Former teacher has been charged with murder of missing wife Lynette Dawson and carnal knowledge of underage girl

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A veteran Sydney magistrate has warned that some reporting of the Chris Dawson 1982 murder charge may chip away at public confidence in ensuring a fair trial.

The former teacher appeared in Downing Centre local court on Thursday after being charged in December over the disappearance of his wife Lynette Dawson and in June with carnal knowledge of a girl aged between 10 and 17.

During discussion over subpoenas and other legal issues, his solicitor, Greg Walsh, referred to his client continually being described as “a murderer”.

The crown prosecutor, Craig Everson, also referred to a podcast about the case – The Teacher’s Pet – being available on Facebook and YouTube.

The deputy chief magistrate Michael Allen said he had been involved in criminal law for 35 years and had not seen a case receive such broad and intense media scrutiny for many, many years.

If media organisations or individuals chip away at “the community’s confidence in the justice system” for their own commercial gain, “we will all end up in a very dark place”, he said.

“Someone would have to be living in a cave or be naive in the extreme to perhaps ignore the potential for unfairness to a person who receives this level of media scrutiny so broadly and over this period of time.”

The law was there to ensure guilty people were punished and innocent people set free, he said.

A committal hearing was set down for 10 February. The case will be mentioned again on 19 September.