Dingo baby mother ‘bears no grudge’

THE mother of a baby killed 24 years ago by a wild dog in the Australian Outback said yesterday she bears no grudge toward a man who claims he knew the infant’s fate but did not tell authorities.

Melbourne pensioner Don Cole, 87, sparked a furore this week by telling a Sunday newspaper he shot a wild dog, known as a dingo, near Ayers Rock on the night Azaria Chamberlain went missing in August 1980. The dog still had the baby’s bloodied body in its jaws.

If his claim is true, his failure to tell police about his grisly discovery paved the way for one of Australia’s most notorious miscarriages of justice.

Lindy Chamberlain, Azaria’s mother, claimed a dingo took her baby but police did not believe her and, after a lengthy investigation and trial, she was convicted in 1982 of murdering her daughter. Her husband Michael was convicted as an accessory.

Fresh evidence supporting her claim was later uncovered and she was released from prison after four years.

Now known as Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton after remarrying, Azaria’s mother said Mr Cole’s confession, if true, could help solve one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries.

“It would be nice if he was right because it could put everything to rest,” she told Australian TV

“There’s no point of holding grudges. The only person you hurt is yourself,” she said. “If this man is telling the truth, he’s hurt himself enough.”

Police have opened investigations into Cole’s claim.