Wife killer Chris Dawson returns to court in big legal play

Convicted wife killer Chris Dawson has launched an appeal after he was jailed for an unlawful sexual relationship with a then-teenage student. Lawyers for Dawson will on Wednesday appear in the Court of Criminal Appeal having launched an appeal after he was convicted of grooming and engaging in unlawful sexual acts with a vulnerable 16-year-old student. Last year the former teacher and Newtown Jets star was convicted of one count of carnal knowledge after a judge found he engaged in sexual activities with the student at a Sydney high school in 1980. Following a judge-alone trial, District Court Judge Sarah Huggett found Dawson guilty of engaging in sexual acts with the teen, who can only be known as AB, when she was in his year 11 PE class. He had pleaded not guilty and argued that their first sexual contact did not occur until the following year – when she was in year 12. However, Judge Huggett accepted AB’s testimony that she was “groomed” by Dawson in the playground before they first engaged in sexual activity in his parents’ Maroubra home in the latter half of 1980. His appeal will be mentioned in the Court of Appeal for the first time on Thursday, with a hearing to then go ahead at some point next year. He was sentenced to three years in jail and had one year added onto his earliest possible release, which has been set at August 2041 when he will be 93. Dawson was already serving a lengthy prison sentence after being jailed for the murder of his wife Lynette Simms. After being convicted of killing his wife, Dawson was sentenced a maximum of 24 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 18 years. The Court of Criminal Appeal earlier this year dismissed his appeal against his murder conviction.