A woman who was once called “Australia’s worst female serial killer” was released from prison after new proof showed she did not kill her four babies.
Kathleen Folbigg went to prison for 20 years after a jury decided she killed her sons Caleb and Patrick and her children Sarah and Laura over a period of 10 years.
But scientists told a recent investigation that they may have died of natural causes.
People have said that the 55-year-old’s case is one of Australia’s biggest injustices.
Ms. Folbigg has always said that she is not guilty. In 2003, she was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing three of her children and causing the death of her first son, Caleb, by a lesser amount of force.
Prosecutors at her hearing said she smothered each of her children, who were between 19 days and 19 months old when they died suddenly between 1989 and 1999.
Previous appeals and a separate 2019 investigation into the case found no reasonable doubt and gave Ms. Folbigg’s original trial more weight to indirect evidence.
But at the new investigation, which was led by retired judge Tom Bathurst, the prosecutors agreed that studies on gene mutations had changed how they thought the children died.
The tweet below verifies the news:
Australian woman jailed over infant deaths pardoned after 20 years in prison https://t.co/98EOj26Hxa
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 5, 2023
Michael Daley, the Attorney General of New South Wales (NSW), said on Monday that Mr. Bathurst had come to the “firm view” that there was a reasonable question that Ms. Folbigg was guilty of each crime.
So, the governor of NSW signed a full pardon and ordered Ms. Folbigg to be let out of jail right away.
“She’s been through hell for 20 years… “I hope she finds peace,” Mr. Daley said, adding that he was also thinking of Craig Folbigg, the father of the children.
At the hearing in 2022, Mr. Folbigg’s lawyers said that it was “fundamentally impossible” for four children from the same family to die of natural causes before they turned two.
Mr. Daley said that Ms. Folbigg’s crimes do not go away because she was given a free pardon. If Mr. Bathurst wants to send the case to the Court of Criminal Appeal, which could take up to a year, it would be up to that court to decide.
If her sentence are thrown out, she could sue the government for millions of dollars in damages.
She could also get a payment like the one Lindy Chamberlain got in 1992 for being wrongly convicted over the death of her daughter Azaria. She was given $1.3 million (£690,000, $US858,000).
But some supporters say that Ms. Chamberlain’s case, in which she was jailed for three years, is not as bad as Ms. Folbigg’s.
Rhanee Rego, Kathleen Folbigg’s lawyer, said, “It is impossible to understand the damage that has been done to her: the pain of losing her children and spending almost 20 years in maximum security prisons for crimes that science has shown did not happen.”
Ms. Folbigg’s friends who had been fighting for her freedom for years met her at the jail gate. Mr. Daley asked for privacy so that she can “move on with her life.”
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The Law Needs to Be More Scientific
In 2003, Ms. Folbigg’s trial was based on circumstantial evidence, especially her writings, which showed how hard it was for her to be a mother.
But at the trial, there was no physical proof that the children had been smothered or hurt.
Experts said at the recent investigation that the diaries were written by a grieving mother who didn’t have much help and that it was impossible that all four children could have been smothered without leaving a trace.
There was also proof that both of her kids, Caleb and Patrick, had a different genetic mutation that causes seizures in mice to start suddenly.
Professor Carola Vinuesa of the Australian National University led the study team. She said that Ms. Folbigg’s DNA showed an unusual genetic sequence right away, even before the children’s samples were tested.
“We did the first test and found a gene variant that looked very strange,” she told the BBC. “Even back in November 2018, we thought this was a very high chance to be the cause if it was found in the children.”
Prof. Vinuesa said that the genetic mutation was linked to only 134 known cases of the possibly fatal heart condition.
She said that the choice to pardon Ms. Folbigg was a “beautiful moment” that could give other women in similar situations hope.
“Women who have lost children or been accused of hurting them have contacted us,” she said. “It looks like the children in these cases also have serious genetic conditions.”
The Australian Academy of Science says that the case shows that the court system needs to be changed so that it is more “science sensitive.” Ms. Folbigg’s lawyer agrees with this call.
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