In his dramatic opening address at the 1982 Darwin trial , Ian Barker, QC , said :
A baby was killed at Ayers Rock on 17th of August 1980 during the evening between eight and nine o’clock. It was a Sunday. The child was just under ten weeks old, having been born on the eleventh of June. She was called Azaria Chamberlain, and was the daughter of the accused Michael Leigh Chamberlain and Alice Lynee Chamberlain. The body of the child was never found but, having evidence concerning the baby’s disappearance, you will have no difficulty determining that she is dead, and that she died on the night she disappeared.
As to the manner and the cause of death, one cannot be precise because the body was never found. However, what will be proved, largely upon scientific evidence of the baby’s clothes, is that the child lost a great deal of blood, in all probability from injury to the major vessels of her neck. She died very quickly because somebody had cut her throat.
The Crown does not venture to suggest any reason or motive for the killing. it is not part of our case that Mrs. Chamberlain had previously shown any ill will towards the child. Nor do we assert that the child was other than a normal baby. The Crown does not, therefore, attempt to prove motive, nor does it invite speculation as to motive. We simply say to you that the evidence to be put before you will prove reasonable doubt that, for whatever reason, the baby was murdered by her mother.
Shortly after the event, the mother asserted, and thereafter continued to assert, that the dead child had been taken from the tent by a dingo. The Crown says that the dingo story was a fanciful lie, calculated to conceal the truth, which is that the child Azaria died by her mother’s hand....
The Crown case against Michael Leigh Chamberlain is that he actively and knowingly assisted his wife to dispose of the child’s body, to mislead the police about the circumstances of the child’s disappearance, to attempt to have the police and the Coroner believe that the baby had been killed by a dingo, and in other ways in attempting to conceal the fact that murder had been committed. At the close of all the evidence I will invite you to find, beyond reasonable doubt, that Michael Leigh Chamberlain is guilty of the crime of being an accessory after the fact to murder, by his wife, of his child, Azaria.
The discovery of foetal blood in the car is a critical part of the Crown case. it would be preposterous to suggest that the dingo took the child from the tent and into the car, and we will submit that the discovery of Azaria’s blood in the car destroys the dingo attack explanation give by Mr. Chamberlain, whatever else there may be to support such explanation, and the Crown says there is almost nothing.
So, ladies and gentlemen, this is a case of simple alternatives. Either a dingo killed Azaria, or it was homicide, because the child could hardly have inflicted injuries upon herself. If she was killed in the car, one can at once forget the dingo....
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As a result of the fourth coronial inquiry into the death of Azaria Chamberlain new information has come to light about the involvement of the late ALP Territory politician , Senator Bob Collins, and others in the ongoing saga , described as "The Trial of the Century." In her autobiography , Lindy Chamberlain wrote that she would still have been in Berrimah Gaol but for the intervention of Bob Collins.
Continually trying to put my files into order , three weeks ago, I reread correspondence from Collins to me in which he made forthright comments about aspects of the case - especially a key witness , and the NT government . The late NT crusading editor, Jim Bowditch, who also spoke out for the Chamberlains , discussed the controversial case with Collins . While doing research into the life of Bowditch, I had asked Collins for details of those discussion and why he ( Collins ) felt the NT Government had pursued Lindy Chamberlain so relentlessly. In fact I used the expression... "the Desert Storm approach to the poor bloody Chamberlain family, especially Lindy ."
Replying, Collins , in an email dated October 24 , 2000 , in part, wrote : ”For two years prior to the incident (the disappearance of Azaria), Derek Roff , head Ranger at Uluru, had been writing to his superiors in Darwin warning them of impending tragedy if the growing problems with aggressive dingoes attacking tourists and particularly young children was not addressed.
"This was happening because tourists were feeding the dingoes despite being warned not to do so . He (Roff) was ignored by the NT Parks and Wildlife Commission.
"All this was given in evidence in the trial, but was ignored by the jury who were blinded by science which the Morling Commission demonstrated was actually science fiction .
"Joy Kuhl , the (late) forensic scientist, who was the chief culprit , found a pool of baby blood that was sound deadener ( in the car ) applied by GMH (General Motors-Holden ).
"She was appointed immediately after the trial as the Chief Forensic Scientist in the NT.
"I was told by a senior forensic scientist at the time in Adelaide that no reputable lab would give her a job cleaning test tubes."
In his email , Collins continued by saying the NT Government had taken the view " from the jump" that if the Chamberlains weren’t guilty then they would be ( and they were right)."
The email I received from Collins included a response to little known details I had given him about Capricornia and Poor Fellow My Country author , Xavier Herbert , and Japanese collectors interest in old style fountain pens, with bladders, in some cases paying hundreds of dollars for one. [ Collins described the information about Herbert as "fascinating " and , in respect of fountain pens, said he used to have a drawer full of them , but his children had disposed of them , and it was hard to find a pencil he could call his own.]
Following the latest coronial inquiry hearing in Darwin at which the Chamberlains sought to obtain closure by having their daughter’s death attributed to a dingo, the decision reserved, I discussed the case and the Collins email with agronomist, Rob Wesley-Smith, who also campaigned for them over the years , firmly believing from the outset that a dingo had taken the child. From his experience dealing with animals , he said there was no doubt that a dingo would be able to extend its jaws to pick up a baby by the head -it being claimed in court by one witness that a dingo could not pick up an infant by the head . See above photograph from Little Darwin file of a dingo taken at Alice Springs in the 1970s .
There was, he continued, ample evidence presented at the latest inquest , that dingoes had taken and attacked children in the past. A key figure in the establishment of the NT Civil Liberties Council , Wesley –Smith , by nature relentless , pursued the matter , expressing himself in letters to newspapers and built up his own " Chamberlain file" over the years , to which he still adds clippings and other documents .
At one stage living in the Smith Street government flats , opposite the Seventh Day Adventist Church , Cavenagh Street , he received several visits from its pastor, who had read his newspaper comments at which the Chamberlain case was discussed .
Commenting on the plight of the Chamberlains , Wesley-Smith recently stated that , in some ways, the couple were their own worst enemies because of their lack of emotion and expression in public , confining themselves to the company of Adventists. The Chamberlains’ lawyer, Stuart Tipple, blamed the "crucifixion" by the Press for the couple’s social ostracism. An expert on communication,Alan Peafe, attributed the antipathy to Lindy to her body language , her stony faced reaction to TV cameras. Sir Alan Walker ,director of World Evangelism, a popular Australian commentator on social and religious matters for many years, said the Chamberlains had been the victims of religious prejudice and discrimination because they were members of a small and little understood Christian church.
Closely associated with the ALP, Wesley-Smith had stood for the seat of Koolpinyah, and approached Collins, then the NT Leader of the Opposition , to speak out for the Chamberlains . Collins listened to what he said and they discussed the case at length . Some months later , Collins did indeed come out in support of the Chamberlains and became regarded as the Chamberlains’ number one campaigner, a move which made him many enemies .
In May 1984 a petition containing 131,000 signatures calling for Lindy Chamberlain’s release and a judicial inquiry was presented to Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. It was also reported that the so called blood pattern in the car was actually paint emulsion. In November 1985 , Melbourne barrister John Bryson published his book EVIL ANGELS , suggesting the Chamberlains might have been wrongly convicted.
Just before Christmas 1985 , tenacious Wesley-Smith , outraged that Lindy Chamberlain was still in prison , rang the home of NT Chief Minister Ian Tuxworth . Mrs Tuxworth answered , and he explained that he wanted to talk to her husband about Lindy Chamberlain. To this very day, he is surprised that he was able to talk to Tuxworth. He would not have been surprised if Ian Tuxworth had not taken the call. However, to his credit, the Chief Minister did take the call and heard him out .
As he recalls the conversation, he strongly urged Tuxworth to release her- "Just let her out !" An Innocence Committee had earlier in the year submitted new evidence to the NT Government and made an application for an inquiry. Tuxworth indicated that he was coming around to the idea that she could be released , Wesley-Smith claims , but no such action was taken .
Then lawyer Stuart Tipple was tipped off on February 3 ,1986 that Azaria’s missing matinee jacket had been found near dingo lairs during the search for the body parts of a fallen climber at Ayers Rock . The jacket had been held in the Alice Springs Court House since January 31 . Mrs Chamberlain positively identified the jacket on February 5 and she was released from prison two days later.
After three years in gaol , having been found guilty by a Darwin jury of having murdered her baby on the front seat of the family car by cutting her throat and sentenced to life imprisonment , Lindy Chamberlain was free .
After a 14 month inquiry , Royal Commissioner Justice Trevor Morling cleared the Chamberlains of any guilt or responsibility . The NT offered a pardon , turned down as it still indicated guilt in Australia . On September 15, 1988, the Supreme Court, Darwin, quashed all convictions and declared the Chamberlains totally innocent.
In 1994 ,Wesley-Smith attended part of the subsequent third inquest in Darwin and was disturbed to hear what he described as shortcomings in the presentation of information on behalf of the Chamberlains .He approached the QC representing them and expressed his concern , pointing out what he considered vital material , mentioned in previous media coverage , had not been presented . Had no instructing lawyer briefed him on this aspect? The QC indicated he had limited support. Wesley-Smith then went away, tracked down the articles ,obtained copies and gave them to the QC. The issue was subsequently raised . .. "I was doing research work on an important aspect of the case that the legal representative for the Chamberlains should have had at his fingertips."
On December 13, 1995 NT Coroner John Lowndes found that neither Lindy nor Michael Chamberlain were in anyway involved with the disappearance of their daughter. He did, however, leave the cause of Azaria’s death "open"-the reason for the latest coronial inquiry, the decision expected some time in the near future.
It is the firm opinion of Wesley-Smith , despite all that has been written about the Azaria Chamberlain case , that there is another book to be penned exploring aspects not so far touched upon, especially what went on within the NT Government, the spin , the leaks , the key players, the role of the media , the state of forensic science in the NT at the time , etc .
He particulary deplores the disregard of powerful evidence given by Aboriginal witnesses about the night Azaria disappeared at Uluru and their comments about dingo tracks and dingoes in the area . Aboriginal trackers , with full back up and support , he maintains , should have spearheaded the search in the vital early days instead of being brushed aside and disregarded. NEXT : More information about the sensational case .
