philc

just a reminder - back in the 80's a mother claimed her baby was taken by a dingo whilst camping at Ayers Rock. The police prosecuted her for murder, she was convicted and served 4 years, before a re-trial, acquittal and a pardon (and substantial compensation).

then on local tv tonight they interview a guy in his 70's who was out with a group of mates near to Ayers Rock who shot a dingo. When they got to its carcase they found a baby in its mouth.

Because there are heavy penalties for illegal hunting in the national park, the mates decided to keep quiet.

All the guy's mates have died so he has only now decided to come forward with his story.

The baby was taken back to Melbourne and buried.

A real, bizarre twist to the story, if true.

Daz34

I discussed this story with a senior police officer from Alice Springs over a beer a while back.
He told me that they have a taped confession from the mother admitting that she killed the child. The recording was made in the back of a police car & is therefore inadmissible as evidence.
They believe she did indeed kill the child & dumped the body. She probably watched for a while & saw the dingos move in and take the body & thats how she came up with the story.

Darren

douglasb

I knew someone who worked in the Northern Territory Police forensic science department at the time. Her opinion was that it definitely wasn't a dingo that killed the kid.

Doug

Mark Miwurdz

They even made a film about it

Cheers
Kav

philc

that's interesting - 'cos from the public perception the NT police pursued the case with a vengeance; if they had an inadmissable confession it would certainly explain things.

And I never thought that, of course, the baby might have already been dead when the dingo found it - which still fits the recent confession.