Chris Dawson loses his appeal to overturn conviction for murdering wife Lynette Simms

Murderer and former rugby league star Chris Dawson has lost a bid to be released from prison after the state’s highest court rejected his appeal against his conviction for murdering his wife.

Now the ex-teacher, who was found to have killed his wife Lynette to be with a teenage student and babysitter, is facing the prospect of dying in prison.

Dawson, 75, appeared before the Court of Criminal Appeal on Thursday when a three-judge panel rejected his appeal following a three-day hearing in May.

Dawson was jailed in August 2022 for the murder of his wife, Lynette Simms, who disappeared without a trace from their Bayview home on Sydney’s northern beaches in January 1982.

In the days after she disappeared, Dawson moved his teenage lover – a former student and the family’s babysitter – to his Gilwinga Drive address.

More to come