Michael Chamberlain, the father of Azaria, who was snatched by a dingo at Uluru in 1980, has died aged 72. 
 
 More than 30 years after being thrust into Australian folklore as a central figure in one of the country’s most notorious murder trials, Chamberlain still railed against the “gross injustice” that shaped his life. 
 
 He died of acute leukaemia in Gosford hospital on the New South Wales central coast on Monday. 
 
 Michael, a pastor in the Seventh-Day Adventist church, and his wife Lindy were put under the spotlight when their nine-week-old daughter Azaria was snatched from a tent during a family holiday at Uluru in August, 1980. 
 
 They were ultimately convicted, Lindy for murder and Michael for being an accessory after the fact. The prosecution alleged that Lindy Chamberlain had cut Azaria’s throat in the front seat of the family car and hidden the baby’s body in a large camera case. Lawyers presented controversial forensic evidence, later discredited, to support their case. 
 
 Azaria Chamberlain: archive coverage Read more 
 
 Lindy served more than three years of a life sentence imposed in 1982 – giving birth to the couple’s fourth child Kahlia in Darwin prison. Michael was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for being an accessory. 
 
 In 1986, the chance discovery of Azaria’s matinee jacket – an item of clothing her mother had always said her baby had been wearing at the time of the attack – reopened the case. After a royal commission in 1987 the Chamberlains were pardoned and their convictions quashed, but Michael remained bitter at their treatment. 
 
 After divorcing, remarrying, earning a PhD in education, becoming a teacher and writing several books, he still lamented the case as a “gross injustice”. 
 
 “It was one of the worst perversions of justice and forensic science in Australian history,” he said in 2014. “We had gone as babes in the woods. A Catholic lawyer described us as lambs to the slaughter. 
 
 “We had lived by the credo that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear. It was dead wrong.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michael and Lindy Chamberlain leave court in Alice Springs during the second inquest into the disappearance of Azaria, in 1981. Photograph: The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media via Getty Images 
 
 He also believed the time Lindy spent behind bars had damaged her. In 1990 the couple’s marriage fell apart. Michael married Ingrid Bergner in 1994, with whom he had daughter, Zahra, in 1996. 
 
 Lindy Chamberlain also remarried, becoming Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton. 
 
 The disappearance of Azaria prompted one of Australia’s longest-running legal sagas, one that captivated and polarised the nation. It was the subject of the 1988 film Evil Angels, starring Meryl Streep as Lindy. The film was released as A Cry in the Dark in territories other than Australia and New Zealand. 
 
 
 
 Despite the release of the Chamberlains from jail, a coronial inquest into Azaria in 1995 delivered an open verdict. The fourth coronial inquest into the case, held in 2012, ruled that a dingo was responsible for the baby’s death. 
 
 The was what the first inquest, back in early 1981, had also concluded, and what the Chamberlains had steadfastly said since Lindy yelled the famous words: “That dingo’s got my baby.” 
 
 After the 2012 verdict Michael Chamberlain stood on the courtroom steps in Darwin and said: “I am here to tell you that you can get justice even when you think that all is lost.” 
 
 Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton says abuse towards her has subsided Read more 
 
 But he said he still had plenty of questions he wanted authorities to answer. 
 
 “I have peace and gratitude in my heart that Azaria’s spirit now lies rested, and I have gratitude and peace in my heart because justice has been done for us,” he said in 2012 on the release of his book Heart of Stone: Justice for Azaria. 
 
 “But why did this happen to us? Why did it take so long? And why were there consistently a whole lot of mistakes made? 
 
 “It was systemic; it just wasn’t one or two. It wasn’t isolated and I have to ask the question, was it by accident?” 
 
 Chamberlain made a tilt at state politics in 2003, running as a Liberal party candidate in the seat of Lake Macquarie in NSW. He didn’tachieved a 5.2% swing against incumbent MP Geoff Hunter but was not elected. 
 
 He then taught at an Aboriginal high school in Brewarrina, NSW, for three years before returning the central coast where he taught at Gosford high school until 2008, when he retired. 
 
 The University of Newcastle last year appointed him a conjoint professor at its school of education. 
 
 Chamberlain wrote three books, including Beyond Azaria: Black Light White Light, which detailed his feelings following the death of his daughter and the severe public scrutiny he and his family were placed under. 
 
 He became Ingrid’s full-time carer after she suffered a stroke in 2011. 
 
 Chamberlain had three other children with Lindy – Reagan, Aidan and Kahlia – as well as Zahra. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Michael Chamberlain was wrongly convicted in the death of his baby daughter, Azaria, in 1980 
 
 Michael Chamberlain, who fought for years to clear his family's name after his baby daughter Azaria was killed by a dingo, has died at the age of 72. 
 
 He died in Gosford hospital on Monday after complications from leukaemia. 
 
 The case of Mr Chamberlain and his wife, Lindy, attracted huge attention in Australia. 
 
 Prosecutors believed that the couple had killed their daughter. It was years before they were exonerated and the cause of death formally established. 
 
 At a trial in 1982, Lindy was found guilty of murdering Azaria and sentenced to life in jail. Michael was convicted as an accessory after the fact - until a chance discovery in 1986 overturned both verdicts. 
 
 Speaking in 2012, when the Northern Territory coroner finally ruled that Azaria had been taken by a dingo, Mr Chamberlain said that the battle to get to the legal truth had taken too long. 
 
 "However, I am here to tell you that you can get justice even when you think that all is lost," he said. 
 
 Actor Sam Neill, who portrayed Michael in the film A Cry in the Dark, said: "Throughout their cruel ordeal and the years of injustice, Michael Chamberlain maintained that quiet unassuming dignity - an impressive man. Rest in peace." 
 
 What happened to Azaria Chamberlain? 
 
 On 17 August 1980, the Chamberlain family were on a camping trip to Uluru, then called Ayer's Rock, when baby Azaria was taken from their tent by a dingo. 
 
 Lindy reportedly cried out: "my God, my God, the dingo's got my baby!" but a frantic search by the camping group and local guides discovered nothing. Azaria's body was never found. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Azaria Chamberlain was only nine weeks old when she disappeared 
 
 In the aftermath, an inquest accepted Lindy and Michael's version of events, but law enforcement officials decided they did not. 
 
 At the time, dingoes were not generally seen as dangerous, and the Chamberlains' story was not widely believed. 
 
 A second inquest a year later led to allegations that the baby's throat had been cut and her body disposed of later. Chemical evidence of infant blood in the family car - which would later be widely discredited - was a key part of the prosecution. 
 
 Lindy was charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison. 
 
 Michael was charged with being an accessory after the fact and received an 18-month suspended sentence. 
 
 How did Lindy and Michael prove their innocence? 
 
 Lindy said her baby had been wearing a jacket, but there was no evidence of one among the baby's other clothes, found near the campsite. 
 
 She was still in prison in early 1986, having exhausted her legal options all the way to a High Court appeal, when a chance discovery revealed new evidence to support her story. 
 
 David Brett, an English backpacker, fell to his death while attempting to climb Uluru. The team searching for Mr Brett found a baby's jacket - matching exactly the brand and description Lindy gave in her testimony - in an area littered with dingo dens. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Michael, pictured with his former wife Lindy, were at the centre of Australia's famous "dingo" case 
 
 The revelation prompted authorities to order a fresh investigation and to release Lindy from prison. 
 
 It would be another two years before the pair were fully cleared, following a royal commission investigation. 
 
 Why did the case capture the world's imagination? 
 
 Lindy and Michael's story split the nation, and the court case was covered in sensational fashion by the media. 
 
 Their religion, as Seventh Day Adventists, was not widely understood, leading to suspicion and even accusations of cult-like activity. It was one of the biggest legal and media events of the 1980s. 
 
 After the miscarriage of justice emerged, the case became a prime example of media influence in court cases. 
 
 Image copyright Twitter / @twopaddocks Image caption The injustice of the Chamberlain case brought the family many admirers 
 
 Outside Australia, the story would find worldwide fame when turned into a film, A Cry in the Dark, starring Meryl Streep as Lindy and Sam Neill as Michael. 
 
 A 32-year battle 
 
 Despite Lindy's release, the official cause of death remained the subject of debate for decades. Many people in Australia still believed there was more to the case. 
 
 Lindy and Michael divorced a few years after they were exonerated in the late 1980s, and Lindy began a campaign to have dingoes acknowledged as dangerous to humans. 
 
 Media caption Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton: ''We are relieved and delighted'' 
 
 In 2012, 32 years after Azaria's death, a coroner issued the final report in the case, formally stating that Azaria was attacked and taken by a dingo, as her parents had always maintained. 
 
 Speaking after the verdict, Michael Chamberlain said "the truth is out" - and it was time for "some healing and a chance to put our daughter's spirit to rest". ||||| FILE - This October 1990, file photo shows Michael Chamberlain, right, and then his wife Lindy when Lindy launched her book on the disappearance of her baby daughter Azaria in 1980. Chamberlain, who waged... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This October 1990, file photo shows Michael Chamberlain, right, and then his wife Lindy when Lindy launched her book on the disappearance of her baby daughter Azaria in 1980. Chamberlain, who waged... (Associated Press) 
 
 SYDNEY (AP) — Michael Chamberlain, who waged a decades-long battle to prove his baby daughter was killed by a dingo in Australia's most notorious case of injustice, has died, his former wife said Tuesday. He was 72. 
 
 Chamberlain died suddenly, his ex-wife, Lindy Chamberlain, said in a statement. Michael Chamberlain's longtime friend and former lawyer, Stuart Tipple, told Australia's Fairfax Media that Michael died on Monday night as a result of complications from leukemia. 
 
 "I am on my way today to support and be with our children," Lindy said in a statement. "Given Michael's death was unexpected, I would ask that the media please consider that Michael's wife and all of his children are deeply grieving and need some space." 
 
 Lindy and Michael were wrongly convicted in the death of their 9-week-old daughter Azaria after the infant vanished from their tent during a 1980 camping trip to Uluru, the sacred monolith in Australia's Outback. 
 
 The mystery surrounding Azaria's disappearance was the most divisive and sensational legal drama in Australian history. It gained a place in global pop culture after Meryl Streep portrayed Lindy in the movie "A Cry in the Dark." 
 
 The Chamberlains insisted that a dingo snatched their daughter from the tent. But officials doubted the wild dogs were capable of carrying an infant. Instead, prosecutors argued that Lindy had slit her daughter's throat and buried her in the desert. 
 
 There were no witnesses, no motive and no body; Azaria's remains were never found. But in 1982, Lindy was nonetheless convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Michael was convicted of being an accessory after the fact and given a suspended sentence. 
 
 Three years later, Azaria's jacket was found in the desert near a dingo den and Lindy was quickly released from prison. A Royal Commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, later debunked much of the forensic evidence used at trial and the Chamberlains' convictions were overturned. In 2012 — more than three decades after Azaria vanished — a coroner finally ruled that the infant had died as a result of a dingo attack. 
 
 The trial remains a source of shame for the many Australians who initially doubted the Chamberlains and cast Lindy as a villain largely due to her religious beliefs. Michael Chamberlain was a pastor with the Seventh-day Adventist church, a Protestant denomination that few Australians understood. Rumors flew that Lindy had killed her daughter as part of a grisly religious ritual. 
 
 Shortly before the coroner's ruling in 2012, Michael Chamberlain told The Associated Press that religious bigotry played a large role in the injustice he and his former wife suffered. 
 
 "The church got so smashed up, erroneously, and all through, really, a nasty dose of prejudice," Chamberlain told The AP. "I can say that I think our religion definitely impacted quite strongly on the attitude that many Australians developed." 
 
 Michael and Lindy divorced in 1991. He later married Ingrid Bergner, and went on to become an author and teacher. 
 
 Actor Sam Neill, who portrayed Michael in "A Cry in the Dark," said on Monday that the Chamberlains had been "terribly, cruelly wronged." 
 
 "Throughout their cruel ordeal & the years of injustice, (Michael) Chamberlain maintained that quiet unassuming dignity — an impressive man," Neill tweeted. "RIP." 
 
 Chamberlain, who was born in New Zealand, is survived by his wife and four children. ||||| We've detected that JavaScript is disabled in your browser. Would you like to proceed to legacy Twitter? 
 
 Yes ||||| Replying to @Bf28Edward She wasn't. As was concluded by 1st inquest. It was media & public opinion that convicted her. As we almost saw with Joanne Lees
– It's a phrase synonymous with "the dog ate my homework." But for years, Michael Chamberlain tried to convince the world that it was true, that in the reported words of his former wife, "the dingo took my baby." He died Monday at age 72 of complications from leukemia decades after finally establishing the truth. He and his then-wife Lindy had been camping with their 9-week-old daughter Azaria during a trip to Uluru in the Australian Outback in 1980 when the infant disappeared, per the AP. The couple claimed wild dogs took her, but authorities accused Lindy Chamberlain of slitting Azaria's throat and burying her body, which was never found, based on forensic evidence suggesting Azaria's blood was in the family's car, per the BBC. Lindy Chamberlain was sentenced to life in prison for murder in 1982, while Michael Chamberlain was found to be an accessory after the fact and given an 18-month suspended sentence. However, both convictions were overturned when Azaria's jacket was found near dingo dens in 1984; the forensic evidence was eventually discredited. "You can get justice even when you think that all is lost," Michael Chamberlain, who split from his wife in 1991 and went on to write several books on the case, said in 2012 after a coroner ruled Azaria had been snatched by a dingo, reports the AAP. On Twitter, actor Sam Neill, who portrayed Chamberlain in the 1988 film A Cry in the Dark opposite Meryl Streep's Lindy, described him as "an impressive man" with a "quiet unassuming dignity," who was "terribly, cruelly wronged."