"Dr Chamberlain has not been formally notified that an inquest will be held. But official NT sources have told The Age that moves are under way to prepare for a fourth inquest in Darwin early in the new year.
"NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh told The Age last night that any decision in relation to the Chamberlain case would be made by his office.
''However, as I was a member of the Chamberlains' original legal team, I will be allocating the matter, if necessary, to another coroner,'' he said.
Asked whether the NT Government had approved of, or would support, an inquest, a government spokeswoman said Attorney-General Delia Lawrie was unavailable for comment yesterday."
REPORTER LINDSAY MURDOCH; THE AGE;
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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: It's hard to imagine a more reasonable request than Lindy Chamberlain's bid for a new death certificate which will record the truth - that Azaria was killed by a dingo. To lose a child in those circumstances is bad enough. To be branded as her killer on the basis of ignorance, fear-mongering, faulty police investigation, erroneous expert evidence and a wanting court process, makes matters all the worse. This is compounded by an oppressive prosecution in which Lindy Chamberlain did not have the opportunity to access and conduct tests on key pieces of forensic evidence before her trial. A refusal by the authorities to take such a simple, warranted step, would only be seen as furthering the injustice inflicted on Lindy Chamberlain and her family. It is no answer to say she has been pardoned or that her conviction has been quashed. There will understandably be no closure from the legal process and its dreadful consequences for her until the public record - the death certificate - is corrected. That can't happen soon enough.
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG.
PHOTO: ULURU (AYERS ROCK);
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"THREE decades after Azaria Chamberlain vanished from her parents' campsite at Uluru, a new coronial inquest will seek to answer the question: did a dingo take the baby?," the story by "The Age" reporter Lindsay Murdoch published earlier today begins, under the heading, "NT plans for Azaria inquest"
"Northern Territory authorities are moving to establish the inquest early next year, official sources have told The Age. It will be the fourth in a saga stretching back to the night of August 17, 1980," the story continues.
"Azaria's father, Michael Chamberlain, says his lawyers are preparing to present a case that he is confident will lead to a coroner finding that a dingo took his baby.
On the 30th anniversary of the death in August, the baby's mother, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, asked the NT Government to change Azaria's death certificate to reflect that a dingo was responsible.
The certificate currently lists the cause of death as unknown.
Dr Chamberlain says new evidence includes details of up to six dingo attacks on humans, including the death of nine-year-old Clinton Gage, mauled by two dingoes on Fraser Island off Queensland in 2001.
But he has called for the inquest to investigate the territory's handling of the case that led to the 1982 murder conviction of Azaria's mother and his own conviction as an accessory after the fact.
"There were many unfortunate things that happened in the Northern Territory, whether by ignorance or a kind of plan to take us come hell or high water," he told The Age yesterday.
Dr Chamberlain said there have been many "long knives and 30 years down the track there are still people alive with reputations to protect".
But he said dingo attacks and other new evidence made him decide to push for the quashing of the third inquest in 1995 by then NT coroner John Lowndes that returned an open verdict on Azaria's death.
"It's time. I will be the first to praise the Northern Territory if it happens … let it be seen that they know what justice is even though it has been 30 years," he said.
Dr Chamberlain has not been formally notified that an inquest will be held. But official NT sources have told The Age that moves are under way to prepare for a fourth inquest in Darwin early in the new year.
NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh told The Age last night that any decision in relation to the Chamberlain case would be made by his office.
''However, as I was a member of the Chamberlains' original legal team, I will be allocating the matter, if necessary, to another coroner,'' he said.
Asked whether the NT Government had approved of, or would support, an inquest, a government spokeswoman said Attorney-General Delia Lawrie was unavailable for comment yesterday.
In response to a request from Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton in August, Ms Lawrie asked the NT Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages to look into possible changes to the cause of death, "taking into account the most reliable information that was available".
But the Registrar may not be able to change the certificate while Mr Lowndes' open finding stands, lawyers say.
The disappearance of nine-and-a-half-week-old Azaria from a tent at an Uluru camping ground on August 17, 1980, turned into a celebrated mystery that has gripped the nation.
Defence lawyers described the jailing of a then-pregnant Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton for three years as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Australian legal history. Ultimately she and Dr Chamberlain were exonerated by a royal commission and the NT Court of Criminal Appeal.
Highly damaging evidence at a Supreme Court trial that led, in part, to the convictions included testimony by forensic experts that a spray of foetal blood was found under the dashboard of the family's car.
The spray was later proven to be a vehicle sound deadener.
In 1995, Stuart Tipple, the Chamberlains' long-time advocate, pleaded with Mr Lowndes to record a finding that a dingo took Azaria.
"It is submitted that now that the innocence of the Chamberlains has been authoritatively restored and proclaimed, it would lead to great mischief if their right to the status of innocence was undermined by the formal recording of an open finding in relation to the death," Mr Tipple said at the time.
"The convictions having been wiped away, the law of the land holds the Chamberlains to be innocent," he said.
But Mr Lowndes said he was unable to be reasonably satisfied on the evidence that Azaria died accidentally as a result of being taken by a dingo.
"The only finding that can be recorded is an open finding," he said, that ''the cause and manner of Azaria's death cannot be determined''.
Mr Tipple, from a Gosford NSW firm of lawyers, is co-ordinating the evidence and case for a new inquest.
Dr Chamberlain told The Age he has not spoken with Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton, from whom he is divorced, about the push for an inquest.
But he said their case would be strengthened by their different perspectives."
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The story can be found at:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/nt-plans-for-azaria-inquest-20101010-16e00.html
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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://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
ADDRESS;
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