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Has Justice been Served? Year 11 Legal Studies

Lindy Chamberlain

Azaria Chamberlain disappeared on the night of 17th August 1980 from her parents’ tent in a camping ground near Uluru. She was nine weeks old. Her mother, Lindy Chamberlain claimed that a dingo “got her baby”. Azaria’s body was never found. However, Lindy Chamberlain spent three years in jail for Azaria’s murder as a jury decided that the evidence showed that she was guilty of her daughter’s murder. For many years the Azaria Chamberlain case remained Australia’s most controversial case as it dragged on for thirty two years through four inquests, a trial, two appeals and a royal commission. Justice has finally prevailed for the Chamberlains with the findings of the NT coronial inquest of 12 June 2012. Coroner Elizabeth Morris found the cause of Azaria's death was as a result of being taken by a dingo.