Judge Harrison rejects the proposition that Dawson might have killed his wife because he wanted to keep the property and the cash.
He did it for his Pet.
The Teacher’s Pet.
Joanne Curtis.
Chris Dawson killed Lynette so that he could share his life with a teenage girl.
Dawson killed her on the evening of the 8th of January 1982.
He tricked the best man at his wedding into going to the pool the next day so that he could then trick him into driving his mother-in-law and children home.
He did it for the purpose of disposing of his wife’s remains.
There is no finding as to how he killed her, or where he body was thrown away like rubbish.
Then he says the words.
The words that have been said by judges to murderers since time immemorial.
Christopher Michael Dawson.
On the count of murdering Lynette Joy Dawson
I find you guilty
You may sit down.
A journalist has solved a murder.
A murder that the police could not solve.
Hedley Thomas has changed the face of journalism forever.
Changed it by adapting the time aged art to the modern age.
It is an astounding achievement, and an incredible piece of work.
Painting has Picasso and Van Gogh.
Film has Coppola and Orson Welles.
Thoroughbred training has TJ Smith, Cummings and Waller.
Race riding has George Moore and James McDonald.
Journalism has Hedley Thomas.
The judge tells Dawson he will now have to be taken away.
He asks Dawson’s lawyer if he has anything further to say.
The screen goes blank.
The sound goes silent.
It ends as the earth began, and life before conception does too,
Without shape or form.