The infamous case of baby Azaria Chamberlain who vanished in the Australian desert some 30 years ago could be near closure, her mother said yesterday, as a new inquest heard a dingo probably took the child

Azaria disappeared from a tent in the desert near Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in 1980, in a case which gripped the world. It sparked decades of debate in Australia over whether her mother Lindy was responsible for her baby’s death.

The case has been the subject of three previous inquests and a trial which saw Lindy Chamberlain jailed, but evidence to the fourth inquest suggests that attacks by dingoes on humans are frequent and sometimes fatal.

“It gives me hope that this time Australians will finally be warned and realise that dingoes are a dangerous animal,” Azaria’s mother told journalists outside the court.

“And I also hope that this will give a final finding which closes the inquest into my daughter’s death which so far has been standing open and unfinished.”

Nine-week-old Azaria was on a camping holiday near Uluru in central Australia in August 1980 when she went permanently missing.

Her mother insisted a dingo had snatched the baby, but her version of events was widely doubted by the Australian public.

Ms Chamberlain was eventually convicted of murder by a jury who believed she killed the child in her car and then disposed of the body.

She spent three years in jail, during which time she gave birth to another daughter. She was later acquitted by a Royal Commission and a third inquest, in 1995, left an open finding on the death.

Since remarried, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton – as she is now known – and her ex-husband Michael Chamberlain sat through yesterday’s hearing which they hope will see Azaria’s death certificate changed to say she was killed by a dingo.

Michael Chamberlain told the court in an emotional address that people needed to be aware of the dangers of the dingoes.

“Since the loss of Azaria I have had an abiding fear and paranoia about safety around dingoes,” he said. “They send a shudder up my spine. It is a hell I have to endure.”

Coroner Elizabeth Morris will hand down her findings at a later date but the court was told that authorities regarded dingoes as responsible for many attacks in the years since Azaria’s disappearance.