'The Teacher’s Pet' is a true-crime podcast by Hedley Thomas, The Australian newspaper's award-winning national chief correspondent, and it has had more than 52 million downloads worldwide. Hedley’s book of the same name now brings us behind the scenes of this incredible true story of the disappearance of Lynette Simms from Sydney's idyllic northern beaches in 1982. Lyn's husband Chris Dawson was a rugby league star, a popular teacher and exceptionally close to his identical twin brother, Paul. But this facade of domestic bliss shattered as Chris became infatuated with the family's babysitter – his 16-year-old student – a girl he moved into Lyn's home and bed just two days after her disappearance. This podcast was recorded at West Cork Literary Festival on 16 July 2024 and Hedley was in conversation with crime novelist Catherine Ryan Howard.

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Hedley Thomas is The Australian newspaper’s national chief correspondent, specialising in investigative reporting with an interest in legal issues, the judiciary, corruption and politics. He has won eight Walkley awards including two Gold Walkleys; the first in 2007 for his investigations into the fiasco surrounding the Australian Federal Police investigations of Dr Mohamed Haneef, and the second in 2018 for his podcast, The Teacher’s Pet, investigating the 1982 murder of Sydney mother Lynette Dawson. The Teacher’s Pet podcast has had more than 52 million downloads worldwide and his book of the same name was published by Macmillan Australia in October 2023.

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