Innocent Until Heard artwork
Innocent Until HeardS1 · E20:4791 plays Preview: first 60 seconds

A Dingo, a Jacket and the Science That Was Wrong: Lindy Chamberlain

0:00 / 0:47

Sample the first 60 seconds free. Sign up free or log in to hear the whole episode.

RSS
Show notes

A dingo, a jacket and the science that was wrong

Azaria Chamberlain disappeared from a tent near Uluru in August 1980. Her mother said a dingo had taken her. Two years later a Darwin jury convicted Lindy Chamberlain of murder, largely on forensic evidence that later collapsed under scrutiny.

  • The blood tests that reacted to sound deadener in a car
  • How media coverage shaped public belief before the trial
  • The matinee jacket found near a dingo lair in 1986
  • The Morling Royal Commission and the 1988 exoneration
  • The 2012 coroner's finding that a dingo was responsible

A case about how a confident expert can be wrong, and how long it takes to say so.

Transcript
Welcome back to Innocent Until Heard. I am Keziah Thornbury. Last time we were in Guildford. Today we come home to Australia, to a campsite at the base of Uluru in August 1980, where a nine week old baby called Azaria Chamberlain disappeared from a tent. Her mother Lindy said she had seen a dingo leave the tent. Most of the country decided she was lying, and in 1982 a jury agreed. The case against her rested on forensic tests that claimed to find foetal blood in the family car. Those tests were wrong. In this episode I want to look carefully at the science, at the way the press covered a grieving mother, and at the small knitted jacket found in 1986 that changed everything. It is a hard story, and I will tell it gently. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
Open as text

More from Innocent Until Heard