I get rid of it?’
“No, not at all,” Dawson replied.
Lynette disappeared the next day, which Dawson said happened while working at Northbridge Baths.
“She said she needed time off like I had before that day and would call me a few days after I had time to fix things,” Dawson said in a police interview.
There is another phone call of interest between the sports teacher and his teenage lover, which cannot be identified.
Chris Dawson arrives at Sydney Supreme Court for the first day of his murder trial. (Nick Moir)
Detectives ask Dawson if he had called his lover in South West Rocks to tell him that Lynette would not return, before asking the teenager to move with him to his Bayview home.
“I brought (JC) back because I thought I would go back to his house, not my house,” he said.
“She ended up coming to live with me because they didn’t want her anywhere else.”
Dawson and the younger woman married two years later, and the new bride’s rings were made of Lynette diamonds.
She and Dawson had a daughter before a bitter divorce in 1990.
Their explosive claims that Dawson drove them to a pub to get a hitman to kill his first wife prompted questioning by investigators.
Chris and Lyn Dawson on their wedding day (Twitter)
“That you went to a hotel and she stayed in the car while you got in and out a short time later and you went back to Bayview,” the police officer told Dawson.
“And that a few weeks later you said, ‘Remember when we went out to that pub? I went looking for a hitman to kill Lyn, but I decided I couldn’t do it because they’d kill innocent people.'”
“What do you have to say about this complaint?” Dawson is asked.
“A complete and absolute manufacture,” he replied.
Dawson had an answer to each of the 223 questions, but not once was he asked if he had killed Lynette.
He discussed telling his wife’s colleagues that he had sent a letter from Queensland telling him he was fine and not worrying.
Dawson agreed with officers that it was strange that anyone but him had heard of Lynette.