'It just made me sick': Silence broken on Michael Chamberlain's secret shame two weeks after death
Shocking details have surfaced of the secret shame of Michael Chamberlain, father of baby Azaria who was taken by a dingo at Uluru in 1980, two weeks after he died at age 72.
While his then wife Lindy was wrongfully serving a conviction for the baby’s murder, for which she exonerated in 1986, her husband was caught taking pictures of naked and topless young women, the Daily Telegraph has revealed.
Mr Chamberlain, who was a pastor, took photographs with a long lens on a local beach, and some close-up shots, which police believe were shot from pornographic magazine.
It was reported the father took 10 slide films containing 360 photos to a photo shop in Toronto on the NSW Central Coast for processing.
He used two false names and concealed his face beneath a motorcycle helmet and mask when dropping them off and collecting them, the newspaper reported.
RELATED: Michael Chamberlain, father of Azaria, dies aged 72
“They were photographs of topless women on a secluded beach, apparently taken with a long range lens,” a 1983 report by a Sydney police officer stated.
“A set of slides in the same name that I had viewed prior to this were of naked ladies (close up) possibly taken from some type of ‘girlie’ magazine.”
Sydney head of the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence Brian McVicar sent the report to a colleague in Darwin BCI in October 1983 with a note: "I don’t know if this will ever be of assistance, however it is passed on for what it is worth? You might show the police who were involved in the investigation".
Rex Tunbridge, the now retired owner of the photo business which processed the lewd pictures, broke the silence after three decades.
“Being the father of two girls, I didn’t think it was right that a bloke, never mind a pastor, would be standing in the bushes photographing young women who could have been my daughters when all they were doing was going for a swim,” Mr Tunbridge told News Corp.
“It just made me sick, it was creepy.”
Before the pair were exonerated, Mr Chamberlain was convicted of being an accessory after the fact for his daughter’s murder and put on a good behaviour bond.
He died in Gosford Hospital, NSW, on January 9 after battling with complications from leukaemia.
