Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is not suitable for children to listen to
or overhear. It may contain course language, adult themes, and
graphic descriptions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised
that the following program may contain the names of people
who have died. A perfect storm the true story of
(00:21):
the Chamberlain's I.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Think Azaria would have lasted a matter of minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
There were certain people within the Northern Territory Police who
were determined to get her.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
People were saying to me, oh, you're going there to
see that woman who killed a child.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
Bad things happen to good people.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Episode eleven. A promise is a promise?
Speaker 6 (00:45):
Hello, I'm John Bug. It had been more than five
years since Azaria Chamberlain was taken by a dingo. Her
body hadn't been found, and her mother was in prison,
separated from her husband, two sons, and a newborn daughter.
Thousands of Australians were still troubled by Lindy Chamberlain's conviction.
Speaker 7 (01:10):
Well, Hi John Let's Phil Castle.
Speaker 6 (01:13):
Canberra Times journalist Philip Castle received late night calls from
two of them.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Now this I'm not even sure of the legalities here,
but I was contacted by two jurists who were on
the trial on her first trial. And as you know,
and I know, that's illegal, you can't shouldn't talk to
juris who have been involved in a criminal case. So
I was pretty wary about taking those calls.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
But I thought, right, they've wrung me. I haven't approached them.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
They did identify themselves, and I don't care to do that.
But I said to both of them, why are you
ringing me? And they said, well, we think we got
it wrong. And I said, and in a way they
are almost I don't know whether i'd spoken to each
other before, but both of them confirmed that they had
been overwhelmed by the scientific information. You know, we just
(02:04):
didn't get it. I said, well, what was it that
made you feel you needed to find her guilty? And
in essence, both of them said to me, she looked guilty.
Speaker 8 (02:17):
Like residents in the South, people in Darwin are convinced
Lindy Chamberlain should remain behind bars.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
If she's guilty, well she should stay there for good age.
Speaker 9 (02:27):
I don't think she should be because I don't think
it's fair that if she gets let out, why the
other people should stay in there?
Speaker 10 (02:32):
I should keep it.
Speaker 11 (02:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 12 (02:35):
I think she's guilty. I think she should stay there.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
Such was the impact of Lindy's appearance at two inquests
on her trial.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
She'd been found guilty by a.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Jury and by the Australian public at large, the Chamberlain
story would not go away. Campaigners, politicians and the media
made sure of that.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
Politicians lobby for the release of Lindy Chamberlain.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The razor wire.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Here the government official who could order a new inquiry
arrived back in Darwin.
Speaker 8 (03:09):
The Territory's Attorney General, Marshall Perrin, flew back into the
Northern city late disumer when will you be making your
announcement regarding the release of Lindy Chamberlain.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
No comment to make on the release of Miss chamber
Perrin was getting pressured from the federal government and Free
Lindy groups in the Southern States, but perhaps his most
strident critic was a local, the Northern Territory Opposition leader
Bob Collins.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
I think that the one thing that's overwhelmingly through is
that the Chamberlain family have received punishment which is beyond
compare so he cannot be compared with any other case
in Australia.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Collins was insistent with calls for a full judicial inquiry
to test evidence against the Chamberlains.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
For the sake of her children, I think she should
be released from Bearrmar jail now.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Lindy Chamberlain expressed heartache over Collins's death a few years
after this interview was recorded, and she said, quote in
a time when truth, honesty and justice were scarce, Bob
Collins stood like a bright light in a raging sea
of hatred and injustice.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Unquote.
Speaker 6 (04:25):
Now you've heard me saying all through the podcast that
the police had found all of Azaria's clothing except the
matinee jacket. I need to play this explanation from the
Chamberlain's longtime lawyer, Stuart Tipple.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
From the earliest time I got involved, she actually gave
me an identical matine jacket. And when I receive the
jumpsuit from the Crown, and before I took it to England,
I actually put the matinate jacket that she gave me
over the jumpsuit and I knew she was telling the
(05:02):
truth because on each sleeve end I could see that
there were drops of blood, but there was a sculptured
pattern on each of the arms, and when you put
the matinee jacket on, you could see that the sculptured
(05:23):
ends of the matinee jacket fitted the pattern of the
blood staining, so I knew what she was saying was right.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
You've also heard people like retired Judge Kenneth Raphael explain
that if the matinee jacket had been found during the
appeals process, that it would constitute new or cogent evidence.
But it hadn't and wasn't. So let's go back to
the first weeks of nineteen eighty six summer in Australia.
(05:56):
David Brett, a thirty one year old tourist from Kent
in the UK, moved into a shared rental property in
the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondai, New South Wales. Detectives
later found evidence in the apartment that the young man
was interested in witchcraft and sorcery, and he had collected articles.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
On the chamberlains.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Brett left Sydney for the Australian Outback, his destination Ooloarou.
Like so many before him, the Englishman wanted to climb
the Big Red Rock, but he ignored the normal path
up the monolith.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And why would he do that?
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Well, because David Brett was not a normal tourist. At
eight pm on Sunday, January twenty sixth, nineteen eighty six,
which was Australia Day, David Brett made a calculation, perhaps intentional,
perhaps not.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Either way, it was fatal.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
Decided to ascend in the evening when the surface was Sliprio,
an indigenous couple with the last to see him alive
as he walked toward an area where tourists are forbidden.
Brett's disappearance didn't make the headlines in the following days.
Speaker 7 (07:20):
Challenger Go with drown up.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
At eleven am.
Speaker 13 (07:27):
This morning space program experienced a national tragedy with the explosion.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
Of the space Every news bulletin featured the US Space
Shuffle Challenger, which had exploded on launch, taking with it
the crew and in particular teacher CHRISTA McAuliffe. And then
a week after he fell to his death, locals found
the body of David Brett at the base of Oolaru,
(07:57):
near a Dingo lair. Than Territory Police Sergeant Mike Van
Haytereson set up a crime scene and organized a line
search with rangers and local business.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
People, and in that line search, there was only one
person that had been at the rock in nineteen eighty
six years before that had also been in the search
for Azaria. It was John Beezy, the mechanic. He was
walking in the line search and he had a policeman
(08:29):
on either side, and as he was walking near where
the body was found, he saw a little bit of
material protruding from the sand, and he reached down and
he pulled on it, and the sand came away and
he pulled out what was the matinee jacket. He was
the only person in that line search that would have
(08:52):
realized and recognized its significance. A miracle, the miracle we needed,
and the miracle that happened.
Speaker 14 (09:04):
Northern Territory police say a baby's white jacket was found
about ninety meters from the body of a thirty one
year old man. The man, a tourist, had apparently been
attempting a climb of the rock when he fell. It's
believe that jacket was found near the spot where Michael
and Lindy Chamberlain's baby Azaria.
Speaker 15 (09:20):
The guy falls off the rock and they find the
matinee jacket.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
What are the odds?
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Journalist Paul White had covered the Chamberlain trial for seven years,
but was now at the ABC. He was tasked with
finding out more about David Brett.
Speaker 15 (09:36):
And then I rang his mother in England. It was
one of those moments where you just you never forget
this woman down the phone where you've said I'm sorry
to bother you, you know, agringing about your son from the ABC,
and she'as, oh, I'm not surprised he's dead. He said
if he didn't come back, he'd been sacrificed, and with
all you know, the tales of witchcraft and sacrifice in
(10:01):
the wilderness, and I just sort of oh, well, that's
interesting and why would he say that, And we sort
of chatted, Oh, he was into that sort of thing
and being at the ABC at the time, and it
was post the High Court, the thing had been dealt with.
I personally wasn't going to go anywhere near a witchcraft story,
(10:23):
but I did pass it on to one of the
Sydney tabloids and then the story came out that he
was obsessed with the Chamberlains.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
And so I immediately made contact with the Attorney General
and the Solicitors General and I said, has a jacket
been found and they said yes, And I said, well,
I want your assurance that nothing's going to happen to
that and there's not going to be any testing until
we're part of it and we can agree on a protocol,
(10:55):
because what I'm terrified about is, hey, what if they
get some one that doesn't do a good job, or
what if it disappears and it does not tested correctly.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
Before he left for Darwin, Stuart Tipple spoke to seven News.
Speaker 16 (11:10):
How willing do you think the Crown is to accept
new evidence.
Speaker 17 (11:13):
Well, they certainly have been reluctant to have the case reopened,
and you've got to understand this finding isn't going to
help them at all because the Crown case is always
being that there never was a matinee jacket, that Missus
Stateman was lying. So if in fact this turns out
to be the matinee jacket, another very important part of
the Crown case is demolished.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Michael Chamberlain was the next to speak to the media.
Speaker 17 (11:38):
Well, I'm stunned and amazed, but very grateful, grateful because
I think this just goes to show once again that.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
My wife was killing the truth.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
The media's focus was suddenly back on experts and the
Northern Territory Police. I asked Graham Childwood what he recalls
this time sentence for Asaria's murder.
Speaker 12 (12:01):
In terms of the finding the matine jacket, that was
no surprise to me. My memory is that they had
substantial rain at Ezrach and the jacket, no doubt was
exposed as a result of that sort of rain. Again,
there was nothing inconsistent with what we'd found from the
(12:23):
clothing that we'd becovered earlier.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
So I arrived at Darwin Airport and there's a police
officer there to meet me. So my role suddenly changed
from being persona on grata. Suddenly I've got a policeman
that not only meets me, but whisked me away and
the Commissioner's car to the police headquarters where I meet
(12:53):
the Commissioner of Police and so we sit down, we
agree on a protocol. Lindy's to be brought in and
she is to be shown the matinee jacket and she
is going to identify whether it's Azzari's or not.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
The Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services have made
available to me a recording of when Detective Superintendent Neil
Plum and several forensic personnel showed Lindy Chamberlain and Stuart
Tipple the Mastermate jacket.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
So I'm there, in comes as bag. It's all sealed up.
We break the seals. We bring out this jacket and
I immediately see the tag and it's a Marquee brand,
which is exactly the same one that Lindy.
Speaker 9 (13:51):
Had given me.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
And it's very weathered and it's obviously something that has
been planted, has been out there for a long time.
So Lindy spends had a long time looking at it
and that the police are getting agitated. Come on, surely
you can tell whether it And Lindy said, I'd like
(14:17):
to speak to my lawyer. So anyway, they said, oh,
you know, come out to this room. So anyway, go
out to this room, and Lindy says to me, I
don't I don't want to talk to you and here
knowing how to take things before. So we go out
to the corridor somewhere where we think she can talk
(14:40):
to me and and not be observed, and she's no
doubt it's it's the jacket. So we talk about you
know what we're going to say and do and go
back in there and she identifies it.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
After viewing the jacket, Lindy chain Blind was returned to prison.
Stuart Tipple flew to Oolaroo in the Police Force aircraft
and Police Commissioner Peter mcaulay began a hastily arranged press conference.
Speaker 13 (15:14):
I'm ready to go, if everybody ready to go, ladies
and gentlemen, about this afternoon. Missus Chamberlain inspected the garment
found at airs Rock on Sunday of the second of February,
and she inspected at a police headquarters. She believes that
(15:35):
the garment found is the matinee jacket worn by her
child at the time of its disappearance. It was agreed
that officers of the Victorian Forensic Science Unit will be
in charge of conducting further.
Speaker 18 (15:48):
It had happened just before we were having a cabinet
meeting and the Chief Minister told me that I just
got the advice that this had through the Police Force,
that this had been found.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Darryl Mansey was a senior member of the Northern Territory
government under Chief Minister Ian Tucksworth.
Speaker 18 (16:08):
We had our law people sort of provide the advice
immediately of what do we do now? And of course
their recommendation was to recognize that what had been dismissed
for a long long time, in fact one of the
claims were true, and therefore the rest could be true.
(16:31):
So we made the decision, and it was pretty it
was one that wasn't argued by anyone to advise to
release her on that ground and also to advise the
people to look at where we go from here.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
Of course, the discovery of the jacket and confirmation of
it being Azaria Chamberlain's set the news world a light again.
Speaker 7 (16:56):
This is Lindy Chamberlain's identification of a fragment of baby
Clue is the missing Matten lead jacket.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
The Northern Territory government had another decision on its hands,
and it also involved Lindy Chamberlain. Three months earlier, the
Solicitor General, Mister Brian Martin had examined joy Cool's forensic
tests and said the government stood by them. He said
that the tests had been quote enhanced by everything learned
(17:24):
since the trial unquote. The trouble was bearing worker. The
German company that had made the test kits knew they
were faulty, and they had written to mister Martin and
told him. So the letter also made its way to
the Northern Territory Opposition leader Bob Collins, a longtime Chamberlain supporter,
(17:46):
and he read the letter out loud to Brian Anderson
from seven News.
Speaker 10 (17:50):
We would like to stress again that this part of
evidence cannot have decisive importance. That if this is the
matter which caused the Chamberlain's conviction, then they should be released.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
How does the Northern Territory Government have any choice now
other than to reopen the Chamberlain case.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You've got this report that you've.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
Commissioned, and also the material that's been found at ear.
Speaker 10 (18:14):
Is rock No, no at all. The Northern Territory government
decided last year not to have an inquiry based on
the Martin Report. Now logically, if the Martin report falls,
then the decisions that the governments might have to fall
with it.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
Barry Botcher's unfailing belief in Lindy Chamberlain science and himself
was vindicated. Bob Collins called him a newcastle.
Speaker 11 (18:39):
And when he rang me on the Friday afternoon to
give me the good news, Ah, of course I was elated.
Speaker 12 (18:51):
I cried.
Speaker 11 (18:53):
Because the case had had such an effect on the
Chamberlain family, and of course I was involved and knew
how wrong the so called scientific evidence against them.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
Was just after dawn at Airs Rock to avoid the
worst of the heat. The search began early, this time
a search for Azaria's body, it remains.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
David Jones had covered the second inquest into Azaria's death
and was now back at Oolaroo as police extended their
search from where the massine jacket had been found. The
significance of what had just happened wasn't lost on him.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
Everything that Missus Chamberlain had said about Azaria's disappearance was true.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
So that actually was.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
A profound moment for I think everyone in the country
who had followed the case closely.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Jones interviewed Stuart Tipple at the Rock.
Speaker 7 (19:56):
Stuart, you're now leaving the site. Are you satisfied with
the arrangers of the It's.
Speaker 17 (20:00):
One of the primary reasons for coming here was to
lay down procedures and to make sure they're workable. That's
now been achieved, and if those procedures are maintained, I'll
be satisfied.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
So I fly from the Rock to Allie Springs and
I'm waiting at the airport to get my connection to
Sydney and I hear announcement mister Tipple, can you come
to the office. We have a call for it. So
I'll make my way to the office and pick up
the phone and the voice says, this is Marshall Perron,
the Northern Territory Attorney General. I'm just telling you that
(20:36):
Lindy has been released on license and we're calling a
Royal commission and will not matter what the Royal Commission
result is, you will not have to return to jail.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
And I think it was when we're at Aarsrock the
news came through that Missus Chamberlain was being released from
Berrima jail.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
We need to take a Q break and will return
to a perfect storm in just a moment. You'll probably
remember me saying that our legal system is designed to
keep guilty people in jail and occasionally, unfortunately, innocent people
get caught in that system and they stay there. While
(21:20):
the discovery of the Matinee Jacket changed everything, it gave
the Northern Territory government in this case a reason to
review all of the evidence both Old annyw and to
release Missus Chamberlain so she could access her legal team.
Marshall Perrin held a press conference that stunned everyone watching.
Speaker 16 (21:40):
I'm here to advise that the Northern Territory Government has
decided to institute an inquiry into the Chamblain case. The
decision follows advice received from the Solicitor General and the
Police Commissioner on what they regard as significant new evidence.
They have advised me that the discovery of a baby's
matin ageet near Ears near the base of Ears Rock,
(22:02):
and its subsequent identification of Missus Chamberlain may have a
bearing on the case. I can also advise that a
short time ago, His Honor the Administrator accepted the advice
of Executive Counsel that the balance of Missus Chamberlain's life
sentence be remitted and that she be released from day
in prison. The decision to say recommend to His Honor
(22:23):
was made in the light of Missus Chamberlain's need for
unrestricted access to legal advisors to prepare for the inquiry.
Although Missus Chamberlain's remission is subject to the usual condition
of good behavior, it is not by intention that she
be taken back into custody. Regardless of the outcome of
the inquiry.
Speaker 15 (22:43):
You can't have a case like this one ever again,
where the man falls off the rock, they go searching
for his body and they turn up the matinee jacket.
I mean, if that hadn't happened, she might have spent ten, fifteen,
twenty years in jail and she was released within a
few days, wasn't she, which in itself.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Was I thought was astonishing.
Speaker 15 (23:04):
I would have thought the charity at that point would
have gone, all, well, we need to reconsider all these matters.
But someone must have been very clear in the territory
to say this utterly destroys the case.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
And you've got to let her out.
Speaker 19 (23:19):
Lindy Chamberlain was freed from Darwin's Burham A prison just
after three point thirty this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
She was ushered into a waiting.
Speaker 10 (23:25):
Car, which then sped through the streets of Darwin towards us.
Speaker 12 (23:29):
Can't ask me why the government knee jerked on it.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I have no idea, Right, what do you mean by
letting her out? Or yes, okay, but they couldn't not
let her out.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Could well?
Speaker 12 (23:41):
I'm not sure that. As I said, there was from
my memory, no inconsistent evidence on the jacket with what
we previously found.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Graham Childwood had led the police investigation into the death
of Azaria Chamberlain.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
In my mind, it didn't change anything. It just added
one more bit of evidence, one item of evidence that
was again consistent with what we previously had.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
Releasing her in some way under minds either your work
or the jury's decision.
Speaker 12 (24:15):
Not my work. My work, as I said, was done
and dusted before the trial. But in terms of terms
of the jury and to some extent the appeal court,
you know, this wasn't just a jury judge process that
has been gone through. It involved, as you said, a
number of appeals mis apparent.
Speaker 7 (24:35):
How quickly was the decision made to release Lindy Chamberlain.
Speaker 16 (24:39):
How quickly was it made to release her? It was
made following the decision to hold an inquiry into the
case to date as a result of the new evidence
being founded. There is rock was made over a period
of a couple of days, days rather than ours, of
course days. There was no no not panic, as one
(25:02):
newspaper headlined it today, not at all so the Northern Territory,
in fact, the whole of Australia hasn't heard the last
of the Chamberlain case.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
Now at that point, quite clearly, the first coroner Dennis Barrett,
it was becoming had become quite obvious, so that his
initial finding that the dingo had taken Azaria had been vindicated,
and so missus Chamblain had been released from Berrima jail.
(25:32):
So I was asked to get back to Alice Springs
as quickly as possible, to do a live cross with
Dennis Barrett into the top of the news at six
o'clock Sydney time.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
I'd given Lindy a promise that when she was going
to be released, that I would fly to Darwin and
accompany her. And here I am. I'm in Alice Springs.
So I go up to dar and I go to Sydney.
Will to be quite frank. I was exhausted and I
just wanted.
Speaker 12 (26:06):
To get home.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
So I was committed to going to Sydney anyway. I
got on the plane, got to Sydney, and I rang
her and I sought her release from my promise, said Lindy,
I'm so tired. Do you still want me to keep
my promise and come to Darwin? And she said, Stewart,
(26:29):
a promise is a promise.
Speaker 12 (26:32):
Somebody to talk to Alice Springs.
Speaker 16 (26:33):
Can you talk David it's Ross here, mate, Yes, Ross,
can you hear me?
Speaker 9 (26:37):
Right?
Speaker 7 (26:37):
Can here you find mate?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Okay, So it'll.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Be when we rushed into the telecom shed in Alice Springs,
literally as Rossheimer's read the intro, the microphone was going on,
the camera was being set properly, and it was bank
straight into a live Cross interview with Dennis Barrett. And
as I recall it, I think my first question was
(27:00):
to Barrett, do you feel that you've been vindicated.
Speaker 12 (27:01):
By these events? No?
Speaker 16 (27:03):
I never ever felt that I required any vindication on
the evidence before me. I'm quite happy with the finding
that I made. I've always been happy with the finding
that I made.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
Did you feel that a woman who was innocent has
gone to jail?
Speaker 16 (27:18):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (27:19):
Well have you felt knowing that for all these years?
So the missus Chamblain has been in Durhamer Jail serving
her time. Most unhappy now this has been released.
Speaker 16 (27:28):
Delighted now, delighted for her, I suppose particularly her family.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
The news of Lindy Chamberlain's release caught everyone by surprise.
Seven cent reporter Graham French to interview Lindy's parents, Cliff
and Avis Murchison.
Speaker 16 (27:44):
I've got a dictionary in there, but I don't think
there's a word in it that can fully explain just
how thrilling and wonderful it is to know that she's
coming home. But her name has got to be clear,
not for her sake only, not just for our sake,
but for everybody's sake. They can't do this kind of
thing in Australia.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Another crew went to Sully Shaw's home in Hobart.
Speaker 9 (28:08):
Well, it's tremendous, of course our evidence and from what
we observed on the night, she never should have been there.
Speaker 10 (28:14):
So the finding of this jacket, what veering do you
think this will have on the case.
Speaker 9 (28:20):
Well, the first one I know is that the Crown
claimed the jacket was a complete lie by Missus Chamblain.
So and actual fact, the Crown has been proved wrong
in that aspect. She certainly didn't lie about the jacket.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
And here's Opposition leader Bob Collins.
Speaker 10 (28:39):
And in fact, what Lindy Chamberlain said to me last
night was now that the public note, the people that
have got doubts about this case, know that I've been
telling the truth about that from the very beginning. When
the prosecution said I wasn't maybe they'll start to believe
I was telling the truth about everything else.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
Attorney General Marshall Parron introduced legislation into the Northern Territory
Parliament which did a commission of inquiry into the Chamberlain convictions.
I asked retired Federal Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Raphael his
opinion of the decision.
Speaker 20 (29:11):
It was a very sensible thing to do to call
a raw commission and then the government could act on
the report.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
Federal Court judge just as Trevor Marling was picked to
head the commission, and he chose to sit mainly in
Darwin in a specially renovated police station.
Speaker 19 (29:35):
It's three months to the day since Lindy Chamberlain was
free from Darwin's Barrim jail.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
The Chamberlain's lawyers, witnesses and journalists like Paul White arrived
to cover the commission.
Speaker 15 (29:48):
Marling was a classic.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Straight New South Wales judge.
Speaker 15 (29:54):
It was pretty clear to me that this was only
going one way.
Speaker 20 (30:00):
What takes place in the Royal Commission, or what took
place at that Royal Commission, because you have to distinguish
that Royal Commission from others. Was in effect another trial
of the chamberlains. Instead of being before a jury, it
was before a judge alone or a former judge. But
(30:23):
all the matters that were considered to be controversial at
the time of the trial were investigated and reconsidered. In particular,
of course, the forensic evidence.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Inspector Charldwood came under intense questioning today about his handling
of an examination of the Chamberlain's car in October nineties.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Justice Morling was assisted by mister Porter and mister Caldwell,
while mister Barker and mister Adams appeared for the Northern
Territory Government and Police Force. Among the one hundred and
forty five witnesses called with the same police, medical and
forensic specialists that have become well known Charlwood, Gilroy, Metcalfe,
(31:07):
Cameron and Cool.
Speaker 19 (31:09):
In a written statement, missus Coole revealed today that she
hadn't used the full range of scientific checks during tests
on twenty eight of the items found.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
Mauling heard from Sally Shaw, her then husband, Greg Murray, Habe,
Judith West and park rangers like Ian Carwood.
Speaker 19 (31:27):
He agreed with counsel assisting the inquiry, Chester Port, a QC.
That a dingo could carry a weight like a nine
and a half pound baby.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Justice Morling also heard from the indigenous people of the
Ularu region Daisy walk about Impana Collins, new Eminion, Tiri,
Barbara Jekadoo and Nipper Win Marty, and.
Speaker 19 (31:48):
For the first time he testified that the tracks went
into the Chamberlain's tent. I seen the tracks with my
own eyes. They gone in and gone out.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
And of course the Chamberlains were called and questioned yet
again by Ian Barker QC.
Speaker 8 (32:05):
On her fourth day in the witness box, Lindy Chamblain
found the tensions and memories too great. Bursting into tears,
she lowered her head, unable to speak.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
After ten long months, just as Trevor Marling closed the
commission and after consideration, his findings were tabled in the
Northern Territory Parliament on June Tewod nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 21 (32:25):
Mister Justice Morling's report tabled in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.
Speaker 20 (32:29):
I thought it was a very restrained conclusion. His last
paragraph is quite interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
He says just this.
Speaker 20 (32:38):
It follows from what I have written that there are
serious doubts and questions as to the Chamberlain's guilt and
as to the evidence of the trial leading to their conviction.
In my opinion, if the evidence before the commission had
been given at the trial, the trial judge would have
been obliged to direct the jury to acquit the Chamberlain's
on the grounds that the evidence could not justify their conviction.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
The trouble is Justice Trevor Marling's findings in a sense
echoed Coroner Dennis Barrett's. They undermined the forensic work, cast
doubt but not criticism of the police, and supported the
Dingo theory, and they left enough ambiguity for disbelievers to
(33:19):
disbelieve Justice Marling listed fifteen actions that missus Chamberlain needed
to have carried out in the five to ten minutes
that she was away from the other campus in order
to murder her own child, and then he wrote that
it was quote only barely possible that she could have
committed the crime alleged against her.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
I don't understand this.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
If he believed Sally Shaw's evidence and the doubts around
the blood forensics, it wasn't barely possible. It was impossible
After ten months and millions of dollars spent nothing was resolved.
Darryl Mansey, who was now Attorney General, was caught in
a legal stalemate between Azaria's parents, who wanted exoneration, and
(34:07):
his political colleagues who could not see a proclamation of
innocence in Morling's report. And to make matters worse, Mansy
couldn't quash the Chamberlain's convictions even if he wanted to,
because that was not possible under existing laws. There was
only one thing he could do.
Speaker 18 (34:26):
After my statement of the Parliament made it very clear
that one of the first things I did was notify
the administrator that will be advising him that there'll be
a pardon.
Speaker 8 (34:40):
They today have officially pardoned both of you.
Speaker 22 (34:43):
It's great to be pardoned for something you haven't done.
As it is, convictions stand and we've been pardoned for
something that never happened.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
And of course it was a decision that satisfied no one.
Speaker 21 (34:58):
At a heated news conference, Attorney General Darryl Mansey rejected
suggestions that the report warranted a quastion, claiming the Chamberlains
now will have no criminal record.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
They're not walking around as convicted people. They've pardoned.
Speaker 18 (35:11):
They have their status as it was prior to the trial.
Speaker 20 (35:14):
You see, you're only your pardoned for an offense that
you have committed, whereas if you've never committed the offense,
the pardoner is inseless to you because you want to
be acquitted of it. She offered her pardon, said no, no,
and I think quite rightly.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Once again, the legal system fell short in nineteen eighty seven.
If you were innocent and got out of jail and
had evidence to appeal a conviction, you couldn't. Politicians needed
to change the law, Darryl Mansey.
Speaker 18 (35:50):
So if the legal system fails, then the politicians need
to adjust legislation to ensure it works.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Stuart Tipple was pushing.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
For so we've written today telling him we don't agree,
pointing out the authorities and asking for a special Act
of Parliament to be part.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
Lindy Chamberlain was, as ever calm and measured.
Speaker 22 (36:12):
It's time that they turned around and said, look, we
admit we were wrong, we are sorry about it, and
this is our public way of saying we're sorry.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
Aside from having the convictions quashed, Missus Chamberlain wanted a
revised death certificate that correctly identified her daughter's cause of
death as being the result of being attacked and taken
by a dingo. This is Coroner Elizabeth Morris.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Azariah Chamberlain died at Ularu, then known as airs Rock,
on the seventeenth of August nineteen eighty. The cause of
her death was as the result of being attacked and
taken by a dingo. Please accept my sincere sympathy on
the death of your special and loved daughter, insisted her Azaria.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
This proclamation doesn't happen for another twenty five years. In
the next episode, we'll relive the final journey from a
false pardon to Coroner Morris's courtroom and the resolution of
an appalling miscarriage of justice. If you subscribe now, you'll
(37:24):
get an alert the moment.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
We dropped the last show.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
I'd like to say thanks to Nicky, Simon and Stephen
who helped create this episode, and a shout out to Vincent,
donna Ian and Tess, and thanks to you for listening.
This episode is not suitable for children to listen to
or overhear. It may contain course language, adult themes, and
graphic descriptions. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised
that the following program may contain the names of people
who have died. A perfect storm the true story of
(00:21):
the Chamberlain's I.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Think Azaria would have lasted a matter of minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
There were certain people within the Northern Territory Police who
were determined to get her.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
People were saying to me, oh, you're going there to
see that woman who killed a child.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
Bad things happen to good people.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Episode eleven. A promise is a promise?
Speaker 6 (00:45):
Hello, I'm John Bug. It had been more than five
years since Azaria Chamberlain was taken by a dingo. Her
body hadn't been found, and her mother was in prison,
separated from her husband, two sons, and a newborn daughter.
Thousands of Australians were still troubled by Lindy Chamberlain's conviction.
Speaker 7 (01:10):
Well, Hi John Let's Phil Castle.
Speaker 6 (01:13):
Canberra Times journalist Philip Castle received late night calls from
two of them.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Now this I'm not even sure of the legalities here,
but I was contacted by two jurists who were on
the trial on her first trial. And as you know,
and I know, that's illegal, you can't shouldn't talk to
juris who have been involved in a criminal case. So
I was pretty wary about taking those calls.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
But I thought, right, they've wrung me. I haven't approached them.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
They did identify themselves, and I don't care to do that.
But I said to both of them, why are you
ringing me? And they said, well, we think we got
it wrong. And I said, and in a way they
are almost I don't know whether i'd spoken to each
other before, but both of them confirmed that they had
been overwhelmed by the scientific information. You know, we just
(02:04):
didn't get it. I said, well, what was it that
made you feel you needed to find her guilty? And
in essence, both of them said to me, she looked guilty.
Speaker 8 (02:17):
Like residents in the South, people in Darwin are convinced
Lindy Chamberlain should remain behind bars.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
If she's guilty, well she should stay there for good age.
Speaker 9 (02:27):
I don't think she should be because I don't think
it's fair that if she gets let out, why the
other people should stay in there?
Speaker 10 (02:32):
I should keep it.
Speaker 11 (02:34):
I don't know.
Speaker 12 (02:35):
I think she's guilty. I think she should stay there.
Speaker 6 (02:39):
Such was the impact of Lindy's appearance at two inquests
on her trial.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
She'd been found guilty by a.
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Jury and by the Australian public at large, the Chamberlain
story would not go away. Campaigners, politicians and the media
made sure of that.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
Politicians lobby for the release of Lindy Chamberlain.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The razor wire.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Here the government official who could order a new inquiry
arrived back in Darwin.
Speaker 8 (03:09):
The Territory's Attorney General, Marshall Perrin, flew back into the
Northern city late disumer when will you be making your
announcement regarding the release of Lindy Chamberlain.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
No comment to make on the release of Miss chamber
Perrin was getting pressured from the federal government and Free
Lindy groups in the Southern States, but perhaps his most
strident critic was a local, the Northern Territory Opposition leader
Bob Collins.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
I think that the one thing that's overwhelmingly through is
that the Chamberlain family have received punishment which is beyond
compare so he cannot be compared with any other case
in Australia.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Collins was insistent with calls for a full judicial inquiry
to test evidence against the Chamberlains.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
For the sake of her children, I think she should
be released from Bearrmar jail now.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Lindy Chamberlain expressed heartache over Collins's death a few years
after this interview was recorded, and she said, quote in
a time when truth, honesty and justice were scarce, Bob
Collins stood like a bright light in a raging sea
of hatred and injustice.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Unquote.
Speaker 6 (04:25):
Now you've heard me saying all through the podcast that
the police had found all of Azaria's clothing except the
matinee jacket. I need to play this explanation from the
Chamberlain's longtime lawyer, Stuart Tipple.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
From the earliest time I got involved, she actually gave
me an identical matine jacket. And when I receive the
jumpsuit from the Crown, and before I took it to England,
I actually put the matinate jacket that she gave me
over the jumpsuit and I knew she was telling the
(05:02):
truth because on each sleeve end I could see that
there were drops of blood, but there was a sculptured
pattern on each of the arms, and when you put
the matinee jacket on, you could see that the sculptured
(05:23):
ends of the matinee jacket fitted the pattern of the
blood staining, so I knew what she was saying was right.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
You've also heard people like retired Judge Kenneth Raphael explain
that if the matinee jacket had been found during the
appeals process, that it would constitute new or cogent evidence.
But it hadn't and wasn't. So let's go back to
the first weeks of nineteen eighty six summer in Australia.
(05:56):
David Brett, a thirty one year old tourist from Kent
in the UK, moved into a shared rental property in
the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondai, New South Wales. Detectives
later found evidence in the apartment that the young man
was interested in witchcraft and sorcery, and he had collected articles.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
On the chamberlains.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Brett left Sydney for the Australian Outback, his destination Ooloarou.
Like so many before him, the Englishman wanted to climb
the Big Red Rock, but he ignored the normal path
up the monolith.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And why would he do that?
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Well, because David Brett was not a normal tourist. At
eight pm on Sunday, January twenty sixth, nineteen eighty six,
which was Australia Day, David Brett made a calculation, perhaps intentional,
perhaps not.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Either way, it was fatal.
Speaker 6 (07:00):
Decided to ascend in the evening when the surface was Sliprio,
an indigenous couple with the last to see him alive
as he walked toward an area where tourists are forbidden.
Brett's disappearance didn't make the headlines in the following days.
Speaker 7 (07:20):
Challenger Go with drown up.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
At eleven am.
Speaker 13 (07:27):
This morning space program experienced a national tragedy with the explosion.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
Of the space Every news bulletin featured the US Space
Shuffle Challenger, which had exploded on launch, taking with it
the crew and in particular teacher CHRISTA McAuliffe. And then
a week after he fell to his death, locals found
the body of David Brett at the base of Oolaru,
(07:57):
near a Dingo lair. Than Territory Police Sergeant Mike Van
Haytereson set up a crime scene and organized a line
search with rangers and local business.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
People, and in that line search, there was only one
person that had been at the rock in nineteen eighty
six years before that had also been in the search
for Azaria. It was John Beezy, the mechanic. He was
walking in the line search and he had a policeman
(08:29):
on either side, and as he was walking near where
the body was found, he saw a little bit of
material protruding from the sand, and he reached down and
he pulled on it, and the sand came away and
he pulled out what was the matinee jacket. He was
the only person in that line search that would have
(08:52):
realized and recognized its significance. A miracle, the miracle we needed,
and the miracle that happened.
Speaker 14 (09:04):
Northern Territory police say a baby's white jacket was found
about ninety meters from the body of a thirty one
year old man. The man, a tourist, had apparently been
attempting a climb of the rock when he fell. It's
believe that jacket was found near the spot where Michael
and Lindy Chamberlain's baby Azaria.
Speaker 15 (09:20):
The guy falls off the rock and they find the
matinee jacket.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
What are the odds?
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Journalist Paul White had covered the Chamberlain trial for seven years,
but was now at the ABC. He was tasked with
finding out more about David Brett.
Speaker 15 (09:36):
And then I rang his mother in England. It was
one of those moments where you just you never forget
this woman down the phone where you've said I'm sorry
to bother you, you know, agringing about your son from the ABC,
and she'as, oh, I'm not surprised he's dead. He said
if he didn't come back, he'd been sacrificed, and with
all you know, the tales of witchcraft and sacrifice in
(10:01):
the wilderness, and I just sort of oh, well, that's
interesting and why would he say that, And we sort
of chatted, Oh, he was into that sort of thing
and being at the ABC at the time, and it
was post the High Court, the thing had been dealt with.
I personally wasn't going to go anywhere near a witchcraft story,
(10:23):
but I did pass it on to one of the
Sydney tabloids and then the story came out that he
was obsessed with the Chamberlains.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
And so I immediately made contact with the Attorney General
and the Solicitors General and I said, has a jacket
been found and they said yes, And I said, well,
I want your assurance that nothing's going to happen to
that and there's not going to be any testing until
we're part of it and we can agree on a protocol,
(10:55):
because what I'm terrified about is, hey, what if they
get some one that doesn't do a good job, or
what if it disappears and it does not tested correctly.
Speaker 6 (11:05):
Before he left for Darwin, Stuart Tipple spoke to seven News.
Speaker 16 (11:10):
How willing do you think the Crown is to accept
new evidence.
Speaker 17 (11:13):
Well, they certainly have been reluctant to have the case reopened,
and you've got to understand this finding isn't going to
help them at all because the Crown case is always
being that there never was a matinee jacket, that Missus
Stateman was lying. So if in fact this turns out
to be the matinee jacket, another very important part of
the Crown case is demolished.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Michael Chamberlain was the next to speak to the media.
Speaker 17 (11:38):
Well, I'm stunned and amazed, but very grateful, grateful because
I think this just goes to show once again that.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
My wife was killing the truth.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
The media's focus was suddenly back on experts and the
Northern Territory Police. I asked Graham Childwood what he recalls
this time sentence for Asaria's murder.
Speaker 12 (12:01):
In terms of the finding the matine jacket, that was
no surprise to me. My memory is that they had
substantial rain at Ezrach and the jacket, no doubt was
exposed as a result of that sort of rain. Again,
there was nothing inconsistent with what we'd found from the
(12:23):
clothing that we'd becovered earlier.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
So I arrived at Darwin Airport and there's a police
officer there to meet me. So my role suddenly changed
from being persona on grata. Suddenly I've got a policeman
that not only meets me, but whisked me away and
the Commissioner's car to the police headquarters where I meet
(12:53):
the Commissioner of Police and so we sit down, we
agree on a protocol. Lindy's to be brought in and
she is to be shown the matinee jacket and she
is going to identify whether it's Azzari's or not.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
The Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services have made
available to me a recording of when Detective Superintendent Neil
Plum and several forensic personnel showed Lindy Chamberlain and Stuart
Tipple the Mastermate jacket.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
So I'm there, in comes as bag. It's all sealed up.
We break the seals. We bring out this jacket and
I immediately see the tag and it's a Marquee brand,
which is exactly the same one that Lindy.
Speaker 9 (13:51):
Had given me.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
And it's very weathered and it's obviously something that has
been planted, has been out there for a long time.
So Lindy spends had a long time looking at it
and that the police are getting agitated. Come on, surely
you can tell whether it And Lindy said, I'd like
(14:17):
to speak to my lawyer. So anyway, they said, oh,
you know, come out to this room. So anyway, go
out to this room, and Lindy says to me, I
don't I don't want to talk to you and here
knowing how to take things before. So we go out
to the corridor somewhere where we think she can talk
(14:40):
to me and and not be observed, and she's no
doubt it's it's the jacket. So we talk about you
know what we're going to say and do and go
back in there and she identifies it.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
After viewing the jacket, Lindy chain Blind was returned to prison.
Stuart Tipple flew to Oolaroo in the Police Force aircraft
and Police Commissioner Peter mcaulay began a hastily arranged press conference.
Speaker 13 (15:14):
I'm ready to go, if everybody ready to go, ladies
and gentlemen, about this afternoon. Missus Chamberlain inspected the garment
found at airs Rock on Sunday of the second of February,
and she inspected at a police headquarters. She believes that
(15:35):
the garment found is the matinee jacket worn by her
child at the time of its disappearance. It was agreed
that officers of the Victorian Forensic Science Unit will be
in charge of conducting further.
Speaker 18 (15:48):
It had happened just before we were having a cabinet
meeting and the Chief Minister told me that I just
got the advice that this had through the Police Force,
that this had been found.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Darryl Mansey was a senior member of the Northern Territory
government under Chief Minister Ian Tucksworth.
Speaker 18 (16:08):
We had our law people sort of provide the advice
immediately of what do we do now? And of course
their recommendation was to recognize that what had been dismissed
for a long long time, in fact one of the
claims were true, and therefore the rest could be true.
(16:31):
So we made the decision, and it was pretty it
was one that wasn't argued by anyone to advise to
release her on that ground and also to advise the
people to look at where we go from here.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
Of course, the discovery of the jacket and confirmation of
it being Azaria Chamberlain's set the news world a light again.
Speaker 7 (16:56):
This is Lindy Chamberlain's identification of a fragment of baby
Clue is the missing Matten lead jacket.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
The Northern Territory government had another decision on its hands,
and it also involved Lindy Chamberlain. Three months earlier, the
Solicitor General, Mister Brian Martin had examined joy Cool's forensic
tests and said the government stood by them. He said
that the tests had been quote enhanced by everything learned
(17:24):
since the trial unquote. The trouble was bearing worker. The
German company that had made the test kits knew they
were faulty, and they had written to mister Martin and
told him. So the letter also made its way to
the Northern Territory Opposition leader Bob Collins, a longtime Chamberlain supporter,
(17:46):
and he read the letter out loud to Brian Anderson
from seven News.
Speaker 10 (17:50):
We would like to stress again that this part of
evidence cannot have decisive importance. That if this is the
matter which caused the Chamberlain's conviction, then they should be released.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
How does the Northern Territory Government have any choice now
other than to reopen the Chamberlain case.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
You've got this report that you've.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
Commissioned, and also the material that's been found at ear.
Speaker 10 (18:14):
Is rock No, no at all. The Northern Territory government
decided last year not to have an inquiry based on
the Martin Report. Now logically, if the Martin report falls,
then the decisions that the governments might have to fall
with it.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
Barry Botcher's unfailing belief in Lindy Chamberlain science and himself
was vindicated. Bob Collins called him a newcastle.
Speaker 11 (18:39):
And when he rang me on the Friday afternoon to
give me the good news, Ah, of course I was elated.
Speaker 12 (18:51):
I cried.
Speaker 11 (18:53):
Because the case had had such an effect on the
Chamberlain family, and of course I was involved and knew
how wrong the so called scientific evidence against them.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
Was just after dawn at Airs Rock to avoid the
worst of the heat. The search began early, this time
a search for Azaria's body, it remains.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
David Jones had covered the second inquest into Azaria's death
and was now back at Oolaroo as police extended their
search from where the massine jacket had been found. The
significance of what had just happened wasn't lost on him.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
Everything that Missus Chamberlain had said about Azaria's disappearance was true.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
So that actually was.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
A profound moment for I think everyone in the country
who had followed the case closely.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Jones interviewed Stuart Tipple at the Rock.
Speaker 7 (19:56):
Stuart, you're now leaving the site. Are you satisfied with
the arrangers of the It's.
Speaker 17 (20:00):
One of the primary reasons for coming here was to
lay down procedures and to make sure they're workable. That's
now been achieved, and if those procedures are maintained, I'll
be satisfied.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
So I fly from the Rock to Allie Springs and
I'm waiting at the airport to get my connection to
Sydney and I hear announcement mister Tipple, can you come
to the office. We have a call for it. So
I'll make my way to the office and pick up
the phone and the voice says, this is Marshall Perron,
the Northern Territory Attorney General. I'm just telling you that
(20:36):
Lindy has been released on license and we're calling a
Royal commission and will not matter what the Royal Commission
result is, you will not have to return to jail.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
And I think it was when we're at Aarsrock the
news came through that Missus Chamberlain was being released from
Berrima jail.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
We need to take a Q break and will return
to a perfect storm in just a moment. You'll probably
remember me saying that our legal system is designed to
keep guilty people in jail and occasionally, unfortunately, innocent people
get caught in that system and they stay there. While
(21:20):
the discovery of the Matinee Jacket changed everything, it gave
the Northern Territory government in this case a reason to
review all of the evidence both Old annyw and to
release Missus Chamberlain so she could access her legal team.
Marshall Perrin held a press conference that stunned everyone watching.
Speaker 16 (21:40):
I'm here to advise that the Northern Territory Government has
decided to institute an inquiry into the Chamblain case. The
decision follows advice received from the Solicitor General and the
Police Commissioner on what they regard as significant new evidence.
They have advised me that the discovery of a baby's
matin ageet near Ears near the base of Ears Rock,
(22:02):
and its subsequent identification of Missus Chamberlain may have a
bearing on the case. I can also advise that a
short time ago, His Honor the Administrator accepted the advice
of Executive Counsel that the balance of Missus Chamberlain's life
sentence be remitted and that she be released from day
in prison. The decision to say recommend to His Honor
(22:23):
was made in the light of Missus Chamberlain's need for
unrestricted access to legal advisors to prepare for the inquiry.
Although Missus Chamberlain's remission is subject to the usual condition
of good behavior, it is not by intention that she
be taken back into custody. Regardless of the outcome of
the inquiry.
Speaker 15 (22:43):
You can't have a case like this one ever again,
where the man falls off the rock, they go searching
for his body and they turn up the matinee jacket.
I mean, if that hadn't happened, she might have spent ten, fifteen,
twenty years in jail and she was released within a
few days, wasn't she, which in itself.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Was I thought was astonishing.
Speaker 15 (23:04):
I would have thought the charity at that point would
have gone, all, well, we need to reconsider all these matters.
But someone must have been very clear in the territory
to say this utterly destroys the case.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
And you've got to let her out.
Speaker 19 (23:19):
Lindy Chamberlain was freed from Darwin's Burham A prison just
after three point thirty this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
She was ushered into a waiting.
Speaker 10 (23:25):
Car, which then sped through the streets of Darwin towards us.
Speaker 12 (23:29):
Can't ask me why the government knee jerked on it.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I have no idea, Right, what do you mean by
letting her out? Or yes, okay, but they couldn't not
let her out.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
Could well?
Speaker 12 (23:41):
I'm not sure that. As I said, there was from
my memory, no inconsistent evidence on the jacket with what
we previously found.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
Graham Childwood had led the police investigation into the death
of Azaria Chamberlain.
Speaker 12 (23:56):
In my mind, it didn't change anything. It just added
one more bit of evidence, one item of evidence that
was again consistent with what we previously had.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
Releasing her in some way under minds either your work
or the jury's decision.
Speaker 12 (24:15):
Not my work. My work, as I said, was done
and dusted before the trial. But in terms of terms
of the jury and to some extent the appeal court,
you know, this wasn't just a jury judge process that
has been gone through. It involved, as you said, a
number of appeals mis apparent.
Speaker 7 (24:35):
How quickly was the decision made to release Lindy Chamberlain.
Speaker 16 (24:39):
How quickly was it made to release her? It was
made following the decision to hold an inquiry into the
case to date as a result of the new evidence
being founded. There is rock was made over a period
of a couple of days, days rather than ours, of
course days. There was no no not panic, as one
(25:02):
newspaper headlined it today, not at all so the Northern Territory,
in fact, the whole of Australia hasn't heard the last
of the Chamberlain case.
Speaker 7 (25:09):
Now at that point, quite clearly, the first coroner Dennis Barrett,
it was becoming had become quite obvious, so that his
initial finding that the dingo had taken Azaria had been vindicated,
and so missus Chamblain had been released from Berrima jail.
(25:32):
So I was asked to get back to Alice Springs
as quickly as possible, to do a live cross with
Dennis Barrett into the top of the news at six
o'clock Sydney time.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
I'd given Lindy a promise that when she was going
to be released, that I would fly to Darwin and
accompany her. And here I am. I'm in Alice Springs.
So I go up to dar and I go to Sydney.
Will to be quite frank. I was exhausted and I
just wanted.
Speaker 12 (26:06):
To get home.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
So I was committed to going to Sydney anyway. I
got on the plane, got to Sydney, and I rang
her and I sought her release from my promise, said Lindy,
I'm so tired. Do you still want me to keep
my promise and come to Darwin? And she said, Stewart,
(26:29):
a promise is a promise.
Speaker 12 (26:32):
Somebody to talk to Alice Springs.
Speaker 16 (26:33):
Can you talk David it's Ross here, mate, Yes, Ross,
can you hear me?
Speaker 9 (26:37):
Right?
Speaker 7 (26:37):
Can here you find mate?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Okay, So it'll.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Be when we rushed into the telecom shed in Alice Springs,
literally as Rossheimer's read the intro, the microphone was going on,
the camera was being set properly, and it was bank
straight into a live Cross interview with Dennis Barrett. And
as I recall it, I think my first question was
(27:00):
to Barrett, do you feel that you've been vindicated.
Speaker 12 (27:01):
By these events? No?
Speaker 16 (27:03):
I never ever felt that I required any vindication on
the evidence before me. I'm quite happy with the finding
that I made. I've always been happy with the finding
that I made.
Speaker 7 (27:15):
Did you feel that a woman who was innocent has
gone to jail?
Speaker 16 (27:18):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (27:19):
Well have you felt knowing that for all these years?
So the missus Chamblain has been in Durhamer Jail serving
her time. Most unhappy now this has been released.
Speaker 16 (27:28):
Delighted now, delighted for her, I suppose particularly her family.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
The news of Lindy Chamberlain's release caught everyone by surprise.
Seven cent reporter Graham French to interview Lindy's parents, Cliff
and Avis Murchison.
Speaker 16 (27:44):
I've got a dictionary in there, but I don't think
there's a word in it that can fully explain just
how thrilling and wonderful it is to know that she's
coming home. But her name has got to be clear,
not for her sake only, not just for our sake,
but for everybody's sake. They can't do this kind of
thing in Australia.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Another crew went to Sully Shaw's home in Hobart.
Speaker 9 (28:08):
Well, it's tremendous, of course our evidence and from what
we observed on the night, she never should have been there.
Speaker 10 (28:14):
So the finding of this jacket, what veering do you
think this will have on the case.
Speaker 9 (28:20):
Well, the first one I know is that the Crown
claimed the jacket was a complete lie by Missus Chamblain.
So and actual fact, the Crown has been proved wrong
in that aspect. She certainly didn't lie about the jacket.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
And here's Opposition leader Bob Collins.
Speaker 10 (28:39):
And in fact, what Lindy Chamberlain said to me last
night was now that the public note, the people that
have got doubts about this case, know that I've been
telling the truth about that from the very beginning. When
the prosecution said I wasn't maybe they'll start to believe
I was telling the truth about everything else.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
Attorney General Marshall Parron introduced legislation into the Northern Territory
Parliament which did a commission of inquiry into the Chamberlain convictions.
I asked retired Federal Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Raphael his
opinion of the decision.
Speaker 20 (29:11):
It was a very sensible thing to do to call
a raw commission and then the government could act on
the report.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
Federal Court judge just as Trevor Marling was picked to
head the commission, and he chose to sit mainly in
Darwin in a specially renovated police station.
Speaker 19 (29:35):
It's three months to the day since Lindy Chamberlain was
free from Darwin's Barrim jail.
Speaker 6 (29:40):
The Chamberlain's lawyers, witnesses and journalists like Paul White arrived
to cover the commission.
Speaker 15 (29:48):
Marling was a classic.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Straight New South Wales judge.
Speaker 15 (29:54):
It was pretty clear to me that this was only
going one way.
Speaker 20 (30:00):
What takes place in the Royal Commission, or what took
place at that Royal Commission, because you have to distinguish
that Royal Commission from others. Was in effect another trial
of the chamberlains. Instead of being before a jury, it
was before a judge alone or a former judge. But
(30:23):
all the matters that were considered to be controversial at
the time of the trial were investigated and reconsidered. In particular,
of course, the forensic evidence.
Speaker 7 (30:38):
Inspector Charldwood came under intense questioning today about his handling
of an examination of the Chamberlain's car in October nineties.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Justice Morling was assisted by mister Porter and mister Caldwell,
while mister Barker and mister Adams appeared for the Northern
Territory Government and Police Force. Among the one hundred and
forty five witnesses called with the same police, medical and
forensic specialists that have become well known Charlwood, Gilroy, Metcalfe,
(31:07):
Cameron and Cool.
Speaker 19 (31:09):
In a written statement, missus Coole revealed today that she
hadn't used the full range of scientific checks during tests
on twenty eight of the items found.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
Mauling heard from Sally Shaw, her then husband, Greg Murray, Habe,
Judith West and park rangers like Ian Carwood.
Speaker 19 (31:27):
He agreed with counsel assisting the inquiry, Chester Port, a QC.
That a dingo could carry a weight like a nine
and a half pound baby.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Justice Morling also heard from the indigenous people of the
Ularu region Daisy walk about Impana Collins, new Eminion, Tiri,
Barbara Jekadoo and Nipper Win Marty, and.
Speaker 19 (31:48):
For the first time he testified that the tracks went
into the Chamberlain's tent. I seen the tracks with my
own eyes. They gone in and gone out.
Speaker 6 (31:57):
And of course the Chamberlains were called and questioned yet
again by Ian Barker QC.
Speaker 8 (32:05):
On her fourth day in the witness box, Lindy Chamblain
found the tensions and memories too great. Bursting into tears,
she lowered her head, unable to speak.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
After ten long months, just as Trevor Marling closed the
commission and after consideration, his findings were tabled in the
Northern Territory Parliament on June Tewod nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 21 (32:25):
Mister Justice Morling's report tabled in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.
Speaker 20 (32:29):
I thought it was a very restrained conclusion. His last
paragraph is quite interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
He says just this.
Speaker 20 (32:38):
It follows from what I have written that there are
serious doubts and questions as to the Chamberlain's guilt and
as to the evidence of the trial leading to their conviction.
In my opinion, if the evidence before the commission had
been given at the trial, the trial judge would have
been obliged to direct the jury to acquit the Chamberlain's
on the grounds that the evidence could not justify their conviction.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
The trouble is Justice Trevor Marling's findings in a sense
echoed Coroner Dennis Barrett's. They undermined the forensic work, cast
doubt but not criticism of the police, and supported the
Dingo theory, and they left enough ambiguity for disbelievers to
(33:19):
disbelieve Justice Marling listed fifteen actions that missus Chamberlain needed
to have carried out in the five to ten minutes
that she was away from the other campus in order
to murder her own child, and then he wrote that
it was quote only barely possible that she could have
committed the crime alleged against her.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
I don't understand this.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
If he believed Sally Shaw's evidence and the doubts around
the blood forensics, it wasn't barely possible. It was impossible
After ten months and millions of dollars spent nothing was resolved.
Darryl Mansey, who was now Attorney General, was caught in
a legal stalemate between Azaria's parents, who wanted exoneration, and
(34:07):
his political colleagues who could not see a proclamation of
innocence in Morling's report. And to make matters worse, Mansy
couldn't quash the Chamberlain's convictions even if he wanted to,
because that was not possible under existing laws. There was
only one thing he could do.
Speaker 18 (34:26):
After my statement of the Parliament made it very clear
that one of the first things I did was notify
the administrator that will be advising him that there'll be
a pardon.
Speaker 8 (34:40):
They today have officially pardoned both of you.
Speaker 22 (34:43):
It's great to be pardoned for something you haven't done.
As it is, convictions stand and we've been pardoned for
something that never happened.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
And of course it was a decision that satisfied no one.
Speaker 21 (34:58):
At a heated news conference, Attorney General Darryl Mansey rejected
suggestions that the report warranted a quastion, claiming the Chamberlains
now will have no criminal record.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
They're not walking around as convicted people. They've pardoned.
Speaker 18 (35:11):
They have their status as it was prior to the trial.
Speaker 20 (35:14):
You see, you're only your pardoned for an offense that
you have committed, whereas if you've never committed the offense,
the pardoner is inseless to you because you want to
be acquitted of it. She offered her pardon, said no, no,
and I think quite rightly.
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Once again, the legal system fell short in nineteen eighty seven.
If you were innocent and got out of jail and
had evidence to appeal a conviction, you couldn't. Politicians needed
to change the law, Darryl Mansey.
Speaker 18 (35:50):
So if the legal system fails, then the politicians need
to adjust legislation to ensure it works.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Stuart Tipple was pushing.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
For so we've written today telling him we don't agree,
pointing out the authorities and asking for a special Act
of Parliament to be part.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
Lindy Chamberlain was, as ever calm and measured.
Speaker 22 (36:12):
It's time that they turned around and said, look, we
admit we were wrong, we are sorry about it, and
this is our public way of saying we're sorry.
Speaker 6 (36:22):
Aside from having the convictions quashed, Missus Chamberlain wanted a
revised death certificate that correctly identified her daughter's cause of
death as being the result of being attacked and taken
by a dingo. This is Coroner Elizabeth Morris.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
Azariah Chamberlain died at Ularu, then known as airs Rock,
on the seventeenth of August nineteen eighty. The cause of
her death was as the result of being attacked and
taken by a dingo. Please accept my sincere sympathy on
the death of your special and loved daughter, insisted her Azaria.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
This proclamation doesn't happen for another twenty five years. In
the next episode, we'll relive the final journey from a
false pardon to Coroner Morris's courtroom and the resolution of
an appalling miscarriage of justice. If you subscribe now, you'll
(37:24):
get an alert the moment.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
We dropped the last show.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
I'd like to say thanks to Nicky, Simon and Stephen
who helped create this episode, and a shout out to Vincent,
donna Ian and Tess, and thanks to you for listening.
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