Dingo murder mother 'bears no grudges' after confession

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

Melbourne pensioner Don Cole 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 that divided the nation, she was convicted in 1982 of murdering her daughter. Her husband Michael was convicted as an accessory but given a noncustodial sentence.

Fresh evidence supporting her claim was later uncovered and she was released from prison after four years. Both parents’ convictions were pardoned.

The saga was made into the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark, starring Meryl Streep.

Now known as Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton after remarrying, Azaria’s mother said 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 in Melbourne, where Cole lives, and the Northern Territory province, where Azaria disappeared, have both opened investigations into Cole’s claim.

Cole, 87, also appeared on TV to apologise publicly to Azaria’s parents.

“Look, I’m terribly sorry if I’ve ruined your lives or if I’m the cause of the breaking up of your marriage or her going to jail, you know,” Cole said. “But how can you undo something that’s done.”

Cole said he shot the wild dog while on a camping trip with three friends, all of whom have since died, and did not report his find for fear he would be convicted for shooting the dingo.

Cole said today that he and his friends had intended to tell authorities but they panicked when they saw police and people with torches hunting in the undergrowth near Ayers Rock. At the time, they did not know they were hunting for Azaria.

Cole said he gave the body to one of his friends and doesn’t know what became of it.

Azaria’s father Michael Chamberlain said the implications of what Cole said were “extremely serious, some would say bizarre.”

“I think that if he’s not telling the truth he’s a fool. If he is telling the truth he’s a very courageous man – it’s just a pity he didn’t tell it earlier,” Chamberlain said.

Police have not said if Cole is likely to be charged and it was not immediately clear if a statute of limitations applied to the case.