An Australian man has been sentenced to 24 years in jail for murdering his wife 40 years ago after he became the subject of the hit podcast "The Teacher's Pet". The cold case against the suspect Christopher Dawson, who is a former high school teacher, was revived after the 2018 podcast created pressure on the police to reopen their investigation, reported news agency Reuters.
In 2003, the investigation suggested Dawson be charged with his wife's murder but prosecutors didn’t agree due to a lack of evidence. "Dawson has enjoyed until his arrest 36 years in the community, unimpeded by the taint of a conviction for killing his wife, or by any punishment for doing so," said New South Wales Supreme Court Judge Ian Harrison at the time of sentencing, as per the report.
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Dawson's lawyer, Greg Walsh who intends to appeal the sentence said, "Our system of justice and our democracy is based upon the presumption of innocence." "He maintains his innocence."
What’s the murder case?
In August this year, the Supreme Court confirmed that Dawson deliberately killed his wife, Lynette Dawson, in January 1982 to be in a relationship with a teenage student with whom he was having an affair. The student had babysat and lived in his Sydney home.
Dawson will become eligible for parole in 2040 at the age of 92.
In his defence, Dawson, now 74, claimed his wife had left him which was refuted by Harrison as fanciful.
Lawyers for Dawson, who was tried without a jury due to the publicity surrounding the case, argued that the podcast, produced by News Corp's the Australian newspaper, denied him a fair trial because of the way he was depicted.
The podcast went on to become the number-one hit and was downloaded more than 50 million times, according to the newspaper.