A former student of Chris Dawson left out the "intimate, disgusting details" of their alleged sexual activities when police searching for the woman he's been convicted of murdering asked.
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Dawson, 74, has pleaded not guilty to engaging in sexual activity with a woman known in court as AB between July and December 1980, while she was aged 16 and his student on Sydney's northern beaches.
He was jailed in 2022 for the January 1982 murder of his wife Lynette, with a judge finding he was motivated by a desire to pursue an unfettered relationship with a student.
Public defender Claire Wasley argues the alleged sexual activity began in 1981, after AB had turned 17 and was no longer Dawson's student.
The historical carnal knowledge charge, which Dawson denies, was replaced in 1986.
AB said Dawson exploited problems she was having at home.
"He took advantage of my vulnerability and the fact that he had power in the relationship as a teacher," she told the NSW District Court on Thursday.
She told the court on Tuesday she "went unnoticed" until Dawson saw her topless in a photo circulating at the school in 1979.
Ms Wasley pounced on the new information, saying it did not happen when AB alleges.
"The first time you recalled that in any official way is this week in your evidence," she said, after taking the witness through previous statements she made, including evidence to police, the education department and a coronial inquest, over multiple decades.
AB said she had previously left out details she did not remember or think relevant.
"This statement was made in the matter of a missing person, Lynette Dawson, the intimate disgusting details were not a factor in this statement," she said of one.
Ms Wasley said AB had never mentioned the topless photo before Tuesday's evidence.
"That may be the case but that doesn't mean it's not true," she responded.
The confiscation and return of a topless photo of AB by Dawson must have been significant enough for her to have remembered it before this week, Ms Wasley said.
AB said that was "not necessarily" the case.
"Memories are fickle things and you don't know when they're going to come up," she said.
She described the topless photo incident as her first contact with Dawson, occurring in 1979 on Tuesday, however in previous statements said she had no contact with him before 1980, when she became his student.
"Contact means being in his class," she said on Thursday.
"That's a very traumatic event that I remembered, obviously after these statements, and that's why it's not in them," she said, becoming visually and audibly distressed, via video link.
"I'm not suggesting it did not happen," Ms Wasley said.
"That's not what it sounds like to me," AB said.
She also gave evidence about the words "a pleasure to teach" appearing on her report card as a comment from Dawson in November 1980 after the alleged sexual activity began.
She said it was a "cunning" reference carrying another meaning and Dawson felt "very clever" being able to write it on a public document.
"I suggest you made that up when you saw those reports and spoke to the prosecution this week," Ms Wasley said.
"Well that's garbage," AB said.
The trial continues.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Australian Associated Press
