She said Dawson gave the girl a card at Christmas in 1980 which read “once or twice every minute”,signed off “love always,God”. Another card,in 1981,was addressed to “the most beautiful girl in the world on her 17th birthday” and said they would “share all the birthdays to follow”.
Blizard said Dawson’s twin brother,Paul,was also a sports teacher at a nearby high school and similarly arranged for a student – who was in year 9 – to babysit his children.
She said Dawson,his brother and the two girls would spend a lot of time together in the car and at the beach,and the girls would attend fitness classes at Lindfield taught by the Dawson brothers. Blizard said these classes occurred in 1980 and 1981.
“It is alleged that at those classes,one brother would instruct the class whilst the other was behind closed doors with one of the girls,” Blizard said.
The prosecutor said the “central issue in this trial will be one of timing,and when events commenced”.
The woman told the court she remembered spending time with Dawson at Lindfield while his brother taught classes,then returning to the class when it was his turn to teach.
“When one twin was running a class,the other one was out the back with whichever student was their property at the time,” she said.
The woman said there was one occasion at Lindfield where all four swam in the pool with no clothes on before each brother took a girl to an opposite end to engage in alleged sexual activity.
She said by August or September 1980 she started babysitting for Dawson every weekend,would sleep over in a guest room,and would see him at a pub on Friday nights in addition to the Lindfield classes.
“I never saw my friends,” the woman said. “It just got out of control in terms of the amount of time I was spending with him.”
She said her end-of-year report card from November 1980 included the comment that she was “a pleasure to teach”,which “wasn’t referring to teaching sports coaching”.
“He was referring to the lessons I learnt in sexual activity that he had taught me,” she said. “He told me so,and he thought it was very clever to be able to put that on a public document – very cunning.”
Dawson’s barrister,public defender Claire Wasley,said it is not in dispute that her client had a sexual relationship with the girl while he was a teacher and she was a student aged under 18.
“It is in dispute that the first instance of[alleged sexual activity] occurred while the complainant was a student in the accused’s sports coaching class in 1980,” she said.
Wasley said if these key facts could not be established – that the alleged activity occurred between the key dates of July 1 and December 12,1980 – her client should be found not guilty.
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She said other matters,including judging that Dawson had a “lack of morality”,and his conviction for his wife’s murder,had “no bearing” on the carnal knowledge case.
“I anticipate your honour will not be satisfied the Crown has proven Mr Dawson’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” Wasley said.
The trial continues.
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