A witness has said at the Chris Dawson murder trial that he met the former professor’s wife in a hotel and she made a startling confession.
A witness from the bomb star defense has stated that he met Lynette Dawson in a NSW hotel shortly after her disappearance, during which she confided in her plan to flee abroad.
A born-again Christian and drug-addicted reformer told the court he was “200 percent” sure he had met Lynette Dawson in the summer of 1982 and was left with the impression she was “setting up her husband. “.
Chris Dawson’s murder trial has entered its final stages after his defense called only one witness, Gold Coast man Paul Cooper, who said he would “never forget” his encounter with the woman who went say he later identified as Mrs. Dawson.
Dawson has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Lynette, who disappeared from his Bayview home on the beaches of northern Sydney in January 1982.
Mr Dawson’s defense has argued that he fled his matrimonial home of his own volition and that he had been contacted by telephone several times after he left.
Dawson, a former teacher and professional rugby league player, declined to testify with Mr. Cooper, the only witnesses summoned by defense attorney Pauline David.
Mr. Cooper, 60, strongly defended the accuracy of his testimony, saying he witnessed his father murder his mother when he was a small child and that he would not have testified if he believed Dawson was a murderer.
He said he had a casual encounter with Mrs. Dawson in a pub in Warners Bay, in the Macquarie Lake region, in early 1982.
He said he looked at the woman as she entered the bar and noted that it looked out of place, given that the hotel was a “traditional bar”.
Cooper claimed the woman had told him she had run away from home because her husband had been unfaithful to her, that he was “controlling” and that she was leaving to start another life.
The court has heard that shortly after the disappearance of Mrs. Dawson, a nanny and former teenage student, who can only be known as JC, she moved in with Mr. Dawson before marrying.
JC told the court he had sex with Mr. Dawson while residing in the Dawson family home as a babysitter in 1981.
Although Mr. Cooper noted that he did not remember if he asked the woman’s name, said he talked to her for about an hour and that the meeting left a lasting impression.
“He had money because he sold something and he had been planning it for a couple of weeks,” Mr. Cooper in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.
“She didn’t have it all together. I was waiting to get a passport from someone who knew her in a couple of weeks, she had to wait two weeks to get one … I would go to Bali and then leave to another country abroad “.
He said he tried to convince her not to leave her young children, having grown up without her own parents.
She also told him that when she left people would presume that her husband had murdered her.
But Mr Cooper said he believed the woman “was putting on her husband”.
“I told him they’d think he hit you,” Mr. Cooper.
“And I had the impression that it was the whole process, leaving everything behind. It surprised me. “
He said he had never been in contact with Mr Dawson, but saw a picture of Mrs Dawson in A Current Affair in 2018.
He said he did not go to police because he doubted they believed him and instead contacted Mr Dawson’s lawyer, Greg Walsh.
“It was an unforgettable afternoon, I was surprised. I could never forget it, ”Mr Cooper said.
Under the interrogation of Crown Attorney Craig Everson, Mr. Cooper told the court he had been in jail for theft, drug offenses, entry and entry and armed robbery.
“What does Mr. Cooper say about this proposal: that the woman he spoke to at the Warners Bay pub was someone who looked like the woman he saw years later in 2018 on television,” the prosecutor asked. of the Crown, Craig Everson.
“Don’t forget something like that. No, it was her, 100 percent. I’ll give you 200 percent,” Mr. Cooper.
The court said he had been arrested for possession of marijuana and heroin in the 1980s and 1990s.
However, he denied that his use of these drugs had affected his memory.
He said he had reformed after resorting to Christianity, through drug rehabilitation and treatment programs, and that he had been complying with the law for 30 years.
“I’ve used a lot of drugs over the years,” Cooper said.
“I saw my dad murder my mom when I was little, which made me end up using drugs and crime and all.
“In the end I put my life together.
“There is no way in the world that I would be here today, after seeing my father kill my mother, if I believed that this man (Mr. Dawson) was guilty.
“If I thought this man was guilty, now I wouldn’t be sitting here defending him for the same kind of things, when I sat down when I was a nine year old boy, too scared to leave the living room because I thought I would be shot in the head.
“I’m not here to hurt you, I’m here because I believe what I say. What I’m saying is the truth. “
The trial has entered its closing stages, and the crown begins its closing presentations on Monday.
Everson told Judge Harrison that it was “inherently unlikely” that Mrs. Dawson had voluntarily abandoned her two daughters and family and never contacted them again.
He described the evidence of Mr. Cooper as unreliable.
He argued that Mr. Cooper could not recall significant personal details about the woman at the hotel, including her name, the names of her children, or anything about her husband.
“The fact that I had a seemingly insignificant drug problem during that period, and it happened so long ago, to be looking at a single photo in the witness box or the screen of a TV show, there’s a lack of important reliability “. said Mr. Everson.
The trial continues.