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332 Deception at Work

• The idea that Azaria had been born brain damaged or had been injured and was killed to
save her further pain (there was no evidence of either).

• They did not want the baby, possibly because Michael was not the father. This theory was
‘supported’ by the fact that she referred to Azaria as ‘the baby’ or ‘my baby’ but never ‘our
baby’. Under this theory, is it possible that the baby was deliberately exposed to danger and
that dingoes were selected as the murder weapon?.

• She was killed in a momentary panic attack, following a difficult day.
• She had been injured or killed by Aiden or Reagan and the parents covered up.

We are unlikely ever to know the truth, but in fairness to the Chamberlains they have borne
themselves with great dignity and have been reasonably consistent in their denials. In the
end there is still reasonable doubt.

CONCLUSIONS

Before leaving this fascinating and tragic case there are three points worthy of note. The first is
the compromising of the crime scene. This case happened in 1980 when procedures were not
as well defined as they are today but over and over again – such as in the OJ Simpson case – early
mistakes are made from which the prosecution never recovers. The same is true in fraud cases,
where computers are improperly searched, documents and other exhibits compromised. This
makes it imperative that investigators are trained and work to specified processes.

The second point is that the police interviews stood no chance of getting to the deep truth.
This emphasizes the need for a sound methodology, both in terms of process and interview-
ing skills.

The third point, which we have mentioned before but is worth repeating, is that statement
analysis is interesting, but does nothing other than to act as a guide to further questions or
investigations: it is not an end in itself and proves nothing. It is easy to see from our analysis
what questions should have been asked of Mrs Chamberlain at her next interview.

SAS in fraud cases

APPLICATION AND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

SAS can be a useful support tool in most fraud cases, but the art is to:

• be selective and only spend time on potentially important documents that are more or less
freestyle versions;

• only analyse long documents if they are in electronic form (this may mean scanning or
keying in)

Even then the analysis should have a specific purpose and the time involved justified to pre-
pare for an important interview, to refine the fraud theory or investigations plan.