Judges who awarded the pair the 2018 Gold Walkley Award said the Australian newspaper’s 220,000-word podcast “revealed long-lost statements and new witnesses and prompted police to search again for the body of Lyn Dawson, who disappeared from her home in 1982”. . On Tuesday, Dawson, 73, was found guilty of murdering his ex-wife Lynette four decades ago on Sydney’s northern beaches. Dawson has always maintained his innocence and after the verdict his lawyer confirmed he would appeal. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison referred several times to Thomas’ podcast, particularly the cross-examination between the evidence given in court and the interviews the same witnesses had given Thomas earlier. He said it was possible, if not certain, that The Teacher’s Pet podcast “may in whole or in part have completely lost some elements of its usefulness”. Of a witness interviewed by Thomas, Shelley Oates-Wilding, Harrison said: “I am not in a position with any certainty, having listened to excerpts of her lengthy, taped conversations with him, to know what part of her evidence comes from from what Hedley told her Thomas and what part of her evidence came from what she remembered.’ But another witness who took part in the podcast, Julie Andrews, was found to be “reliable and reliable”. Harrison said listening to the tapes of her sloppy interview “did not change my view that her account of the trampoline incident was reliable and trustworthy.” Speaking outside court on Tuesday, Thomas said Dawson should have been charged 40 years ago but the system at the time had failed Lynette. “Lynette Dawson was missing for eight years and was treated like a runaway mother at the time when the circumstances were so suspicious,” Thomas said. “It wouldn’t happen today.” When Dawson was charged in December 2018, then NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller emailed Thomas saying “you must be very happy mate?”, according to an earlier ruling by Judge Elizabeth Fullerton in the case. Thomas had by then closed a deal for a Teacher’s Pet miniseries with Jason Blum’s American production company Blumhouse. Quick guide
How to get the latest news from Guardian Australia
ShowPhotograph: Tim Robberts/Stone RF Thanks for your response. In April 2019, on the advice of the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and in the interests of a fair trial, The Australian removed the podcast from all platforms. It had already reached No. 1 on the podcast charts in Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. First published between May and August 2018, the 14-part podcast is reported and narrated by Queensland-based Thomas, already an award-winning investigative reporter for the Murdoch broadsheet. It was produced by former Savage Garden guitarist Gibson. After Dawson’s arrest there were three more episodes. Thomas began his newspaper career at 17 as a copy boy at the Gold Coast Bulletin, was a foreign correspondent in London and spent six years at Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post before returning to Queensland in 1999. He has seven Walkley Awards, including 2007 Gold Walkley for a series in The Australian highlighting the botched police pursuit of Mohamed Haneef, a doctor wrongly accused of being a terrorist. Hedley Thomas outside the NSW Supreme Court in June 2022 during the trial of Chris Dawson. Photo: Flavio Brancaleone/AAP A newbie to the podcast, Thomas started his Teacher’s Pet series three years after the unsolved homicide unit founded Strikeforce Scriven to reinvestigate Lynette’s suspicious murder. The popularity of the story shone a spotlight on the case and put public pressure on the police. A few months after it aired, Dawson was indicted. Subscribe to Guardian Australia’s Morning Mail Our Australian morning news email breaks down the key national and international stories of the day and why they matter Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. But Thomas’ attitude toward Dawson as a possible suspect, and interviews with potential witnesses, threatened to derail a fair trial, Dawson’s legal team argued, and argued for a permanent stay. The high court disagreed, but Dawson was granted a judge-only trial when the NSW Supreme Court agreed that “the nature of the podcast and its extremely wide distribution raised real concerns about the fairness of a trial” before a jury. Thomas testified at Dawson’s trial, telling the court he only wanted justice for Lynette and her family and believed she had been killed by her husband in January 1982. “So justice for Lynn meant to you, didn’t it, the prosecution of Christopher Dawson,” asked defense attorney Pauline David. “I think it’s a fair call, yeah,” Thomas replied. Thomas told the court he believed Dawson was the only suspect, but denied engaging in a bias campaign against him. “If I had disclosed or received information from anyone who interrupted, it would have changed the narrative … it would have become a very important part of the podcast,” he said. Thomas rejected suggestions that he influenced potential witnesses by discussing possible movies or miniseries about the case and said it was just banter during interviews. “When you made them these deals… did you consider that this would be attractive to them?” David asked. Thomas said: “Possibly to some, but it might not have appealed to others who were introverted or didn’t want to get involved.”
