From the Australian here's what's on the front I'm Claire Harvey.

The kids, the house and the teenage babysitter.

That's what Chris Dawson wanted, says a judge, hearing the former Rugby League stars appeal on his murder conviction.

Dawson is attempting to demonstrate his wife Lynn, who hasn't been seen by her family since 1982,

may have just walked out on him and their little girls.

That's today's episode. Sydney in January is hot and sticky. New years bring temperatures over 40 degrees on

some days and violent afternoon storms.

In the earliest days of 1982, that was very much the case.

On January 9, 1982, a young father from Sydney's northern beaches, arranged to take his two daughters,

then aged just four and two years old, to a local tidal pool to escape the heat.

There they paddled in the shadows, supported by their dad,

a tanned athletic Chris Dawson.

Their maternal grandma, Helena Sims, was there there so was one of Dawson's

friends Philip Day. It was during this outing that Dawson claims he received a phone

call from his wife Lynette. He says she told him she wanted to get away for a few days, clear her head.

Lynn's family never saw her again.

In 2022, more than 40 years after that summer day at North Bridge Baths,

just to see in Harrison in the New South Wales Supreme Court found Christopher Michael

Dawson guilty of Lynette's murder.

The judge said that on that day at the baths Chris had already murdered Lynn and left her

body in their home, planning to return later and dispose of her remains.

Christopher Michael Dawson on the charge that on about 8 January 1982 at Bayview, or elsewhere in the state of New South Wales, you did murder, Lynette Dawson.

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