Kathleen Folbigg may be looking for love, as she was pardoned and released from prison after two decades, with prison letters joking that she could be a “danger to men” due to years of pent-up “lust.”
The former convicted child killer, who had her first taste of freedom after walking out of Grafton Correctional Center on Monday, has written extensively from prison about what she would do if released.
In a letter written nine years ago when she thought she was about to walk free, Folbigg wrote that it was now “time … to find another love or at least a trusted companion for the remaining years I have left.
“To hopefully remind me of LUST and all the wonderful feelings that come with it.
“LOL…I’m still a woman, and since I’ve been delayed for years in that department…I could be a danger to men and want to make up for lost time, LOL.”
“Time to live a life of my choosing, experience it all and love life.
“I’m pretty sure I can handle that department. Well I hope so. I sure am pretty rusty in that department.
‘Do you know someone who would suit me? They should be pretty special to say the least. My list of requirements is quite long. I’m sure I’ll probably be way too shy!’
Folbigg wrote of her desires to her friend and supporter Tracey Chapman, in one of several letters released by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice during the investigation that ultimately led to her release from prison today.
Kathleen Folbigg tastes freedom for first time in 20 years — and prison says she may be looking for new love after being released on state pardon
Letters Kathleen Folbigg (above) wrote from prison reveal she could be a ‘danger to men’ with years of pent up ‘lust’ from being locked up in prison
In this letter, written nine years ago when Folbigg thought she had a chance to walk out of prison, she wrote that “it was now time … to find another love.” To hopefully remind me of LUST and all the wonderful feelings that come with it’
The inquiry by Hon Justice Tom Bathurst KC found on Monday that there was reasonable doubt about Folbigg’s guilt at her 2003 conviction for the murder of three of her children and the manslaughter of one between 1989 and 1999.
The beliefs were cast into doubt by scientific evidence that her two daughters carried a genetic mutation that could cause fatal heart problems. The Bathurst investigation produced credible evidence that all four of her children may have died of natural causes.
Under this week’s pardon, Folbigg’s convictions were not overturned, but she was spared from serving the remainder of her 30-year sentence.
The private letters Folbigg wrote to her best friend revealed the then-reviled inmate’s highest hopes, even during her dark days of incarceration.
Folbigg hoped that when she left prison she could “enjoy fresh air with no cages, no barbed wire fences … choice, freedom to choose interactions with other people.”
Kathleen Folbigg (above on her wedding day to Craig, the father of her four doomed children) said in a letter that the marriage was ‘a sham’ but after years in prison ‘I could be a menace to men and want to I make up for the loss’ time’
“I accept that I am now forever and ever… known as ‘that woman’ who was in prison for killing her children. I will never escape that trail.
‘I’m not bitter about that. I just want to live and live quietly like before or even better than before.’
In letters written from 2003 when she was first incarcerated to 2016, Folbigg describes life in prison, fights with other female inmates, tedious chores and routine in prison, as well as her hopes and dreams.
She described her marriage to the father of her four children who died, Craig Folbigg, as “a sham” and how her diaries had been misinterpreted to make her guilty of infanticide.
Folbigg, 55, was found guilty of the murder of her children Patrick, Sarah and Laura – ages eight months to 19 months – and the manslaughter of her firstborn child, Caleb, who was just 19 days old.
Kathleen Folbigg, (above before her 2003 conviction) has spent two decades behind bars for the deaths of her children
Folbigg joked she was “a prison bird” with the letter, top left, longing for a life outside and meeting a man she could start a loving relationship with
Her childhood friend Tracy Chapman – with whom Folbigg is expected to spend her first night out – was always convinced that Folbigg was innocent and believed her correspondence proved it.
Many of the 32 letters submitted to the hearing sought to explain disturbing passages in her diary at the time of their deaths, which was a key factor in the guilty verdicts.
In a letter to Mrs Chapman, Folbigg admitted that ‘some of my [diary] entries sound awful’.
Writing before Laura’s death in 1997, Folbigg said, “She’s a pretty good-natured baby—thank goodness it saved her from the fate of her siblings.” I think she was warned…”
She told Ms Chapman in a 2005 letter: ‘I probably exaggerated in my thoughts that they warned her’.
“I was still having weird thoughts in my head about why she might have left me. I grabbed for everything Trace,” she wrote.
“If it wasn’t physical, medical, genetic, what was it. I thought it was my fault, I blamed myself.”
Folbigg was also convicted of the murder of her son Patrick (pictured left) and the death by manslaughter of her firstborn son Caleb (pictured right)
With regard to a notorious diary entry which read ‘I am my father’s daughter’, Folbigg claimed to have switched the order of her words in a letter to Mrs Chapman.
Folbigg wrote in the diary that Laura’s “good nature” had “saved her from the fate of her siblings” and “I think she was forewarned.” In a letter to Mrs. Chapman, Folbigg reversed part of that diary
Folbigg was convicted of the murders of Sarah (left) and Laura (pictured right) along with her two sons, but scientists later said Folbigg should be pardoned as the two girls’ deaths could be explained by genetics