Hedley Thomas was going to write a book about the case he had been researching of a missing Sydney mum, but rising interest in the new medium of podcasting made him think twice.

His paper The Australian had already achieved success a year earlier with journalist Dan Box’s Bowraville podcast, the first to win a Walkley Award, that had raised questions about the unsolved serial killings of three Indigenous kids, and briefly looked like it might spark a new trial.

But Thomas’ decision to use the podcast format for his investigation called The Teacher’s Pet saw him go one better, not only triggering the re-arrest of the main suspect, but initiating a successful trial and conviction last month.

Podcasting has proven a powerful new tool in the canon of journalism, and in addition to the impact of The Teacher’s Pet, in recent days the most listened to crime podcast of all time, Serial, also prompted the release of Adnan Syed, who, it argued, may have been wrongfully convicted.

Hedley’s investigation into the disappearance of mum Lynette Dawson, while her husband Chris moved in his teen babysitter and former student, not only uncovered new evidence but, importantly, gave her story a new and very interested audience by looking at an old case through a new lens.

“The whole format was just that you can always find new information,” Thomas told Central News. “I found new witnesses, I found new facts and documents.

“And all of that made me think well, we might actually get somewhere with this case.”

There’s been so many lies told by other people, so it was important to me that we get a result such as this.

Audio has the power to immerse people in a story and when Thomas revisited the case, one he had previously reported on, he decided podcasting had the scope to tell Lynette’s story in more depth and detail.

When Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison convicted former rugby league player Chris Dawson of the 1982 murder  “as a result of a conscious or voluntary act”, Thomas said he felt “relieved”.

“There’s been so much emotional build-up, so much effort that has gone into this,” Thomas said. “There’s been so many lies told by other people, so it was important to me that we get a result such as this.

“She [Lyn Dawson] has actually now achieved something that has been denied to her all these years, and her family has been able to finally get a rest where probably they wouldn’t.”

The podcast also exposed warning signs of domestic violence, coercive control and predatory grooming.

New ‘No body, no parole’ laws are now set to be introduced in New South Wales, sparked by Dawson’s murder conviction and his ongoing refusal to confess what he did with his wife’s body.

The legislation would make it impossible for offenders who do not disclose the location of their victim’s remains, or withhold information about them, to be granted parole.

Thomas said the law is a good move by the state government to help end the torment on the missing person’s families and return their remains to loved ones.

[If] you think it’s unsolved and it’s crying out for an investigation, you will, with persistence, and instinct and hard work, always find more information.

“I think it’s a really good thing that families whose loved ones are still missing, where there’s been a conviction, where someone’s been found guilty,” he said. “Why should they get out early on parole and still leave these families in torment?”

For those hoping to become an investigative reporter in the future, Thomas advises to always trust your gut feeling when it comes to finding a story.

“Trust your instincts,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how deeply something might have been investigated by police or a coroner in the past.

“If you want to pick something up, because you think it’s unsolved and it’s crying out for an investigation, you will, with persistence, and instinct and hard work, always find more information.”

Thomas said aspiring journalists shouldn’t put “too much pressure” on themselves during the process.

“Before I take on something like Lyn Dawson’s disappearance, I want to spend as long a time as I possibly can gathering as much documentary material as I possibly can, all the facts and details that I can find,” he said.

“I want to get a massive file together. And when you sit down and read all this material in detail, you go through it and you always find new stuff.”

Main images supplied.