Michael Chamberlain, father of Azaria Chamberlain, the baby who was snatched by a dingo from the family tent in 1980, has died aged 72.
Chamberlain made headlines across the globe when 9-week-old Azaria was taken by a dingo in Uluru.
The Chamberlians were wrongly charged over Azaria’s disappearance, his then-wife Lindy with murder and Michael as an accessory.
At the time of Azaria’s disappearance, her bloodied jumpsuit and nappy were found half buried near a dingo’s den. A jury accepted prosecutors’ claims Lindy Chamberlain killed her daughter with scissors in the family car, then staged the dingo attack.
Michael and Lindy arrive at court in Sydney.
Lindy Chamberlain received a life sentence in 1982 and was imprisoned for more than 3 years before new evidence forced a royal commission that eventually resulted in the 1988 exoneration of both Lindy and Michael.
The pair went through years of intense public scrutiny.
Even after they were exonerated, three inquests didn’t result in a conclusive finding until a fourth inquest in 2012 ruled a dingo had indeed taken the baby and the cause of death on Azaria’s death certificate was changed to ‘the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo’.
Last year, Chamberlains said: “My life – I don’t wish it on anyone”.
“It was one of the worst perversions of justice and forensic science in Australian history. We had gone as babes in the woods. A Catholic lawyer described us as lambs to the slaughter.
“We had lived by the credo that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear. It was dead wrong.”
Michael and Lindy divorced three years after she was acquitted of murder. They both remarried.
He reportedly died in Gosford Hospital on the Central Coast from complications from leukaemia.
Michael leaves behind his wife, Ingrid, their daughter Zahra, and his three children with Lindy – Aidan, Reagan and Kahlia.
