Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton spoke out about missing child Cleo Smith at a public interview in Launceston on Thursday night.
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Cleo, 4, was last seen in the early hours of October 16 in her family's tent at the Blowholes beachside campground in Western Australia's Gascoyne region.
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Her disappearance and the subsequent media frenzy has caused many to draw parallels between her case and Ms Chamberlain-Creighton's experience following the disappearance of her baby Azaria on August 17, 1980. When asked whether she also saw parallels, Ms Chamberlain-Creighton was hesitant.
"I don't think there's similarities at all except they are worried grieving parents - nobody has exactly the same experience," she said.
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"They [media] want me to comment on what it's like for parents who have a missing child - what they would feel like - but how can I get them to understand that if I don't know you [the parent]?"
She told the audience that interviewers have offered to have her on programs to comment, but she has declined.
"It feels like grandstanding, so I just said 'no'," she said. Despite her hesitance to comment directly on the case, Ms Chamberlain-Creighton did appear to sympathise with the struggles of dealing with the media.
"People ask the most stupid questions like how do you feel?" she said.
"How can I describe how I feel to you who've never been through anything and could never have?"
Ms Chamberlain-Creighton made the comments in a conversation with former The Examiner editor Fiona Reynolds as part of this year's Tamar Valley Peace Festival, which is themed under the banner "Peace in Recovery".
Billed as a live version of Dr Reynolds' podcast of the same name, Accidental Celebrity: Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in conversation with Dr Fiona Reynolds was held at The Tramsheds Function Centre in Invermay.
Ms Chamberlain-Creighton's talk focused on the disappearance of her nine-month and four-day-old child, subsequent negative media attention and miscarriage of justice.
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Ms Chamberlain-Creighton was later imprisoned for Azaria's death and then exonerated in 1988.
The comments about Cleo Smith's disappearance came during the event's question-and-answer segment and were not a part of Ms Chamberlain-Creighton's solo talk. The event was initially scheduled for August but COVID-19 restrictions at the time prevented Ms Chamberlain-Creighton from entering the state.
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