CHRIS and Paul Dawson were seemingly “perfect” twins, both modelling, playing professional rugby and married with kids.
But, according to a new documentary, the blonde Australian brothers also shared teenage schoolgirls that they slept with after becoming PE teachers.
Twin teachers Chris and Paul Dawson have been accused of having sex with pupils60 Minutes
Chris Dawson was convicted over his wife Lynette’s 1982 murderNews Corp Australia
Joanne Curtis, who was groomed by Chris, feared he would kill her as well
GettyEx-pupil Shelley Oates-Wilding claims Paul Dawson groomed her for sex[/caption]
Of the two 76-year-old siblings, Chris is the most notorious.
He made worldwide headlines two years ago when he was convicted of murdering his wife Lynette in 1981.
After being found guilty of murder, Chris was also found guilty in a separate trial of unlawful sex with one of his former students.
The publicity around the 40 year-long search for justice, which was largely achieved thanks to a podcast called Teacher’s Pet, also led to a “sex ring” at Chris’s Cromer High School in Sydney coming to light.
Now, it is being alleged that his brother Paul took part in group sex on school premises and slept with a 15-year-old pupil at Forest High School, which was around four miles away from Cromer. He denies the allegations.
And in a sensational turn of events, the documentary Twisted Twins? on ITV hears claims that Paul had a threesome with Chris and his former pupil wife when she was aged 18.
It also airs allegations that they asked their students to be babysitters, so they could be intimate with them at home.
Ex-student Shelley Oates-Wilding claims about Paul: “There would be times when we would be in the store cupboard together and his brother Chris would be there. We’d be sexually intimate.”
Paul denies having sex with his former pupils, which is illegal if they are under 18.
Unbreakable bond
The Dawson twins, from Sydney, were the apple of their mother Joan’s eye.
Robyn Courtney, a friend from school, says “They were just the princes. The boys could do anything”.
Strong and athletic, the brothers played rugby union for Eastern Suburbs in New South Wales before switching codes to run out for Newtown Jets in rugby league in 1972.
Jeff Lindon, a former rugby teammate, comments: “They looked entirely the same.
“They didn’t drink, they didn’t smoke, the impression I had was that they were pretty much model citizens.”
Paul married Marilyn and had three daughters, while Chris got hitched to Lynette and had two kids.
After their rugby careers ended, they both took up jobs as PE Teachers in Northern Sydney.
‘Sex ring’
Chris Dawson covered up his crimes for decadesRex
Facebook/@60minutesaustraliaShelley Oates-Wilding around the time she was allegedly groomed by Paul Dawson[/caption]
Jeff Lindon says he turned down Chris Dawson’s group sex invitation
It was around 1980 that their paths are said to have taken a very dark turn.
Retired detective Damian Loone alleges that year Paul began an affair with an unamed 15-year-old student.
The girl claimed Paul told her ‘I love you’ and asked ‘will you kiss me?’
Shelley told a 60 Minutes broadcast in Australia: “There’d be times at the fitness classes where we’d be in the store room together, or there’d be times in the pool where we’d be intimate.
“But usually at most of those, there’d be his brother and they were used to doing this type of thing.”
Damian also told 60 Minutes that at least four women had complained about Paul having sex with them when they were underage students at Forest High.
Police have not charged Paul with any offence related to having sex with underage girls.
Around the same time, Chris, then aged 33, was grooming student Joanne Curtis for sex.
Fellow students recalled how Joanne sat on her teacher’s lap in the playground and that their sexual activity was an “open secret.”
Jeff, who became a tennis coach, says that Paul invited him to join in with the sex abuse of pupils – but he declined.
He recalls: “Chris approached me and said ‘Paul and I are thinking of getting eight guys together and having a gang bang, would you be interested?’ I was shocked and astounded.
“I politely said no”.
GettyChris Dawson passing to his brother while playing for Eastern Suburbs[/caption]
Lynette Dawson was murdered by her husband Chris
Other former pupils, male and female, claim they were sexually abused by teachers of both sexes at the school.
The boys and girls were groomed to take part in a sex ring in the 1980s.
One pupil from Cromer High said that at least six teachers were getting intimate with pupils.
Fatal infatuation
Chris grew dangerously infatuated with Joanne.
He asked her to move into his home in Bay View, Sydney to be a babysitter in 1981, pretending he was acting selflessly because Joanne came from a troubled family.
Wife Lynette ignored friends who warned that Joanne was involved with her husband, even though the girl swam topless in the family’s pool.
Secretly Chris was sending her Christmas and birthday cards, professing his love.
When Lynette realised what was going on he killed her – but told everyone that his wife had joined a religious group.
Within two days of Lynette’s disappearance, Joanne started wearing the wife’s jewellery.
Shanelle Dawson, daughter of Lynette and Chris, was four and a half when her mother went missing on January 8, 1982.
She says: “I don’t have any memories of her. I was quite close in my heart with my father.
“My dad was a good father. I absolutely adored my father.
“He told us she ran off with religious people, that she didn’t love us anymore”
Chris suggested if they had sex together it might be a lot better
Joanne married Chris and became pregnant. But she was not happy in the controlling relationship.
Damian says that when he interviewed Chris’s young lover, who he refers to as JC, she claimed that aged 18 she had sex with both brothers.
He says: “JC told me Paul had cooled to her when she was 18, Chris suggested if they had sex together it might be a lot better. The three of them had sex together.”
By this time Chris and Paul were living a few hundred metres down the street from each other on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
The pair both moved away from Sydney shortly after Lynette was killed.
Chris would have gotten away with murder if Joanne hadn’t left him and gone to the police.
Joanne told Damian she feared that she’d be the next victim.
In 2001 the detective told a coroner he believed Chris had killed Lynnette.
It was only after the crime podcast Teacher’s Pet became incredibly popular in 2018 that the police started to investigate Chris again.
He was convicted of murder in August 2022 even though the body of Lynette has not been found.
Beasts jailed
In recent years, two other Cromer High teachers were also caged.
Ten years ago ex art teacher Peter Wayne Scott was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after being convicted of 13 child sex offences, including drugging male pupils.
GP and former detective Clint Churchyard, who was aged 12 when Scott first attacked him, said: “Almost immediately after the assaults started I began experimenting with alcohol and drugs, and that continued throughout high school.”
Former female PE teacher Lee Joyce Dunbar pleaded guilty to assaulting one 16-year-old female student and was sentenced to an 18-month intensive corrections order in 2022.
Nearby Beacon Hill school, which closed in 2002, has also been hit by allegations that teachers abused pupils.
One victim alleged she was sexually assaulted a hundred times by two teachers.
Chris Dawson was transferred to Beacon Hill after rumours about his illicit relationship with Joanne spread.
Students who were groomed at Cromer, Forest Hill and Beacon Hill in the 1970s and 1980s launched claims for damages. Some have been settled.
Twisted Twins? airs tonight at 9pm on ITV1 and is available on ITVX.