Chris Dawson: Wife killer goes from life of luxury to lonely prison cell

Chris Dawson will trade in envied beach views and his smart navy suit for a life behind bars after he was found guilty of murdering his first wife Lynette 40 years ago.

After a marathon 4½ hour judgment in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Ian Harrison found the 74-year-old had spun a web of lies that demonstrated a consciousness of guilt and said Dawson had “resolved to kill his wife”.

Justice Harrison accepted the Crown prosecution’s argument that Dawson killed his wife and disposed of her body in January 1982 so he could be with the family’s teenage babysitter, weeks after he attempted to run off to Queensland with the young student.

Dawson has always maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to killing his wife.

Ms Dawson was 33 years old when she disappeared from Sydney’s northern beaches and left behind two daughters.

Dawson left the court in handcuffs and was whisked away into custody on Tuesday afternoon. He spent the night alone in a cell at Surry Hills police station.

The former rugby league star and teacher will be taken in an inmate transport truck to either the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Correctional Centre (MRRC) at Silverwater or Parklea Correctional Centre at some point on Wednesday.

It is expected that correctional centre will be the MRRC at Silverwater, a maximum-security correctional facility for male offenders.

It is the same place Dawson spent a few weeks behind bars when he was arrested in December 2018.

If he is taken to the MRRC, he will need to shed his suit and tie when he is body-scanned or stripsearched upon arrival.

All his street clothes will be confiscated aside from his underpants, should he prefer to wear his own.

Instead, he will wear a prison kit, which includes a green T-shirt, shorts, tracksuit and a pair of prison-issued shoes.

He will also be a given a toiletries pack, which contains a razor, toothbrush and toothpaste and soap.

Anything else has to be ordered off a list for the weekly buy-up, which has a maximum spending limit of $100.

The rations he will be handed throughout the day are milk, cereal, seven slices of bread, coffee sachets, and prison-issue tea bags. These can be given in the evening or morning.

Dinner is served at 3pm, heated-up food from a chill pack, which is the only hot meal of the day. There is no dining room, so inmates have to eat alone in their cells.

Dawson will be locked up in his cell for the night around 3pm after six hours of daylight in the yard alongside other prisoners.

His cell contains a steel toilet, kettle or jug and sandwich maker. He will need to wake up at 7am every day for morning muster.

It is a far cry from the life Dawson has lived in his Mount Coolum home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with his third wife Susan, often making the trip to Sydney for court appearances.

Located under the shadow of the rocky mountain and close to the beach, his suburb’s quiet streets are home to expensive houses and well-manicured lawns.

Dawson spent his days walking along the coast’s beaches or having a dip in his own backyard pool at the 301sq m two-storey home. He also reported daily to Maroochydore police station while on bail.

Dawson is set to face a bail hearing on Thursday in an attempt to be released until he is sentenced.