Chamberlain fostering report denied

Press, 5 November 1984, Page 5

Chamberlain fostering report denied

The report that Lindy Chamberlain’s second daughter, Kahlia, had been given to foster parents was wrong, according to Mrs Chamberlain’s father-in-law, Mr Ivan Chamberlain. “The report caused great consternation among our immediate relatives and friends and must have come from someone listening to conversations at Berrimah Prison and getting the wrong idea," said Mr Chamberlain. ‘‘Michael (Lindy Chamberlain’s husband) spoke to us on the telephone and made it quite clear that he has been looking after Kahlia three days a week and by grace he will do it full-time.”

Mrs Chamberlain carried Kahlia during the sevenweek trial when she was found guilty of the murder of her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, at Ayers Rock in Australia’s Northern Territory, more than two years ago.

Mrs Chamberlain gave birth to Kahlia in Darwin Hospital a fortnight after the jury brought down its verdict but the baby was taken away immediately, in line with the Northern Territory Government’s decision not to allow her to keep the child in prison. Michael Chamberlain was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact of the murder but was released on a three-year bond of good behaviour and was awarded legal custody of the couple’s two sons, Aiden and Reagan. He lives with his sons at the Seventh Day Adventist’s Avondale College, north of Sydney, where he is a pastor.

Mr Ivan Chamberlain said that Kahlia had been looked after by a nanny who had breast-fed her, but the nanny was to shift to Brisbane. There was some talk that the baby would go with her, but the child’s father would take care of Kahlia at the Adventist college.