Chris Dawson: Teacher's Pet podcast husband found guilty of murdering wife in Australia 40 years ago

A man in Australia has been convicted of murdering his wife more than 40 years ago - after a podcast about the case that was listened to by millions of people across the world, triggered a new police investigation. Callum Watkinson has the story.

An Australian man has been convicted of murdering his wife 40 years ago, after a renewed police investigation was triggered by a popular podcast.

Christopher Dawson, 74, faces a possible life sentence, following his conviction.

He opted for a trial by judge instead of a jury, in the New South Wales state Supreme Court, due to his notoriety from “The Teacher’s Pet” podcast, which 60 million people have listened to since 2018.

The podcast set out a circumstantial case that Mr Dawson had murdered his wife, Lynette Dawson.

Justice Ian Harrison found Mr Dawson killed his wife in 1982. At the time, he was a high school teacher who was in a sexual relationship with a teenage former student and babysitter for his two daughters, identified in court as JC.

JC and Dawson married in 1984 and separated in 1990. The judge found Mr Dawson killed his wife because he feared losing his lover.

Outside court, Ms Dawson's brother, Greg Simms, appealed to his brother-in-law to reveal the location of her body.

Mr Simms said: “The journey is not complete. She is still missing. We still need to bring her home. We would ask Chris Dawson to find it in himself to finally do the decent thing and allow us to bring Lyn home to a peaceful rest."

Justice Harrison rejected the possibility Mr Dawson's wife abandoned her husband and children, vanishing without a trace.

He also dismissed claims Ms Dawson had been seen alive after January 1982 or that she had contacted her husband.

“The whole of the circumstantial evidence satisfies me that Lynette Dawson is dead, that she died on or about January 8, 1982 and that she did not voluntarily abandon her home,” the judge said.

He added that Ms Dawson had a strong attachment to her husband and daughters, was no “shrinking violet” and had limited funds to support herself.

As a result the judge rejected the idea the proposition that she had left with only the clothes on her back as "ludicrous".

In his reasons for the guilty verdict, Justice Harrison found that Mr Dawson had lied about phone calls he claimed to have received from his wife after her disappearance.