An Australian man who was the focus of a well-known crime podcast was sentenced to 24 years in prison for killing his wife.
In August, Chris Dawson, 74, was found guilty of the 1982 disappearance of Lynette Dawson, ending decades of rumors.
Dawson killed his wife, according to a court, to maintain his relationship with his juvenile girlfriend and babysitter.
His attorney has said that he will probably file an appeal against the conviction.
When Mrs. Dawson vanished from her Sydney home, she was 33 years old. The evidence used in the trial was largely circumstantial, and her corpse is still missing.
Justice Ian Harrison described Dawson’s conduct as “self-indulgent savagery” that “was neither spontaneous nor unavoidable” in his remarks following the verdict on Friday.
Despite the likelihood that Dawson will pass away in jail, Justice Harrison stated that he would be eligible for parole after serving 18 years.
The podcast The Teacher’s Pet, produced by The Australian newspaper, gained international notice, spurred a new inquiry, and helped compile sufficient evidence to support charges against Dawson in 2018.
Dawson had maintained throughout the trial that his wife had abandoned him and their two children, possibly to join a religious sect and that he had nothing to do with her disappearance.
In August, Justice Harrison stated that the evidence against Dawson was “persuasive and convincing,” concluding that Dawson was fixated on his young sweetheart, known legally as JC. She was also a pupil at the institution where Dawson worked, and the judge claimed that he desired her as a “replacement” for his wife.
The judge claimed that when Dawson’s prior attempts to leave his marriage had failed and JC had wished to end their relationship, he had grown more and more desperate.
Shanelle Dawson, Dawson’s daughter, pleaded with him to tell her where her mother’s body was during a previous hearing. Ms. Dawson’s mother vanished when she was just four years old.
The New South Wales government implemented rules in October of this year making it illegal for killers who refused to cooperate and reveal the whereabouts of victims’ remains to be released on parole.
