Dawson asked teammate if he knew anyone who could ‘get rid of his wife’,court told

Chris Dawson asked a rugby league teammate if he knew “anyone who could get rid of his wife”,seven years before Lynette Dawson vanished from Sydney’s northern beaches,a court has heard.

The 73-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering Lynette,who disappeared in January 1982.

Chris Dawson and Lynette Dawson were married in 1970.

Chris Dawson and Lynette Dawson were married in 1970.Nick Moir,Supplied

Giving evidence on Thursday,former Newtown Jets rugby league player Robert Silkman told the NSW Supreme Court about an end-of-season holiday to the Gold Coast in 1975,at the same time as Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s boxing match in Manila.

He said Chris Dawson and his twin,Paul Dawson,were on the trip,lasting about three or four days,and they all stayed at a hotel on Cavill Avenue,Surfers Paradise. He sat in an aisle seat on the flight back to Sydney.

“Chris had come along and kneeled down to my level of where I was sitting and asked me did I know anyone that could get rid of his wife,Silkman said.

“I was taken aback,I said,‘What do you mean?’ I said,‘For good?’ And he said,‘Yeah.’

“I said,‘Look,I’ll talk to you when I get back to Sydney’ and that was the end of the conversation.”

Silkman said nothing else was said between them after that.

He said he told a friend he “wouldn’t believe what Chris just said to me”,and that Dawson had wanted to know “if I knew someone who could get rid of his wife”.

Asked about his association withnotorious criminal Neddy Smith,Silkman said that in 1975 they did not have an association,and he only said hello at a hotel when his friend Paul Hayward “had to see him[Smith] a couple of times”. He said in the years before 1975,he “didn’t even know” Smith.

Under cross-examination from defence barrister Pauline David,who tendered Silkman’s criminal history,the former Jets player agreed he had several convictions including for stealing 5000 bricks and maliciously damaging a property by fire,having set a building alight because the owner owed him money.

Robert Silkman gave evidence from Bankstown police station.

Robert Silkman gave evidence from Bankstown police station.Nick Moir

Asked whether the plane conversation with Dawson was a “complete lie” that he had made up,Silkman replied,“That’s not correct.”

He agreed that if anyone kneeled or bent over in the plane aisle,“people would see them doing it”,and said “if people had to get around him ... of course they’d have to say excuse me or whatever”.

He agreed that there was some “fairly serious heavy drinking over the weekend” but said he would not have been drinking with the Dawson twins because they “weren’t big drinkers”.

Asked by David whether he drank on the return flight,as a “continuation of a big Gold Coast party”,Silkman said:“No,I didn’t drink on the plane. I had a phobia of planes;still got it today.”

After tendering an excerpt from the club’s 1975 social report,David put to Silkman that the venue was in Coolangatta,“some 24 kilometres away from Surfers Paradise”.

“I agree that it says it here,but that wasn’t the case. The venue was Tiki Village,Surfers Paradise,” Silkman said,adding that fellow former players could verify that. He said they flew into Coolangatta.

He denied David’s suggestions that he has a “very loose relationship with the truth”,is a dishonest person,and has “a history of telling serious lies”,but he admitted to lying in the past,including to judicial officers.

David asked:“If you see a dollar in it,you will tell a lie?”

“That’s not correct,” Silkman said.

He said he had not listened toThe Australian’sThe Teacher’s Pet podcast on the case and came to know via the radio and in the media about Lynette Dawson’s disappearance and allegations about what happened.

Silkman first made a statement to police in November 2018.

“No one ever asked me to come forward,” he said.

He denied any knowledge of a $200,000 reward for information and having seized an opportunity.

“If there is a reward,it can be donated to violence against women,” Silkman said.

The Crown alleges Dawson’s motivation was a desire to have an unfettered relationship with the babysitter known as JC.

Dawson claims Lynettecalled him on January 9,1982,to say she “needed time away”.

He has disputed allegations made by JCthat he had considered using a hitman to kill Lynette in late 1981.

David put to Silkman that his “version of events fits neatly” into the hitman story.

“I’m only here to tell the truth about the conversation I had with him[Dawson],” he said. “I don’t know how that fits,but if it fits in the puzzle ... so be it.”

The judge-alone trial before Justice Ian Harrison continues.

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Sarah McPhee is a court reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.

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