Azaria's dad in tearful dingo warning

24 Feb 2012, 7:21 pm   -   Source: AAP

"Since the loss of Azaria I have had an abiding fear and paranoia about safety around dingoes," Michael Chamberlain, said. (AAP)

The father of Azaria Chamberlain, who disappeared from Uluru in 1980, has made an emotional appeal for people to realise dingoes and children don't mix.

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An emotional Michael Chamberlain has told a Darwin courtroom that people need to be warned of the danger of dingoes and he has been deeply afraid of the native dogs ever since his daughter Azaria disappeared.

At times struggling to fight back tears, Mr Chamberlain said the propensity of dingoes to attack and kill children had become a fact since Azaria went missing more than 30 years ago, with three young people killed by the wild dogs.

"Since the loss of Azaria I have had an abiding fear and paranoia about safety around dingoes," Mr Chamberlain said.

"They send a shudder up my spine.

"It is a hell I have to endure," he added.

Coroner Elizabeth Morris on Friday opened the fourth inquest into the death of Azaria, who disappeared from a campsite at Uluru in August 1980.

Mr Chamberlain's ex-wife, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, who was jailed in 1982 for murdering Azaria before later being exonerated, briefly addressed journalists after the proceedings.

Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton, who had sought the new inquest, said she hoped it would be the final one.

"It gives me hope this time that Australians will finally be warned and realise that dingoes are a dangerous animal," she said.

The courtroom heard evidence that in Queensland between 1990 and 2011 there had been 239 dingo attacks causing injuries to people.

Ms Morris is yet to hand down her findings in relation to the death of Azaria. She said she would later fix a date to announce her conclusions.

Although an initial inquest in 1980 said a dingo probably caused Azaria's death, those findings were later quashed.

Michael Chamberlain was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact and given a suspended sentence and his wife was jailed.

It was only after Azaria's matinee jacket was found in 1986 that a royal commission was held in which both parents were exonerated, in 1987.

Despite the exoneration, a third inquest into Azaria's disappearance in 1995 returned an open finding, with the cause of death listed as unknown.

Rex Wild, QC, the counsel acting for the coroner in the latest inquest, told the court the time had come to end the speculation about Azaria's death.

"Although it (a dingo killing a child) may have been regarded as unlikely in 1980 or 1986/87 or 1995 it shouldn't be by 2011/12," he said.

"Although Lindy and Michael Chamberlain are presumed innocent of the death of Azaria, doubts remain," he said.

Mr Wild said that he thought that even in 1995 the balance of evidence probably showed that a dingo took Azaria.

"With the additional evidence in my submission your honour should accept on the balance of probabilities that the dingo theory is the correct one," he said.

Former NT Police officer, Anne Lade, who was hired by the court to investigate fresh evidence of deaths caused by dingoes, said she had learned of three children who had died after encounters with the dogs.

She said a 22-month-old child from Victoria died in 2006 when her family's pet, a dingo-labrador cross, entered her room and killed her.

Ms Lade said she also learned of a two-year-old girl who had died in December 2005 in NSW from a dingo attack and a nine-year-old boy who was attacked and killed on Fraser Island in 2001.

Mr Wild described to the inquest injuries suffered by children who had escaped death but been badly hurt by dingoes or dingo-cross dogs.

Ms Morris apologised in court to the families whose children were mentioned.

"I apologise if the required public nature of this inquest has caused you greater distress in relation to bringing up again the loss of your children," Ms Morris said.

Mr Tipple addressed contentious claims from retired policeman Denver Marchant who has reportedly said that when Azaria's matinee jacket was found it was inside out and the top button done up with no damage consistent with a canine attack.

But Mr Tipple said there was damage to the jacket and evidence at the Royal Commission had shown a dingo could have pulled the jacket off Azaria, especially if the child's head had been bitten off by the dog first.

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