After years with his head in the investigation, The Australian’s investigative journo Hedley Thomas yesterday told a Sydney court he initially thought it was “likely” that Chris Dawson murdered his wife. The former teacher/rugby league player is accused of murdering Lyn – who disappeared from the couple’s Northern Beaches home in 1982 – so he could pursue an “unfettered relationship” with a teenager known in the trial as ‘JC’. The now-73yo denies the claims, but in 2018, the unsolved case became the subject of the heaps popular podcast, which has been downloaded 60 million times internationally. Dawson was granted a judge-alone trial over concerns about finding an impartial jury, and his lawyers say the podcast has tainted witnesses in the case. Yesterday, Thomas said he wasn’t “on a campaign to incite prejudice against the accused” and didn’t think Dawson was guilty before starting the project.