By Lindsay Murdoch and John Lahey
First published in The Age on September 14, 1982.
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain with a photo of baby Azaria.Credit: Russell McPhedran
Baby dead in car as 300 searched desert: QC
DARWIN.—The Crown would allege that Azaria Chamberlain lay dead with her throat cut in her parents' car parked at Ayers Rock while up to 300 people searched the desert, the Northern Territory Supreme Court was told yesterday.
The prosecutor, Mr Ian Barker, QC, said the Crown would allege during the murder trial that Pastor Michael Leigh Chamberlain, 38, assisted his wife, Alice Lynne, 34, to conceal the truth about the murder of their daughter.
Yesterday was the first day of the trial.
Mr Barker said Mr Chamberlain became aware of the murder soon after it was committed.
He said the Crown alleged that Azaria, who was almost 10 weeks old at the time, died quickly but violently when Mrs Chamberlain cut her throat in the front passenger seat of the family's yellow Torana sedan at Ayers Rock on 17 August 1980.
Mr Barker said that while people searched the desert after Mrs Chamberlain had raised a "hue and cry" because she said a dingo had taken her baby, the Chamberlains had ample opportunity to clean at least some blood from the inside of their car.
Mr Barker said it was significant that only Mrs Chamberlain saw a dingo at the tent.
He said the Crown would present evidence about blood stains on the trousers of a tracksuit which Mrs Chamberlain had said was inside the tent. Mr Barker said the Crown asserted that the tracksuit was worn by Mrs Chamberlain over a dress when the murder was committed. A dry cleaner in Mt Isa would give evidence that she was asked to remove the blood stains after the Chamberlains returned to the town, he said.
He said the Crown did not assert that Azaria Chamberlain was anything but a normal healthy baby when she was murdered on 17 August 1980. Mr Barker told the three women and nine men of the jury that the Crown said Mrs Chamberlain's story that a dingo took the baby from the family's tent was a fanciful lie, calculated to conceal the truth.
Mrs Chamberlain is charged with the murder of her daughter, Azaria Chantal Loren Chamberlain. Her husband, Michael, a Seventh Day Adventist minister, is charged with having been an accessory after the fact of murder. They pleaded not guilty. They are on bail of $5000 each.
Mrs Chamberlain, who is seven months pregnant, wore a pink and white maternity frock. A woman security officer of the court sat next to her in the dock with Mr Chamberlain on the other side.
When the charge of murder was read to her she replied: "Not guilty, your honor," in a soft voice.
The Chamberlains arriving at Darwin Court with their solicitor, Stuart Tipple.Credit: Nigel McNeil
Mr Chamberlain, wearing brown slacks, a fawn shirt and brown tie, used the same words in reply to the charge against him.
Forty-four witnesses are expected to be called. The couple are being represented by a Melbourne QC, Mr John Phillips. His junior is a Melbourne barrister, Mr Andrew Kirkham.
Mr Barker, of Sydney, said during his opening address, which took nearly four hours, that the jury would be presented with many facts which would make conclusions that Mrs Chamberlain killed her daughter, "irresistible".
He said that scientific experts with "no axe to grind" would present evidence which would show:
Azaria's throat was cut while she was in the Chamberlains' car.
The jumpsuit Azaria was wearing was damaged by human hands and there was no evidence to support the dingo attack story.
Azaria's clothes were buried, probably with the body still in them.
The clothes were dug up and carried by a person to the base of Ayers Rock where they were found seven days later.
Mr Barker said Professor James Cameron, professor of forensic medicine at the London Hospital Medical College, would give evidence that blood stains on the jumpsuit showed that the blood flowed circumferentially, that is, all around the neck. It came from injury to the vital structure of the neck.
Mr Barker said the Crown asserted that the Chamberlains' two sons, Aiden and Reagan, were not involved with the baby's murder.
Twice yesterday, in addressing people who had been called to jury service, Mr Justice Muirhead raised the subject of publicity. The trial, he said, had been the subject of great national publicity, and it was being held in Darwin because the people there had not been subjected to the intensity of publicity imposed upon their fellow Territorians at Alice Springs.
Later the Judge said: "Possibly, the publicity has been without precedent in our lifetime."
Speaking to the nine men and three women who have been empanelled he bracketed freedom of the Press and the right to trial by jury as two important safeguards to people’s rights. “There are times when they may seem to rest uneasily together,” he said. But he added that it was important that they were preserved and continued to exist.
He said he relied on the Press covering this matter to be careful, fair and objective.
Mr Justice Muirhead also stressed several times to the jury the importance of being guided only by what they heard in court. "Gossip and rumor,” he said “are inevitably wrong.”
He told the jury several times that although they would be allowed to go home each night – and he hoped those who felt like would take a walk in the park at lunchtime - they must not discuss the evidence except among themselves.
Thirty names were called before the jury was chosen. The Chamberlains used 11 challenges and the Crown used seven.
Crown: case based on circumstantial evidence
The Crown would not present any reason or motive for Mrs Lindy Chamberlain killing her baby at Ayers Rock and it did not need to, the Northern Territory Supreme Court was told yesterday.
Diagram showing the scene of Azaria's disappearance. Credit: The Age Archives
The Crown prosecutor, Mr Ian Barker, QC, said the case presented by the Crown would be based on circumstantial evidence. “Quite obviously, if there had been an eyewitness, the case would have been much shorter,” he told the jury.
He said evidence would be presented that a nursing sister at Ayers Rock travelled from a local tourist park to the Uluru Motel nearby with Mr Chamberlain late on the night of the baby's disappearance.
He said the sister, Mrs Roberta Elston, thought that a black vinyl camera bag, which was on the floor of the driver's side of the Chamberlain car, might get in the way of Mr Chamberlain’s driving and she offered to move it.
Mr Barker said Mr Chamberlain refused, saying that he liked to have it handy to take photographs. He said Mrs Elston had said that the bag “appeared very full”.
Mr Barker said Mrs Lindy Chamberlain had given conflicting stories about exactly what had happened on the night the baby disappeared.
He outlined what the Crown will allege during the trial after all witnesses had been ordered to leave the court until they were called.
Mr Barker said Azaria was killed in the front passenger’s seat of the Chamberlain's car between 8 pm and 9 pm on 17 August 1980.
He said Mrs Chamberlain had some minutes to commit the offence. There was sufficient time to murder the baby.
Mr Barker told the three women and nine men on the jury that it was legally irrelevant that the accused were married. He said some evidence relating to Mrs Chamberlain might not be relevant to Mr Chamberlain and vice versa, but they were on trial jointly.
“There are different considerations for each of the accused,” he said. Mrs Chamberlain is charged with having murdered Azaria and Mr Chamberlain is charged with having been an accessory after the fact of murder. Both have pleaded not guilty and are each on $5000 bail.
Mr Barker said that the couple left Mt Isa for a holiday in Central Australia on 13 August, 1980 With them was Azaria, who was born on 11 June, 1980, and their sons, Reagan, now six, and Aiden, now nine.
He said the family travelled to Ayers Rock in the family car, which would be subject to much evidence.
Mr Barker said the Chamberlains set up their small nylon tent in the Ayers Rock tourist park on the night of 16 August. Mr Barker showed the jury photographs of the camp which were taken by Mr Chamberlain.
He said that the nest day the family rose early. During the morning they left the campsite to tour the area. Mr Chamberlain took photographs and climbed the Rock several times.
Mr Barker said that later in the day, when the family drove around Ayers Rock towards Maggie Springs, Mr Chamberlain took a photograph of the south-west face of the rock on which was a growth of lichen. He said it would be proved that the photograph was taken almost directly opposite the spot at the base of the rock where Azaria's blood-stained clothes were found seven days after she disappeared.
He said the family drove to a spot near Maggie Springs where Mrs Chamberlain saw a dingo near a cave. He said Mrs Chamberlain had later alleged that the dingo seemed to stalk her baby.
Mr Barker said that Mrs Chamberlain later told police that the dingo she saw near the cave had the same features and coloring of one she saw at the front of the family's tent at the time Azaria’s disappeared.
Mr Barker said the Crown asserted that Mrs Chamberlain fed the baby near the cave. Reagan had fallen asleep.
The family returned to the camp site. It was dark. Mr Barker said Mr Chamberlain started cooking tea at a barbecue under a brush shelter about 20 metres from where the tent was pitched. He said that Mrs Chamberlain put Reagan, who was still sleeping, to bed inside the tent. Aiden held the baby for a short time in the car.
Mr Barker said Mrs Chamberlain walked back to the barbecue area carrying Azaria and sat down. She talked to a Mr and Mrs Lowe, from Tasmania.
Mr Barker said the baby was seen to be alive during the conversation. Mrs Chamberlain then walked back towards the car carrying the baby, with Aiden following.
Mr Barker said that this was the critical time as very soon afterwards the baby was killed.
Evidence would be presented that the baby's throat was cut in the front passenger seat of the car.
The Crown asserted that there was a great deal of blood inside the car. Scientific evidence would be given that it was foetal haemoglobin blood, or blood of a baby less than six months old.
Azaria Chamberlain.
Mr Barker said the Crown asserted that Mrs Chamberlain had blood on her and that she had left spots inside the tent. He said evidence would be called to prove that attempts had been made to remove blood spots inside the car.
The blood which was later discovered in the car was obviously just a small part of what was originally there, he said. Mr Barker said the blood inside the car had been free-flowing, according to scientific evidence to be presented, and could not have been transferred there.
He said the discovery of the blood inside the car after the police re-opened the case late last year was critical to the Crown's case.
Mr Barker said that it would be preposterous to believe that a dingo took the baby into the car.
In this case then were two simple alternatives: either a dingo killed Azaria or it was a homicide. "If she was killed in the car, one can forget the dingo story," he said.
Mr Barker said the Crown would assert that Mrs Chamberlain's story that she left Azaria in a bassinette inside the tent wrapped in blankets was false. The Crown asserted that what happened was that the child was violently murdered and Mrs Chamberlain returned to her husband, "which in the circumstances was all she could do”.
Mr Barker said the likelihood was that the child's body was in Mr Chamberlain’s camera bag in the car when Mrs Chamberlain returned to the barbecue area. He said scientists had found blood in the camera bag.
Mr Barker said that during the night of 17 August, somebody buried the baby's body, still in its clothes, near the campsite. Later, the body was recovered from the shallow grave, the clothes removed and the body reburied.
He said that on 18 August, Mr Chamberlain was overheard telling his mother on the telephone at Uluru Motel that Azaria had been killed by a dingo.
Mr Barker said that Mr Chamberlain answered telephone calls from newspaper reporters and took pictures at the campsite for a newspaper, including a photo of his sons. He said Mr Chamberlain was under stress, on any assessments of the facts, but the Crown believed his conduct to have been strange.
Mr Barker said that while Mr Chamberlain was cooking at the barbecue on the night of Azaria’s disappearance, Mrs Chamberlain was absent from the barbecue area for minutes, but it was long enough for the child to be murdered.
He said the Crown asserted that after Mrs Chamberlain had returned to the barbecue area. Mr Chamberlain heard a cry. So, too, did Mrs Lowe.
Mr Barker said Mrs Chamberlain walked back towards the tent. What happened then was unclear. He said Mrs Chamberlain very shortly afterwards cried out: "A dingo has got my baby."
The Crown asserted that it was impossible for anybody other than Mrs Chamberlain to have murdered the baby. "The Crown says it was impossible for either of the two boys (Reagan and Aiden) to have murdered the baby," he said.
Mr Barker' said it was uncertain exactly when Mrs Chamberlain cried out that a dingo had taken her baby.
The Crown found it remarkable that large volumes of blood were absent from the inside of the tent, if the dingo story were to be believed. He said the Crown found it even more remarkable that a dingo could carry away an injured child, shake its head at the doorway of the tent as he said Mrs Chamberlain had claimed it to do, and leave only insignificant traces of blood.
Mr Barker said that after the alarm had been raised by Mrs Chamberlain, Mr Chamberlain did not use an "armory" of spot lights on his car to shine in the direction of where the dingo was said to have left the tent.
He said the Crown asserted that drag marks found leading 100 metres over a sandhill were, to put it bluntly, a red herring.
The hearing will continue today.
In century heat the 1981 Azaria Chamberlain inquest takes place under shade where the Chamberlains camped. In the foreground is the newly constructed dingo fence.Credit: Michael Rayner
TEA AND SYMPATHY
John Lahey
DARWIN — Mr Justice Muirhead, presiding at the Chamberlain murder trial, has a gentle humor and a way with words.
Addressing the jury yesterday, he drew their attention to the two TV cameras relaying proceedings to media people gathered in a building down the street. “I don't want you to believe you are being telecast to Australia," he said in his correct and reassuring tone. "They (the cameras) were put in for the convenience of the Press to avoid overcrowding. Don't get the idea you are erupting to stardom because you are not."
And on that little note, which made everyone smile, he adjourned the proceedings so that the jurors, having just been empanelled, could go away and have a cup of tea. The tension that accompanies the start of any big trial was defused.
Looking at Mr Justice Muirhead sitting high on the bench in his wig and scarlet robe it is hard not to feel sympathy for him when someone tells you that the humidity outside is 90 per cent. True, the court is air conditioned, but yesterday there were so many people inside it, and there was so much coming and going that the body of the court became quite warm.
The day began when Mr and Mrs Chamberlain drew up at the court in a red Mazda driven by a man. All three were swiftly out of the car for a walk of about six seconds across the nature strip and footpath, then up some steps and through a makeshift barricade. They looked straight ahead and greeted no one.
Some of the television crews and photographers had been waiting for 90 minutes. Perhaps 30 or 40 other spectators were there. They lined up on the other tide of the street in a little park.
And then the case began. Mr Justice Muirhead’s associate, a young woman, spoke the words which herald the announcement of British-style justice all round the world: “All persons having business before this honourable court are commanded to draw nigh and they shall be heard. God save the Queen."
Surrounded by the media, Lindy Chamberlain leaves the court.Credit: Nigel McNeil
A pause, then: “The Queen against Alice Lynne Chamberlain and Michael Leigh Chamberlain."
“Please sit down," Mr Justice Muirhead asked the couple, who had remained standing. Mr Justice Muirhead has this very considerate way of addressing people. "Please sit down" does not sound much, but the tone conveyed a great deal of courtesy.
Mrs Chamberlain was then charged with having murdered Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain at Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory on 17 August 1980. She replied in a small voice: “Not guilty, your honor.” Michael Leigh Chamberlain was charged with having been an accessory after the fact, in that between 17 August 1980 and 16 December 1981, at Alice Springs and other places, he did receive and assist Alice Lynne Chamberlain in order that she might escape punishment. Mr Chamberlain also said: “Not guilty, your honor.”
So many people were in the jury pool that not all of them could find seats. Addressing them, Mr Justice Muirhead said the trail would probably be longer than average: it might go to six weeks or so, and in addition, the jury might have to go to Ayers Rock and stay overnight for what was known as a view.
This trial, he said, had been the subject of great national publicity, and the reason it was being held in Darwin was that the people there had not been subjected to the intensity of publicity imposed upon their fellow territorians at Alice Springs, the site of two inquests.
All of the jury pool, said Mr Justice Muirhead, may have read about the case, thought about it and formed views, but these views were not based on evidence they had listened to: they were based ''perhaps on gossip, rumor and media reports which might be accurate or inaccurate”. He told the jury: "Gossip and rumor are inevitably wrong. The only thing we act on is the evidence we hear within these walls and see within these walls."
Mr Justice Muirhead then had his associate read 44 names of witnesses to appear at the trial. He told the jury pool that if any of them had a professional relationship with these witnesses, or if they had a close personal relationship with a police officer, they should seek to be excused. The only other reason for exemption would have to be a "very substantial cause”. Otherwise, he said, the jury system could break down.
Four people were excused by prior arrangement because of language difficulty. Out of nine people who then applied for exemption, Mr Justice Muirhead excused eight. The one exception was a woman who handed him a statutory declaration. "Let's have a look at it, will you please?” he said. After studying the document, Mr Justice Muirhead said the woman was concerned about whether she could be impartial or not. “Very well,” he said, "I note the application, but it will be refused.”
Among the people Mr Justice Muirhead did exempt was a housewife with children aged six and three. “The six year-old would be all right,” she said, “but I am not sure of the three year-old.” A different woman told Mr Justice Muirhead: "My husband is a police prosecutor”. He replied at once: "Yes, I excuse you.”
He excused a man who runs a small business with his wife and he excused a woman on the verge at travel to see her sick father. He also excused two women who, he said, were known to him personally.
Thirty names were called from the jury pool before a jury was empanelled. It contains three women and nine men. The Chamberlains challenged 11 people and the Crown challenged seven. Mr Justice Muirhead then told the remaining members of the pool that they could go home, and he said they should listen to the radio on Wednesday morning. This broadcast would tell them whether to come back to court or not. This was a proviso, he said, “in case we have any problems.”
The judge then began a longer address to the 12 people who remained. He warned them of the dangers of talking to anybody but themselves about the case and he said they must not be dismayed if counsel passed them in the street without a nod: they could not talk to counsel without his presence and the presence of the two people on trial.
At another point he told them there on a long trial ahead and it would require their tolerance and understand.
Then, for the second time, Mr Justice Muirhead referred to publicity. “Possibly,” he said, “the publicity has been without precedent in our lifetimes, and this casts a very special and heavy responsibility on all of us."
He went on: "You have heard it said that in Australia a person is presumed innocent until a jury finds them guilty." Australians, he said, had two very important safeguards to their rights. One was the right to trial by jury, which prevented the State from acting arbitrarily against them. The other right was freedom of the Press.
“There are times when they may seem to rest uneasily together," he said. It was important, however, that they be preserved and continue to exist. Mr Justice Muirhead said he would rely on the Press in this matter to be careful, fair and objective.
The Chamberlains leaving Darwin Court.Credit: Nigel McNeil