Judge begins delivering verdict in Chris Dawson murder trial
Nino Bucci
Justice Ian Harrison has started delivering his verdict in Christopher Dawson’s trial for murder.
Dawson is alleged to have killed his wife Lynette Dawson in 1982.
He is providing a summary of the prosecution’s case, but was clear that it did not mean he accepted all the evidence they had introduced during the trial.
The prosecution case was circumstantial, he said, and relied upon an alleged motive that Dawson killed his wife Lynette Dawson so he could have an “unfettered relationship” with a teenager known as JC.
Harrison said the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead, that she was killed by Dawson with the possible involvement or assistance of others, and that he – and possibly others – disposed of her body. Her body has never been found.
The verdict continues.
Key events
So AAP says a Federal Court judge said the Daily Mail Australia showed a lack of responsibility and basic professionalism in defaming Erin Molan when the online news site portrayed the broadcaster as a racist.
Justice Robert Bromwich said a payment of $150,000 in damages should sufficiently meet the “sting” of the June 2020 online article that referred to her saying “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” on 2GB in May 2020.
The article the sports commentator sued on stated she “refuses to apologise” a few hours before she made an on-air statement that she would never “intentionally offend anybody or hurt anyone’s feelings” and was very sorry if she had done that.
Molan also took umbrage with the statement that she “deliberately mocked the names of Pacific Islanders on air”.
The 40-year-old denied it was a jibe against Polynesian names, that she was deliberately mispronouncing them for a laugh or speaking in an accent during the broadcast.
Rather, the former 2GB rugby league show co-host said the long-running joke was making light of Ray and Chris Warren mixing up the end of players’ names and she was “poking fun of her colleagues”, she told the Federal Court.
Justice Robert Bromwich said in reasons published on Tuesday that Molan bears responsibility for being at least thoughtless as to how someone else might interpret what she was saying without the context of that story.
She won on five pleaded imputations, including that it was not proven she had in fact mocked Pacific Islander names, but the judge found both sides had a “measure of success and a measure of failure”.
“Dailymail.com needs to substantially improve the care that it takes, or face further and greater awards of damages,” Justice Bromwich said in his judgment.
Freedom of expression must be balanced with responsibility and basic professionalism which was sadly lacking in this case.
Molan gave evidence that she was subsequently subject to a barrage of online abuse and violent threats towards herself and family that left her traumatised.
The news website had argued a defence of truth, with barrister Bruce McClintock SC saying in September 2021 that her attempts of various ethnic groups’ accents are forms of “ugly racial stereotypes”.
He said Molan showed a lack of contrition and her deficient insight about the effect of her mocking was “tellingly revealed” when she compared it to being “teased in the playground or by her co-hosts”.
The trial was played more than a dozen studio tapes that Mr McClintock said showed despicable acts of racism.
In one she says, “I wuv you very long time, very handsome man”, but Molan said she was quoting lines from a famous movie rather than trying to imitate the Chinese character.
In another she was heard attempting a Japanese accent and making reference to “you’re so good,” and “raw fish”, which she said is about her favourite food sushi.
65-year-old Queenslander dies from injuries from house fire in early August
Police have confirmed that a 65-year-old man has died after sustaining injuries in a house fire in Ayr, Queensland on 9 August.
Emergency services were called to a fire at a Home Hill Road residence at approximately 5.40am on 9 August, with a 65-year-old man and 47-year-old woman transported to Ayr Hospital in critical condition.
The woman died from her injuries on 9 August.
Police confirmed they had attended a welfare check at around 2.15am on 9 August, where all parties were “spoken to by officers.”
In a statement, Queensland Police confirmed an investigation had been launched:
Detectives from Ayr Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), Townsville CIB and the Homicide Unit established Operation Uniform Turmeric to complete the initial investigation into the fatal house fire.
Investigators from Ethical Standards Command will complete a report for the coroner into the deaths of the 47-year-old woman and 65-year-old man.
Nino Bucci
Two findings made in Dawson verdict
Justice Ian Harrison is continuing to deliver his verdict in Christopher Dawson’s trial for murder.
Dawson is alleged to have killed his wife Lynette Dawson in 1982.
Harrison has delivered two significant findings: that Dawson lied when he claimed his wife had contacted him via telephone on multiple occasions after 8 January 1982, the day on which it is alleged he killed her, and that Lynette Dawson did not leave her home voluntarily.
Harrison said nobody else ever reported receiving calls from Lynette Dawson after 8 January 1982, and nobody had been in earshot when Dawson claimed he received calls from his wife.
Earlier, Harrison said the prosecution case was circumstantial and relied upon an alleged motive that Dawson killed his wife Lynette Dawson so he could have an “unfettered relationship” with a teenager known as JC.
Harrison said the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead, that she was killed by Dawson with the possible involvement or assistance of others, and that he – and possibly others – disposed of her body. Her body has never been found.
The verdict continues.
Michael McGowan
Industrial action on Sydney’s train network likely to proceed on Wednesday
The chaos which has seen Sydney’s train network beset by delays for months is set to continue tomorrow, despite the New South Wales government giving in to the union’s demands over the multibillion-dollar intercity trains at the centre of the dispute.
On Tuesday, the head of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, Alex Claassens, said there was little hope of the planned industrial action being wound back before Wednesday, even after both parties spent yesterday locked in negotiations until 8pm.
After months of wrangling over changes to the new fleet of trains – which the union says are necessary because of safety concerns – the industrial relations minister, Damien Tudehope, wrote to the combined rail unions on Sunday with a number of concessions in a bid to break the impasse.
But on Tuesday Claassens labelled the letter a “stunt” and said the union had yet to receive a new deed committing to the changes, adding that the two sides had yet to agree on a number of issues in the enterprise agreement, including pay.
The union is demanding a 0.5% increase over the government’s public service wage cap.
Claassens said:
The NSW government leaked this letter to the media before we’ve even had a chance to look at it.
Now [that] we have had the chance to look over it, we’ve found out it doesn’t actually add anything new to this negotiation. It was purely used to generate another headline for the government.
Yesterday the delegates sat down and decided what it would take for industrial action to cease. If the government wants industrial peace, it now has a clear way to bring it about. The ball is now in the government’s court.
And you can also hear the verdict from Justice Ian Harrison in the Christopher Dawson murder trial at the link atop the blog.
Judge begins delivering verdict in Chris Dawson murder trial
Nino Bucci
Justice Ian Harrison has started delivering his verdict in Christopher Dawson’s trial for murder.
Dawson is alleged to have killed his wife Lynette Dawson in 1982.
He is providing a summary of the prosecution’s case, but was clear that it did not mean he accepted all the evidence they had introduced during the trial.
The prosecution case was circumstantial, he said, and relied upon an alleged motive that Dawson killed his wife Lynette Dawson so he could have an “unfettered relationship” with a teenager known as JC.
Harrison said the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead, that she was killed by Dawson with the possible involvement or assistance of others, and that he – and possibly others – disposed of her body. Her body has never been found.
The verdict continues.
Peter Hannam
Mixed signals on the economic front
Out today, the weekly survey of consumer sentiment from ANZ and Roy Morgan shows a modest decline after a 6.6% rise in the previous two weeks.
That jars slightly with the 1.3% month-on-month rise in retail sales recorded in July and reported yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Economists put that down to rising tourists and returning Australians (although with many people heading overseas to get away from winter last month – including yours truly – it must have also had the opposite effect).
Meanwhile, inflation expectations remain subdued in Australia (at least) even given the chatter from the recent Jackson Hole, Wyoming gathering of the US Federal Reserve herd.
Those overseas inflation concerns, however, combined with July’s strong retail numbers may have contributed to investors nudging their expectations for how high the Reserve Bank will lift the cash rate.
Investors, meanwhile, have lately lifted their expectations of how high the RBA will raise its cash rate. There’s more than 4/5 chance the rate will rise 50bp to 2.35% on 6 Sept, and an increase to 4% by mid-2023 is among their predictions. pic.twitter.com/JZRexMWUmT
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) August 29, 2022
Economists aren’t quite so twitchy, with the rate more likely to peak at about 3% or less, with cuts to follow. This time next week, we’ll likely be posting about another 50 basis point increase is all but certain at the 6 September RBA board meeting.
(We’re saving this headline: “BOOT all but a shoo-in for the jobs and skills summit”. That’s BOOT, as in the better-off overall test.)
The verdict in the Chris Dawson murder trial is currently being read out, and we will bring you the result as soon as we know it.
We are expecting to hear from the premiers of NSW and Victoria, Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews, at around 11:30am this morning, with a “major health announcement.”
The Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews and Premier of New South Wales, Dominic Perrottet will make a major health announcement, 11:30am Melbourne #auspol
— Political Alert (@political_alert) August 30, 2022
Labor’s Stage 3 tax cuts will give as much to the richest 1% as to the poorest two thirds (65%) combined.
These tax cuts will turbocharge economic & gender inequality – stripping $244 billion from the budget that should go into public services. They must be scrapped.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) August 29, 2022
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