Kathleen Folbigg: Freedom after two decades for Australian mother wrongfully jailed for death of four babies

A 56-year-old Australian woman who had served a 20-year prison sentence for the death of her four children had her convictions formally quashed by a court, her lawyers said.

On Thursday (Dec 14), the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court found that Kathleen Folbigg was wrongfully convicted declaring that the evidence originally used against her was “not reliable”.

She is expected to seek compensation from the NSW government after the court overturned her conviction.

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Often described as one of “Australia's greatest miscarriages of justice”, Folbigg tried to legally challenge the charges through a string of appeals, but they wereturned down every time.

The matter was taken up again earlier this year after a landmark inquiry by a retired judge found reasonable doubt over her guilt.

'How can I kill my own children?'

On Thursday, she burst into tears outside the court as she thanked the “updated science and genetics” saying that it had given her “answers” as to how her children died.

She also criticised the “system” for wrongly blaming her for murdering her children.

“My children are here with me today and they will be close to my heart for the rest of my life,” she told reporters.

“The system and society need to think before they blame a parent of hurting their children.”

“However, even in 1999, we had legal answers to prove my innocence, but they were ignored and dismissed,” she said.

The court had jailedFolbigg in 2003 on three counts of murder and one of manslaughter after the deaths of her four babies—Caleb, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura —each of whom died suddenly between 1989 and 1999, aged between 19 days and 18 months.

Media declared her 'Australia’s worst serial killer'

The first three deaths were initially attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a term used when babies less than a year old die for no apparent reason.

At 18 months, Laura was the longest-lived of Folbigg’s children, and police began investigating after a forensic pathologist determined the cause of her death as “undetermined".

She was charged and convicted as newspaper headlines declared her to be “Australia’s worst serial killer.”

The prosecutors at that time relied on circumstantial evidence, using Folbigg's diaries to paint her as an unstable mother, prone to rage. Notably, the diaries were not examined by psychologists or psychiatrists.

In 2003, she was sentenced to 40 years in jail which was later downgraded to 30 years on appeal.

(With inputs from agencies)