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Thirty-five years after she was acquitted of murdering her baby, Azaria, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton has reunited with a Victorian scientist she says was vital in clearing her name.<\/p>\n
Hans Brunner, now aged 95, told the 1986 royal commission into her conviction that hairs found on Azaria\u2019s jumpsuit and singlet were from a canine. On Tuesday, he said Chamberlain-Creighton gave him a big hug when they met at a Melbourne hotel for the first time since the royal commission.<\/p>\n
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Artist Lulu Clifton-Evans with her portrait of Hans Brunner.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Penny Stephens<\/cite><\/p>\n She said: \u201cHans was crucial in the exoneration of me as a convicted criminal. Because Hans was a world-renowned hair expert, his evidence was beyond dispute.<\/p>\n \u201cHis evidence was absolutely vital \u2013 it didn\u2019t get the length of court attention or media attention.<\/p>\n \u201cHans helped clear my name, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunner\u2019s evidence bolstered the argument that a dingo had taken baby Azaria and, in turn, the case for the innocence of Chamberlain-Creighton and her then husband, Michael Chamberlain, who had been convicted of being an accessory after the fact.<\/p>\n Brunner in his Mornington Peninsula study.<\/span><\/p>\n Brunner, an expert in animal hair identification from Frankston in Melbourne\u2019s south-east, said on Tuesday that it was wonderful to reconnect, and the meeting had provided closure for a significant event in his life.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt I\u2019ve achieved something, but I was among many people who helped her to try to clear her name.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great to think I helped change someone\u2019s life for the better.\u201d <\/p>\n The last time the pair met was just after Brunner had given evidence in 1986 to the royal commission into the convictions.<\/p>\n He remembers feeling uneasy because there was still police and public support for the Chamberlains\u2019 guilt and widespread disbelief that nine-week-old Azaria had been taken by a dingo near Uluru in August 1980.<\/p>\n A Canberra Times article from 1986 reporting Brunner\u2019s evidence to the royal commission into the Chamberlains\u2019 convictions over the death of their daughter Azaria.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Trove<\/cite><\/p>\n But forensic scientist Dr Harry Harding, who had told the Chamberlains\u2019 trial that the hairs were probably from a cat, changed his mind and told the royal commission he agreed with Brunner that they were probably from a dog.<\/p>\n Brunner said that after he gave evidence, Chamberlain-Creighton shook his hand and thanked him.<\/p>\n \u201cI told Lindy I was blessed that I could use my scientific information to find out the truth, and the truth was accepted in the court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It was among evidence cited by Judge Trevor Morling in his 1987 royal commission report, which concluded there was a reasonable doubt about the guilty verdicts.<\/p>\n The Northern Territory Supreme Court acquitted the couple in 1988.<\/p>\n Brunner\u2019s reunion with Chamberlain-Creighton, now 75, on Tuesday also involved a viewing of a new portrait of Brunner by Frankston South artist Lulu Clifton-Evans, who will enter the painting in the 2024 Archibald Prize. The portrait depicts Brunner sitting in his study with a microscope, canine skulls and an image of a dingo.<\/p>\n Chamberlain-Creighton, who was in Melbourne to attend an event at the State Library of Victoria on Tuesday night, did not want photos of the meeting with Brunner to be published.<\/p>\n MIchael and Lindy Chamberlain pictured in February 1981 after the first inquest into their daughter\u2019s death, on the steps of the court in Alice Springs.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Russell McPhedran<\/cite><\/p>\n On his lap in the painting is his 1974 research-based book, The Identification of Mammalian Hair<\/em>, which prompted the Chamberlains\u2019 lawyers to contact him to give evidence.<\/p>\n Clifton-Evans believes Brunner is a hero for his role in the Chamberlain case but said he was also haunted by it.<\/p>\n Brunner said he feared public and police hostility from his evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I used scientific reasoning and didn\u2019t touch police in saying they are good or bad. I just used scientific information and stuck to it, so they couldn\u2019t get angry.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunner, who had researched dingoes at a government research facility, said that in 1980, after Azaria\u2019s clothing was found days after she disappeared, he rang police and offered his expertise.<\/p>\n He said a police officer declined, saying \u201cshe\u2019s guilty, anyhow\u201d before hanging up. It has bothered him ever since.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought if the police had let me go and look at those hairs at the base of Uluru, and I could have identified them then, that they were dingo hairs … Lindy would never have had to go to prison [for three years],\u201d Brunner said.<\/p>\n \u201cI wished I could have been able to go up there [to Uluru] right at the beginning and proved there were dingo hairs, and that a dingo took the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n Clifton-Evans approached Brunner, who is a family friend, about doing the portrait.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt that Hans felt that he didn\u2019t get the credit he deserved, for his life\u2019s work and for what he proved.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Asked what she thinks of his role in the Chamberlain case, Clifton-Evans said: \u201cI think Hans is a hero, because he endured. He was frightened of the police, he had to stand up in court and he thought he might be done in. His experiences weren\u2019t pleasant.\u201d <\/p>\n Brunner said he suspected dingo involvement from the start.<\/p>\n The Swiss immigrant, who has a master\u2019s in applied science, had worked for the Victorian government, researching how to protect wildlife and farm animals by identifying predator animals such as cats, dogs and foxes.<\/p>\n He worked for the Keith Turnbull Research Institute for conservation and natural resources in Frankston. He published the book and became a world expert on animal hair identification.<\/p>\n Brunner said the portrait helped give him closure about the case.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like putting the end dot on a sentence; to say, \u2018That\u2019s it, now I\u2019ll relax completely,\u2019 \u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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