An Australian teacher who was convicted of murdering his wife to run away with a teenage student was found guilty of sexual abuse by a Sydney judge Wednesday.
Chris Dawson, who was found guilty in 2022 of murdering his wife, Lynette, in 1982, was convicted June 28 of sexually abusing the student prosecutors claim he killed his wife to be with, CNN reported. The student, identified only as “AB,” claimed that Dawson began the abuse in 1980 while she was a 16-year-old student in one of his classes at Cromer High School in Sydney. (RELATED: Former Teacher Facing Rape Charges Nine Years After Alleged Sexual Relationship With Student)
Dawson denied the allegation, claiming to have only entered into the relationship with AB when she was 17 years old and no longer a student, but Judge Sarah Huggett pointed to “powerful evidence” within the victim’s 17th birthday card which suggested there was already a relationship between the two in early 1981, according to CNN. In the card, Dawson wrote that AB was “the most beautiful girl in the world” and hinted at his hope of a long-lasting relationship by stating he knew they would “share all the birthdays to follow.”
#Breaking: Chris Dawson has been found guilty of carnal knowledge with an underage schoolgirl in the 1980s.
“While none of this evidence is capable alone or collectively of proving the offence charged, I find it provides powerful support for the complainant’s evidence that the… pic.twitter.com/T2yHxH6LWz
— 10 News First Sydney (@10NewsFirstSyd) June 28, 2023
“The accused, a mature man, as opposed to an immature teenager, was confident in the existence of a reciprocal and permanent relationship. And that was because a sexual relationship had commenced,” the judge ruled, according to CNN.
After Lynette’s disappearance in 1982, Dawson went on to marry AB and have a child with her, though the pair ultimately divorced. “He asked me to marry him when I was 16, many, many times, I always felt obligated,” AB told the court, according to CNN.
Though the Lynette’s body has never been found, the judge ruled that Dawson’s obsession with AB as a teenager provided enough motivation for him to kill his wife, a charge that saw Dawson sentenced to 24 years in prison. His sentencing for the sexual abuse conviction is scheduled for Sept. 15.