Lindy flies to NT on Azaria's birthday

11 Jun 2012, 5:52 pm   -   Source: AAP
If the inquest finds a dingo most likely killed the child, Azaria's death certificate could be officially changed from

If the inquest finds a dingo most likely killed the child, Azaria's death certificate could be officially changed from "unknown". (AAP)

Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton has flown in to Darwin on what would have been her daughter Azaria's 32nd birthday, ahead of inquest findings into her death.

Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton has returned to Darwin ahead of a court decision that could end a marathon battle to have a dingo blamed for her baby daughter Azaria's death.

But there was a surreal element to Ms Chamberlain-Creighton's arrival.

"Today was her (Azaria's) birthday," she told reporters at the airport.

"No other comments."

Ms Chamberlain-Creighton's first husband Michael Chamberlain is also expected to attend the court on Tuesday when coroner Elizabeth Morris is due to deliver her findings on the death of Azaria.

It follows the fourth inquest into the child's disappearance which was held earlier this year.

The latest inquest heard that several children had been attacked by dingoes since nine-week-old Azaria disappeared from Uluru in 1980.

If the inquest finds a dingo most likely killed her, it could herald the end of a fight spanning three decades by the Chamberlains to have Azaria's death certificate officially changed from "unknown".

Both the counsel assisting the coroner and the Chamberlains' lawyer told the most recent inquest in February that they now believed a dingo was the most likely cause of Azaria's death.

Legal expert David Studdert from the University of Melbourne said he thought the coroner would probably back that theory, although it wasn't a certainty.

"The fact that there are two sides to the inquest asking for the same thing makes it more likely," Professor Studdert told AAP.

Ms Morris' findings could be the final chapter in what has been one of Australia's most enduring sagas, which began when Azaria disappeared from a campsite in Uluru in 1980.

Court hearings in the 1980s resulted in Lindy Chamberlain being jailed for murder while her then husband, Michael Chamberlain, was given a suspended sentence for being an accessory after the fact.

But after Azaria's matinee jacket was found in 1986 the case was reopened and a royal commission in 1987 exonerated both parents.

In 1988 the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals overturned all convictions against the Chamberlains.

Despite their exoneration, a coronial inquest into the disappearance of Azaria in 1995 delivered an open verdict, and the Chamberlains have been fighting to have that changed.

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