AZARIA CHAMBERLAIN BOOK ENDING

Screen grab shows Media pack reflected in glass doors of the Darwin Magistrates' Court. Mrs Chamberlain -Creighton said there had been some "skunks " in the media over the years of her ordeal and the ABC streamer said Rupert Murdoch had been branded a liar at the Leveson Inquiry .

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At the end of the coronial hearing, a copy of Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton’s autobiography, first published 1990, the blurb stating it tells of the justice system that betrayed her, was produced from a plastic bag by her American husband. It was taken to the bar table and inscriptions penned by people involved in the marathon case. One of those who signed the book was her lawyer, Stuart Tipple, who wore a red tie with a dingo pattern . Another was former barrister , John Bryson, author of Evil Angels , made into the film, A Cry In The Dark, starring Meryl Streep. Bryson was one of those hugged by Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton.

Outside the court , Bryson said the appellate courts of the land –Federal and High Court- had failed the Chamberlains. There had been plenty of opportunities for the courts to have stepped in and prevented the ordeal from going on and on, he said .

During the long running saga, the Northern Territory News savaged Bryson in an editorial , on March 21, 1987 , responding to southern criticism of the Territory . Bryson, it said, had written a lurid and a patently inaccurate account which had been run prominently in several southern newspapers about “ the heartlessness of the Northern Territory’s politicians and police and the events leading to Mrs Chamberlain’s release.” It declared his book should be thrown into the nearest dustbin and forgotten. The paper vowed it would challenge his “fabrications.”

The editorial went on to say Mrs Chamberlain had been given every possible avenue to prove her innocence. “Fair go”, it continued, may not mean a great deal to southern critics of Territory justice, but it clearly meant something for Territorians. Never had there been such a vitriolic attack on the conduct of justice by a State or on the Federal Courts or on a police force as had occurred in this case.

The editorial said southern critics did not know what they were talking about and indicated they had been carried away by emotional hysteria or were plainly incapable of looking at the facts dispassionately . Looking through a mass of media clippings about the case , you see inspiration for more books, ideas for follow ups, new angles, odd comments and claims, indications of a growing xenophobic attitude to them thar southerners.

Blinking nervously, NT Attorney-General, Rob Knight, himself having been attacked by Territory wildlife- aggressive plovers outside the Wedding Cake - told the media the NT Government would not be offering an apology to the Chamberlains-then slipped into election mode. Strangely, CLP leader, Terry Mills , did not offer an apology to the family despite the fact that his party was in power throughout the bulk of the case. It was up to the current ALP government to do so, he said. It seems the affair could come back and bite a few people at the ballot box .