Dingo mystery man: 'I'm sorry'

2004-07-06 14:25

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

Melbourne retiree Don Cole sparked a furore this week by telling a Sunday newspaper he shot a dingo near Ayers Rock (Uluru) 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.

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 movie "A Cry in the Dark", starring Meryl Streep.

Now known as Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton after remarrying, Azaria's mother told a current affairs show that 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 Channel Nine. "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 also appeared on Nine Network to apologise publicly to Azaria's parents.

Terribly sorry

"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?"

Frank Cole gestures while telling his side of a 24-year-old Outback mystery at his suburban Melbourne, Australia. (Damien Horan, News LTD/AP)

Cole said he shot the dingo 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 on Tuesday 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, the men 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 told Channel Seven's "Today Tonight".

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

- AP