Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Dawson home for Christmas in Queensland
Alleged wife killer Chris Dawson is spending Christmas Day at his family home in Queensland after he was granted bail and released from a Sydney prison.
December 25, 2018
Accused killer Chris Dawson has made it home for Christmas Day in Queensland after being released from a NSW prison less than 24 hours earlier.
The 70-year-old was released from Sydney’s Silverwater prison on Christmas Eve, a week after a court granted him bail.
Dawson smiled from the front seat of his brother’s Porsche as he was driven out of the jail almost three weeks after being arrested for the alleged murder of his first wife.
A series of complications with the former rugby league player’s application, including a problem with the $1.5 million surety, delayed his release.
But by Christmas Day morning, Dawson had made it home to the Sunshine Coast.
Newscorp Australia filmed Dawson in the backyard swimming pool of the Mount Coolum home he shares with his wife on the Sunshine Coast.
Dawson was arrested on the Gold Coast earlier this month and extradited to NSW where he was charged with murdering wife Lynette Dawson, who went missing from Sydney’s northern beaches in 1982.
He will have to live at his current wife’s home in Queensland and report daily to a local police station to comply with his bail conditions.
He intends to plead not guilty to murdering his wife in the case which made international headlines when it became the focus of The Australian newspaper’s The Teacher’s Pet podcast.