The Memphis newlywed who beat his wife to death on their luxury honeymoon has been sentenced to life in a Fiji prison — as his mother-in-law blasted him for being a “monster.”
Memphis IT specialist Bradley Robert Dawson, 41, was found guilty of murdering bride Christe Chen Dawson, 36, inside a bungalow at Fiji’s Turtle Island Resort, the idyllic backdrop for Brooke Shields’ 1980 movie “Blue Lagoon,” according to Fox News Digital.
The couple had only been married five months and were celebrating their honeymoon when the new bride was found lying in a pool of blood with multiple traumatic injuries, including blunt-force trauma to the head.
Her husband attacked her during a drunken argument and then fled the island on a stolen kayak.
Before Dawson was sentenced to life, his victim’s mother, Xiao Wei Liu, told him in a statement to the court: “I hope the memories of what you did to her in her last moments haunt you – because you are a monster.”
“No mother should have to know this is how her daughter’s life ended, and by the hands of the very person who took a vow to love, honor and cherish her,” the grieving mom told him.
“I can only hope that the rest of your life is filled with misery, loneliness and despair.”
The murdered woman’s father, Tao Chen, called her “the center” of the family.
“She was my only child, my little girl, and my reason for living,” he said. “Each day since her death has been a struggle to find meaning in a life that now feels empty.”
Dawson was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 18 years before he is able to apply for Fiji’s equivalent of parole.
“What should have been a truly joyous and memorable vacation was turned into a nightmare for the deceased and her family, causing much pain and sorrow to them,” Judge Riyaz Hamza wrote in his sentencing decision.
Dawson had pleaded not guilty, with his defense claiming his wife fell while drunk — and that her fatal injuries were self-inflicted.
He was convicted after an eight-day trial at Lautoka High Court during which he declined to testify in his defense and did not call any witnesses.
However, the judge refused to accept his claim of it being an accident given the husband’s decision to flee rather than help, and the nature of the wounds that led her cause of death to be listed as homicide by traumatic brain injury.
One hotel worker, Tomasi Mawi, said she found Chen Dawson propped up against the toilet and covered in broken glass in the blood-coated bathroom. The autopsy showed the murdered bride had severe swelling around both eyes and her mouth, bruises and cuts all over her right arm, and a “large gaping” wound on her back.
Other hotel workers also testified about hearing the newlyweds fighting.
Dawson has 30 days to appeal the sentencing.
