WATCH: NSW Attorney General announces an unconditional pardon for Kathleen Folbigg after 20 years in prison.
Kathleen Folbigg has been pardoned and released from prison after spending 20 years behind bars for the deaths of her four children.
After a seven week trial in 2003 a jury found Folbigg guilty of killing her four babies – Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura – between 1989 and 1999.
NSW Attorney General Michael Daley said on June 5 Governor Margaret Beazley had accepted his recommendation that Folbigg be unconditionally pardoned.
“I have reached a view that there is reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Ms Folbigg for each of [the] offences,” he said.
“This has been a terrible ordeal for everyone concerned and I hope that our actions today can put some closure on this 20-year-old matter.”
Mr Daley said it would be up to the Court of Criminal Appeal to quash her conviction.
“If that was to happen it would be open to Ms Folbigg to initiate civil proceedings against the state of NSW for compensation,” he said.
He said Folbigg should be given space to get on with her life.
“We’ve got four little bubbas who are dead, we’ve got a husband and wife who lost each other, a woman who has spent 20 years in jail and a family that have never had a chance,” he said.
“So you’d not be human if you didn’t feel something about that.”
Change brought by new medical evidence
An inquiry into her convictions in April heard credible evidence her children might have died of natural causes.
Mr Daley released a summary of findings prepared by Thomas Bathurst, who has been leading the Inquiry into Folbigg’s convictions.
“There is a reasonable possibility that three of the children died of natural causes,” it said.
“In the case of Sarah and Laura Folbigg, there is a reasonable possibility a genetic mutation known as CALM2-G114R occasioned their deaths.”
Mr Bathurst was “unable to accept… the proposition that Ms Folbigg was anything but a caring mother for her children”.
A formal report is still being finalised and is expected to take some time.
Supporters and friends react to news
ACM’s Newcastle Herald has spoken to friend and campaigner Helen Cummings who said she was still coming to terms with the announcement.
“It’s just the best news,” she said.
“I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I had tears in my eyes when I found out but now I can’t stop smiling.
“It’s a big day here for Kathleen, justice at last has been served and it’s taken too long but it’s happened, and my thoughts are with my friend.
“I hope she is sitting up to a T-bone steak right now and a bath.”
Meanwhile NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson has described it as Australia’s “second Lindy Chamberlain case”, in reference to the woman who was wrongfully convicted of murder after her baby was taken by a dingo in 1980.
Ms Higginson said Australia should “take a long, hard look back at this justice system”.
“What we know is that 20 years ago Kathleen Folbigg was convicted on coincidental and tendency evidence,” she said.
“There was never any actual forensic or pathological evidence to say the children were smothered or that she committed those crimes she was convicted of.”
Folbigg has always maintained her innocence saying her babies all died of natural causes.
Rare genetic variants later identified in Folbigg and her daughters triggered the second inquiry into her conviction not long after a 2019 examination.
How a decades-long ordeal unfolded
Kathleen Donovan was born on June 14, 1967.
She married Craig Folbigg in 1987.
- February 20, 1989 – Caleb Folbigg dies aged 19 days
- February 13, 1991 – Patrick Folbigg dies aged eight months
- August 30, 1993 – Sarah Folbigg dies aged 10 months
- March 1, 1999 – Laura Folbigg dies aged 18 months
- October 24, 2003 – Kathleen Folbigg is sentenced to 40 years in jail with a non-parole period of 30 years. This is reduced on appeal to a minimum of 25 years
- June 10, 2015 – NSW Governor David Hurley receives petition for review of convictions based on forensic pathology findings
- October 28, 2018 – Inquiry into convictions opens
- May 2019 – An international medical registry reports that two US children have died of the mutation found in Sarah and Laura
- July 2019 – Inquiry finds no reasonable doubt to Folbigg’s convictions. Validation of Folbigg mutation could not be completed before end of inquiry
- November 17, 2020 – Likely role of CALM2 mutation in Sarah and Laura’s death confirmed in world leading study
- March 3, 2021 – Petition for Folbigg pardon sent to NSW Governor Margaret Beazley
- November 14, 2022 – Hearings for second Inquiry conducted by Thomas Bathurst KC begins
- April 26 and 27, 2023 – Closing submissions made at Inquiry
- June 5, 2023 – NSW Attorney General Michael Daley unconditionally pardons Folbigg
With Australian Associated Press
