Subject of ‘The Teacher’s Pet’ podcast Chris Dawson arrested

The rise of true crime podcasts in 2018 has been typified by yesterday’s arrest of Chris Dawson: the subject of Walkley-award winning podcast The Teacher’s Pet.

The podcast explores the 1982 disappearance of Sydney mother Lyn Dawson, and has been downloaded 27 million times.

It centres around the prime suspect, her husband Chris, who has denied his involvement in the cold case over the years.

The popularity of The Teacher’s Pet, created by Hedley Thomas and Slade Gibson, has catapulted the case back into the public eye, but police have denied that the podcast played any part in Chris Dawson’s arrest yesterday.

As ABC News reports, police sources deny the information unearthed by the podcast led to the man’s arrest, but Lyn’s niece Renee Sims says its influence has been crucial.

“I am actually a really big fan of podcasts and I do listen to a lot of true crime,” she said.

“I sort of encouraged [my parents] and said ‘look, we haven’t gotten anywhere so far, what have we got to lose by doing this podcast?”

Unmarked police cars swooped on Dawson yesterday, almost 37 years after his wife vanished.

Reporters were told that the 70-year-old went calmly.

Last week it was announced The Teacher’s Pet would return for a second series.