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At a Surry Hills restaurant on a cold mid-Friday 2018, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller and four of his top men had lunch with investigative journalist Hedley Thomas.
Lunch was a breakthrough for Thomas. He had been trying to implicate NSW police in his popular criminal podcast The Teacher’s Pet, which he told his audience had uncovered new evidence suggesting that Sydney’s mother, Lynette Dawson, who disappeared in 1982, had been murdered. by her husband, Chris. He wanted to help the police, and the police would help him, the NSW Supreme Court heard. But they had “tied” him.
Just 10 days before lunch, according to a recent ruling by Judge Elizabeth Fullerton, police had issued a statement about her refusal to participate in which the head of homicide, Scott Cook, cited the importance of protecting the integrity of the investigation, so he did. not endanger any future processing.
Chris Dawson, left, and his brother Peter leave the Supreme Court, where Chris is on trial for the murder of his first wife. Credit: Dean Sewell
A key concern was that in the midst of so much public speculation, Dawson’s lawyers could argue that no trial could be fair. In the worst case, he could be granted a permanent stay, which would mean he would never be prosecuted. Cook’s statement said he was not interested in “the victim, his family or the judiciary that NSW Police make further comments at this time.”
Thomas, who has won several Walkley Awards for his research, persisted. He asked the editor of the Australian newspaper at the time, Paul Whittaker, to email Fuller on his behalf. Little came out. Then radio presenter Ben Fordham spoke.
“He thought the police strategy was stupid and they should talk to me, or at least have an open channel,” Thomas told Lynette Dawson’s sister in a recorded conversation in court.
Thanks to Fordham’s intervention, Thomas now had lunch not only with Fuller, but also with three other agents who were key to the investigation. There was the head of all the serious crime squads, state crime commander Mal Lanyon, Cook, and Dawson’s homicide detective Daniel Poole. There was also Grant Williams, Fuller’s media consultant who had worked with Fordham in A topical issue.
Dawson is now on trial for the murder of Lynette, before a lone judge. However, in 2020, Dawson’s lawyers requested a permanent stay. During the NSW Supreme Court hearing on the matter, Poole said Fuller had ordered officers to attend the luncheon. “I deduce from that,” Judge Fullerton wrote in his July 2020 ruling, which can be reported after a non-publication order was lifted last month, “Detective Superintendent Cook is also gone.” indicate “to reverse its position”.
In court hearings, Thomas and Fuller discussed whether Fuller should rely on the director of prosecution, Lloyd Babb, for information on the terms of the investigation. Thomas suggested that Fuller should rely on Babb’s assistant, since Babb attended a school where Dawson was the sports teacher in 1984 (Fullerton said Babb had acted correctly).
“I suppose [an arrest] “Come on, mate,” Fuller told Thomas. “I’ll be confident to let you know so you can put yourself in a position. Where are we going from here?
The men also talked about digging the garden of the former Dawson home in Bayview on the northern beaches. According to Fullerton, the podcast made “anecdotal, highly impressionistic, and sometimes purely speculative suggestions” that a later excavation would reveal the remains of Lynette Dawson.
Thomas asked Fuller, in one of his court conversations, “Imagine if Bobby Gibbs [a former crime scene investigator] Are you right and still there? “Fuller replied that he had” spoken to [Fordham] You already know that, from a public perspective, and from a credible perspective, we need to do more. ” Thomas agreed. “Well, Mick, I’m so glad I got back on track and, you know, thank you and Ben [Fordham]. ”
Lynette, who disappeared in 1982, and Chris Dawson.
In mid-September 2018, there was a forensic excavation in the garden. Fullerton said it was unclear whether this was on the recommendation of specialist police or “only at the suggestion of Mr Thomas as part of his obsession with Lynette Dawson’s body being buried on the Bayview property, or both.” . No evidence was found that she had been buried on the property.
When Dawson was arrested in December 2018, Fuller asked Thomas, “Do you have to be a very happy partner?”
At one point, Fuller was interviewed on the podcast. “The commissioner’s public opinions were measured,” Fullerton said at his trial. “His engagement with Mr. Thomas over the phone was much less.”
Dawson’s attorneys argued that the murder trial should be permanently suspended, citing, among other things, the impact of pre-trial publicity on the fairness of any trial and saying that Fuller’s involvement was suppose process abuse. Fullerton did not grant a permanent stay.
He said that if the evidence had shown that the police commissioner deliberately set out to influence the DPP’s decision by interacting publicly with the media and, in particular, with the podcast, “he would not hesitate to find this conduct totally inappropriate.”
However, Fuller was not called in to explain whether he considered his public endorsement of the podcast could be construed as an attempt to influence the legal advice sought from the DPP office, so Fullerton was unwilling. to make a finding of irregularity.
Not having heard from him, he was also unable to find Fuller “deliberately, or even recklessly, joining forces with Mr. Thomas to ensure that the applicant was tried for murder, without regard to fundamental rights. of the applicant to the presumption of innocence and his right to be silenced. ”If such a finding were made, he said,“ it would offer the integrity and functions of the court ”.
However, he opined that the commissioner’s conduct in participating in the podcast was discouraged, “if only for another reason it gives rise to the specter of an attempt by him to pressure the public on those who take the decisions. within [Office of the DPP] when the independence of this position is paramount for the administration of criminal justice in this state ”.
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Fuller left the post of commissioner last January and is now a PwC consultant. His decision to leave was unrelated to the Dawson case. In a statement to the Herald, he said: “I accept any criticism of the NSW courts. I would note, however, the protection of eight million people. [the NSW population] it turned out to be a bigger challenge than protecting one. However, I always acted with integrity and [in] in the best interest of the people of NSW “.
Fullerton also criticized Thomas and his editors. No one listening to the podcast, she said, would have any doubt about Thomas’ opinion that Dawson abused Lynette before he killed her. He also said the podcast contained little new information about the case that Poole did not yet know about.
Fullerton had no doubt that the “unrestricted and uncensored public comment on the applicant’s guilt is the most egregious example of media interference in a criminal case that this court has had to consider in deciding whether to the extraordinary step of definitively suspending criminal proceedings. ”
Thomas told the Herald that his podcast contributed to the police case. Records show that Crown witness Robert Silkman, who said Dawson asked in 1975 if he knew anyone who was getting rid of his wife, made his first statement to police in November 2018, a few months ago. after the podcast aired.
“Dawson was charged with Lyn’s murder a few weeks after that witness, Robert Silkman, made his allegations to police,” Thomas said.
If he had his time again, Thomas said he would do nothing different. In his view, the criminal justice system had failed a mother who had been missing for many years.
“It took a bold and thorough investigative podcast to highlight it, find new witnesses, and urge prosecutors to take action,” he said.
“As a direct result of our contact with Mick Fuller, the homicide detectives received a series of significant new information from me and others about key clues and crucial new testimonies.
“Many of the comments and criticisms of the sentence are, in my view, a powerful reminder to journalists why it is as important as never to receive editorial advice from judges.”
Thomas also questioned the suggestion that journalists should not investigate or report because a cold case was being reconsidered without charges being filed.
“If taken seriously, the [Fullerton] The trial would be a daunting restriction for journalists and an unacceptable restriction on our role in exposing injustices, crimes and errors in the criminal justice system, “he said.
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