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Lindy
Chamberlain pictured in Perth in August this year attending
a justice conference. Photo: Marie Nirme News Limited |
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Lindy
Chamberlain holding her daughter Azaria on Ayers Rock
(Uluru) in the Northern Territory in August 1980. Picture:
File Supplied |
A NEW inquest into the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain will begin on
February 24, Fairfax reports.
Fairfax says Northern Territory Coroner Elizabeth Morris will conduct
the inquest into the death of Azaria, who was nine weeks old when she
disappeared from her parents' tent at Uluru (Ayers Rock) in 1980.
Azaria's mother Lindy said she saw a dingo leave the tent, a claim that
was greeted sceptically by many in a case that gripped the attention of
the nation.
Fairfax says that Ms Morris is reopening the inquiry mainly because of
information provided by the Chamberlains' legal counsel regarding dingo
attacks since Azaria's disappearance.
Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murdering Azaria and sentenced to
life imprisonment in 1982, while her then-husband Michael was given a
suspended sentence after being found guilty of being an accessory after
the fact.
A subsequent royal commission exonerated the Chamberlains in 1987. Their
convictions were quashed but a further coroner's inquest in 1995
delivered an open verdict.
Fairfax says next year's inquest is likely to be the final attempt to
determine exactly what happened.
Ms Chamberlain-Creighton and her former husband will be allowed to be
represented at the inquest. |
