New scientific evidence shows that Kathleen Folbigg’s four children may have died of natural causes, as she had claimed.
A woman jailed for 20 years for the deaths of her four children has been pardoned by the state of New South Wales after a judicial review found reasonable doubt about the original convictions.
Kathleen Megan Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of the murder of three of her children and manslaughter of the fourth.
Folbigg, 55, maintained her innocence and said the children had died of natural causes.
An initial investigation in 2019 found the evidence reinforced Folbigg’s guilt. However, a second inquiry by former Chief Justice Thomas Bathurst reversed her convictions in 2022 after new evidence suggested two children had a genetic mutation that could have caused their deaths.
The children, aged between 19 days and 19 months, died over ten years.
Her first child, Caleb, was born in 1989 and died 19 days later in what a jury determined to be the least crime of manslaughter. Her second child, Patrick, was 8 months old when he died in 1991.
Two years later, Sarah died at 10 months. In 1999, Folbigg’s fourth child, Laura, died at 19 months.
Evidence discovered in 2018 that both daughters carried a rare CALM2 genetic variant was one of the reasons the investigation was initiated.
New South Wales State Attorney General Michael Daley pardoned Folbigg on Monday after the summary of the findings of the Bathurst inquiry found reasonable doubt about each conviction.
“Today’s result is confirmation that our judicial system is capable of delivering justice, and demonstrates that the rule of law is an important foundation of our democratic system,” said Daley.
“Given everything that’s happened in the past 20 years, it’s impossible not to feel sympathy for Kathleen and Craig Folbigg.”
Daley said the unconditional pardon would allow Folbigg to walk free but would not overturn her convictions.
In a memo to the attorney general, Bathurst said there was a reasonable possibility that three of the children died of natural causes, two due to a genetic mutation known as CALM2 G114R and one due to an underlying neurogenic condition.
Such doubts then undermined the Crown’s case regarding the manslaughter of her fourth child, Bathurst added.
“Moreover, I cannot accept the proposition that the evidence shows that Mrs Folbigg was anything but a caring mother to her children,” he said.
Folbigg was serving a 30-year sentence set to expire in 2033. She would be eligible for parole in 2028.