Bombshell testimony rocks Chris Dawson trial
An explosive bombshell detail rocked Chris Dawson’s judge-only murder trial on Thursday as Dawson’s former rugby league teammate testified that he was approached by Dawson and asked if he knew someone who could help “get rid” of his wife.
Former Newtown Jets player Robert Silkman told the court that six years before Lynette Dawson disappeared, her husband approached him on a flight to the Gold Coast and posed the question to him.
“I was sitting there and Chris come along and kneeled down to my level where I was sitting and asked me did I know anyone who could get rid of his wife,” Mr Silkman told the court, news.com.au reported.
“Well, I was taken aback. I said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘For good?’ He said, ‘Yeah’.
“I said, ‘Look, I’ll talk to you when I get back to Sydney’. That was the end of the conversation.”
Mr Silkman told the court that he did not engage in any further conversation with Dawson.
Then the former Newtown Jets player’s past was questioned due to his friendship with fellow teammate Paul Hayward, who was the brother-in-law of infamous criminal Arthur “Neddy” Smith.
Neddy, a convicted murderer, drug trafficker and armed robber, spent most of his life in jail and died in 2021.
Mr Silkman told the court that he was only socially acquainted with Neddy due to his friendship with Mr Hayward.
“Yeah, I wasn’t actually drinking with (Smith), I was drinking with Paul Hayward who took me to the hotel with him,” Mr Silkman told the court.
“Neddy Smith was in the company.”
This then led to Dawson’s barrister Pauline David questioning Mr Silkman’s criminal history and accusing him of willingly lying if there’s a “dollar” in it, the publication reported.
“You have a very loose relationship with the truth,” Ms David said.
“That’s not correct,” Mr Silkman said.
Chris Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Lynette, who went missing from the family home in Sydney's Northern Beaches in January 1982.
The trial continues.
Images: Nine News