In August, Former Sydney schoolteacher and rugby league star Chris Dawson was found guilty of murdering his first wife Lynette Dawson following a long judge-only trial.
Chris Dawson was yesterday sentenced to 24 years in prison for this crime.
This sentence includes with a non-parole period of 18 years expiring on 29 August 2040.
Justice Harrison remarked in sentencing that:
“Mr Dawson planned to kill his wife. Whatever means Mr Dawson employed to kill her, he intended that result. He did so in a domestic context and in her own home. In that last respect, and bearing in mind that I have to be satisfied of factors adverse to Mr Dawson to the criminal standard, and in the absence of direct evidence, I nevertheless find that Lynette Dawson was killed at X Gilwinga Drive, Bayview. I am satisfied to that standard because I consider my conclusion to be the only rational inference that the facts permit me to draw.
Lynette Dawson’s murder was also committed for the selfish and cynical purpose of eliminating the inconvenient obstruction she presented to the creation of the new life with JC that Mr Dawson was unable to resist. Lynette Dawson was faultless and undeserving of her fate. Despite the deteriorating state of her marriage to Mr Dawson, she was undoubtedly also completely unsuspecting. Tragically her death deprived her young daughters of their mother so that a significant part of the harm caused to others, and by inference to the community, as a consequence of her death, is the sad fact that Lynette Dawson was treated by her husband, the father of the very same girls, as completely dispensable.
It is likely that Dawson will die in jail as a result of this sentence.
Author adminPosted on Categories Criminal law