Roseanne Beckett’s message to Kathleen Folbigg following pardon and release from jail

A woman who spent 10 years behind bars after being wrongly accused of conspiring to kill her husband has shared an emotional message for Kathleen Folbigg.

Roseanne Beckett fought back tears on Tuesday night as she sympathized with Ms Folbigg, 55, who had spent the past 20 years in prison.

Ms Folbigg was pardoned on Monday after an inquiry found reasonable doubt about her murder convictions related to the deaths of her four children between 1989 and 1999.

Ms Beckett was wrongly imprisoned in 1991 for the attempted murder of her husband Barry Catt on the NSW North Coast and spent 10 years behind bars before new evidence came to light proving her innocence.

Mrs. Beckett recalled having mixed feelings and feeling like she was on another planet when she was released 22 years ago.

She got emotional as she warned that Mrs. Folbigg will need all the support she can get.

“This is the moment you’ve been waiting for, 10 years in my case and I’m sure in Kathleen’s case it’s 20 years,” Ms Beckett said. The project.

“But it’s mixed feelings because it’s such an injustice and so you’ve suffered for so long and finally feel like you’re really being released and someone really believes in you and knows you haven’t committed a crime.”

“There is no compassion or sympathy. Once you’re in those gates, that’s it. You are on your own. You are very vulnerable. You have no one to turn to.

“It’s real, only the strong can hold on, I can tell you. She did well. Kathleen did well to endure the nightmare she was living in.’

“I ask everyone to support Kathleen, because she will need it.”

Mrs. Beckett was delighted after hearing the news that Mrs. Folbigg has been released from prison.

“I followed Kathleen for the whole 20 years because I believed from the beginning that this woman was not guilty of murdering her children and to see her go free was just amazing. It was great,” she said.

Mrs. Beckett was arrested in 1989 on charges of spiking her husband’s drinks in his office fridge with the drugs Lithium and Rivotril.

Ms Beckett and her defense had always maintained that she had been set up and was the victim of a conspiracy between her husband, his friend Adrian Newell, a star witness in her sentencing, and Newcastle Detective Inspector Peter Thomas.

She was later convicted of provoking her ex-husband’s murder and served ten years of her 12-year sentence before new evidence came to light in 2001 leading to Mrs Beckett’s release.

Roseanne Beckett (pictured) was wrongly imprisoned for 10 years after being charged with the attempted murder of her then-husband

Roseanne Beckett (pictured in 2015 after being paid 2.3 million) didn’t know how to use a computer, cell phone or withdraw money from an ATM when she was released from prison

Her conviction was overturned in 2005 by the Court of Criminal Appeal following an inquest into allegations that she had been framed.

She later won the right to appeal for damages to Australia’s highest court.

In 2015, Judge Ian Harrison ruled that Ms. Beckett had been denied the right to a normal life and awarded her a payout of $2.3 million plus legal fees, 26 years from the day of her arrest.

Mrs. Beckett recalled feeling like she was living on another planet when she was released in 2001.

“I didn’t have a computer before I went to prison. There were no cell phones,” she recalls.

‘I was like a child. My elderly parents showed me how to do things.

“Before I went to prison I used money and then I had a card and I didn’t know how to use it.”

“I really thought they had done something to me, given me an injection and taken me abroad somewhere or somewhere because I didn’t think I was in Australia, no way.”

Although she felt peaceful when she was released in 2001, it would be another 14 years before she would get justice.

“I felt like this little mistake is finally going to be put right and now people will know and I have to go on because I’ve now set a precedent so that people who come after me don’t have to fight for the 30 years I’ve had to fight for. to get justice,” Mrs. Beckett recalled

“It was already known that I was innocent and it had been proven time and time again, but it didn’t stop these evil people from testing me time and time again.

“My position was for all Australians, especially women, because it’s very hard on women and they hit women harder than men unfortunately, but that’s the truth. It’s not supposed to be like that.’

She sent a heartfelt message to Ms Folbigg, warning that people would ‘come out of the woodwork’ and ‘just stand there’.

Kathleen Folbigg (pictured) broke her silence in a video message to Australia on Tuesday

“Just stick with the people you know, trust the people you know, you will undoubtedly be sent from pillar to post,” Ms Beckett told Nine News.

“They just think you’re a horrible person and you did these horrible things when you didn’t and you know you didn’t, but you have to go through that.”

Meanwhile, Mrs Folbigg is enjoying her new life as ‘a forever free woman’ on a remote farm near Coffs Harbor on the NSW north coast.

“We’re just going to enjoy the moments as they come today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow,” friend Tracy Chapman told the Today Show on Wednesday.

She added that it is too early to consider compensation.

“I don’t want to go there – the legal team doesn’t want to go there,” Ms Chapman said.

“We all put our arms around her… and the money, whatever comes, will come, but not now,” she said.

“Kath just wants freedom.”