"The stunning development came after Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton released an emotional letter to "open-minded Australians" calling on the Government to have the courage to finally let Azaria rest.
She said Azaria had been denied justice because her cause of death officially remains "unknown".
The third and last inquest in 1995 into her death on a family holiday at an Uluru campsite on August 17, 1980, recorded an open finding.
"Our family will always remember today as the day truth was dragged in the dirt and trampled upon, but more than that it is the day our family was torn apart forever because we lost our beautiful little Azaria," Ms Chamberlain-Creighton said.
"She will always ever be what this ongoing fight for justice has been all about. She deserves justice. In light of all the evidence before the [Morling] commission this should be reflected on her death certificate and not the open finding that is there now.""
REPORTER JANET FIFE-YEOMANS; THE HERALD SUN;
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BACKGROUND: WIKIPEDIA): Michael and Lindy Chamberlain's first daughter, Azaria, was born on June 11, 1980. When Azaria was two months old, Michael and Lindy Chamberlain took their three children on a camping trip to Ayers Rock, arriving on August 16, 1980. On the night of August 17, Chamberlain reported that the child had been taken from her tent by a dingo. A massive search was organised, but all that was found were remains of some of the bloody clothes, which confirmed the death of baby Azaria. Her body has never been discovered. Although the initial coronal inquiry supported the Chamberlains' account of Azaria's disappearance, Lindy Chamberlain was later prosecuted for the murder of her child on the basis of the finding of the baby's jumpsuit and of tests that appeared to indicate the presence of blood found in the Chamberlains' car. This forensic gathering convicted her of murder on October 29, 1982, and sentenced her to life imprisonment; the theory was that she slit the child's throat and hid the body. Michael Chamberlain was convicted as an accessory to murder. Shortly after her conviction, Lindy Chamberlain gave birth to her fourth child, Kahlia, on November 17, 1982, in prison. An appeal against her conviction was rejected by the High Court in February, 1984. New evidence emerged on February 2, 1986 when a remaining item of Azaria's clothing was found partially buried near Uluru in an isolated location, adjacent to a dingo lair. This was the matinee jacket which the police had maintained for years did not exist. Five days later, Chamberlain was released. The Northern Territory Government publicly said it was because "she had suffered enough." In view of inconsistencies in the earlier blood testing which gave rise to potential reasonable doubts about the propriety of her conviction and as DNA testing was not as advanced in the early 1980s it emerged that the 'baby blood' found in her car could have been any substance, Lindy Chamberlain's life sentence was remitted by the Northern Territory Government and a Royal Commission began to investigate the matter in 1987. Chamberlain's conviction was overturned in September, 1988 and another inquest in 1995 returned an open verdict. In recent years there have been fatal dingo attacks on children, one famous instance being at the holiday resort at Fraser Island.
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Canada has its own Dingo case - the the prosecution of Louise Reynolds for the second-degree murder of her seven-year-old daughter Sharon - Sharon Reynolds case - and it involves none other than Dr. Charles Smith. Smith stubbornly held on to his opinion that Sharon had died after receiving eighty-one knife and scissors wounds - in spite of the clear signs - that should have been evident to a real forensic pathologist that Sharon had been savaged by a Pit Bull in the basement of the family home. As Justice Justice Stephen Goudge noted in the report of his public inquiry, Smith tended "to mislead the court" by overstating his knowledge in a particular area, rather than acknowledging the limits to his expertise. "When Dr. Smith performed the post-mortem examination in Sharon's cases, he had little experience with either stab wounds or dog bites. He had only seen one or two cases of each kind. At the preliminary hearing, however, Dr. Smith left the impression that he had significant experience with both. Dr. Smith told the court: "I've seen dog wounds, I've seen coyote wounds, I've seen wolf wounds. I recently went to the archipelago of islands owned by another country up near the North Pole and had occasion to study osteology and look at patterns of wounding from polar bears. His attempt to so exaggerate his abilities disguised his lack of relevant expertise." Smith's unscientific, utterly ignorant opinion, placed Louise Reynolds in a hell in which she was wrongly arrested as a murderer in her small city, imprisoned, and experiencing the horror of having her other children seized from her by the authorities. Similarly, Lindy Chamberlain, a bereaved mother, was branded as a killer and placed in her own hell, as a result of the Crown's forensic authorities who were so certain about their opinions. Lindy Chamberlain's request to have her daughter's death certificate to reflect the real cause of death to give her and her family closure. The authorities are always talking about the need for the justice system to provide closure for victims of crimes. Why would they hesitate to provide closure to victims of wrongful prosecutions such as Lindy Chamberlain and her husband?
HAROLD LEVY: PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
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"AZARIA Chamberlain's death certificate may finally record that she was killed by a dingo after the Northern Territory Government ordered a review - 30 years to the day since she died," the Herald Sun story by reporter Janet Fife-Yeomans published earlier today under the heading, "
"The stunning development came after Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton released an emotional letter to "open-minded Australians" calling on the Government to have the courage to finally let Azaria rest," the story continues.
"She said Azaria had been denied justice because her cause of death officially remains "unknown".
The third and last inquest in 1995 into her death on a family holiday at an Uluru campsite on August 17, 1980, recorded an open finding.
"Our family will always remember today as the day truth was dragged in the dirt and trampled upon, but more than that it is the day our family was torn apart forever because we lost our beautiful little Azaria," Ms Chamberlain-Creighton said.
"She will always ever be what this ongoing fight for justice has been all about. She deserves justice. In light of all the evidence before the [Morling] commission this should be reflected on her death certificate and not the open finding that is there now."
The 1987 commission, headed by Justice Trevor Morling exonerated Lindy, who had been found guilty of Azaria's murder, and husband Michael, who was found guilty of being an accessory.
She accused the Northern Territory Government of being too stubborn or proud to admit a mistake was made.
"Their own commission proved it was not me, as I had told them all along, so why don't they accept their own claim now?" she said.
"Who knows the reason, but most of all please do not forget that a beautiful little girl died tragically on this date 30 years ago."
Last night, Northern Territory Attorney-General Delia Lawrie said she had asked the Northern Territory Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages to "determine if the cause of death is accurate".
The registrar has the power to hold an inquiry, require people to answer questions and seek fresh information.
"Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton has used the 30th anniversary of the death of Azaria Chamberlain to raise issues concerning the cause of death stated on her daughter's certificate," Ms Lawrie said.
She said that she had asked the Registrar to take "into account the most reliable information that is currently available".
Ms Lawrie has also written to Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton informing her of the inquiry.
NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh, part of the Chamberlains' defence team at their trial in 1982, yesterday declined to make any comment on whether he would need to hold a fresh inquest to overturn the previous finding.
Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton is overseas with her American husband Rick."
The story with its fascinating background materials - can be found at:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/azaria-chamberlains-ghost-may-finally-rest-in-peace-after-mums-plea/story-e6frf7l6-1225906637789
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-feature-cases-issues-and_15.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
