The australian authorities announced on Monday the pardon Kathleen Folbigg, considered the worst serial killer in that country and who He had been in prison for two decades for the murder of his four babies.
Following the children’s deaths, prosecutors alleged that she suffocated the children, ranging in age from nine weeks to three years, and convicted her in 2003 on charges of murdering three of her children and manslaughter of the fourth.
In 2021, dozens of scientists from Australia and abroad signed a petition calling for Folbigg’s release, noting that new forensic evidence suggests unexplained deaths are linked to rare genetic mutations or congenital abnormalities and not deliberate killing by the mother.
This is the story of Kathleen Folbigg and the legal process for the alleged murder of her four children.
This was the death of the four Folbigg babies
Kathleen Folbigg’s children: Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura, died between 1989 and 1999 in Hunter-Newcastle, about 120 kilometers from Sydney.
The babies, who died while in their mother’s care, were between 19 days and 18 months old.
It all started on February 20, 1989, when Kathleen warned her husband, Craig Folbigg, that something was wrong with their firstborn. Caleb, their first baby, was not breathing and died just 19 days after birth.
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Pardoned in Australia, after 20 years in prison, Kathleen Folbigg, convicted of killing her 4 children. She always maintained her innocence. An investigation coordinated by the Spanish Carola García de Vinuesa pointed to a genetic mutation as the possible cause of the deaths.👇 pic.twitter.com/RjkzrYE9ep
– Wake up Andalusia (@DespiertaCSur) June 5, 2023
Their second baby died on February 13, 1991 when he was eight months old. The minor, named Patrick, suffered from brain damage, partial blindness and epileptic seizures.
In the third case, Folbigg found his ten-and-a-half-month-old daughter, Sarah, blue and motionless, and died on August 30, 1993.
And six years later, on March 1, 1999, their fourth daughter, Laura, passed away at 18 months after Folbigg put her down for a nap.
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Investigations into the deaths
Initially, experts considered Caleb and Sarah to be victims of sudden death and Patrick from an epileptic fit, leaving Laura’s cause of death “undetermined.”
The death of Folbigg’s last daughter opened the door to investigate possible infanticides in the family.
So, criminal investigations into the deaths of the minors began in July 1999 and the mother’s diary became a key piece of the investigations.
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Folbigg wrote in her diary that she felt like a bad mother and sometimes did terrible things because of stress.
In her diary she wrote: “I feel like the worst mother in the world, I’m afraid she’ll leave me like Sarah (her daughter) did. I know she had little patience and was cruel to her sometimes and she left (died)”, or passages in which he blamed his stress for making him “do terrible things”.
In 2003 Folbigg was convicted of the murder of Patrick, Sarah, and Laura, as well as the manslaughter of Caleb. and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with the right to request parole after 30 years.
Folbigg, who has always defended his innocence, managed to get the Criminal Court of Appeals to reduce his sentence in 2005 to 30 years, with the right to request parole after 25 years in prison.
In 2008, the Australian authorities ordered a non-judicial investigation into the case, but then Judge Reg Blanch, in charge of the review, determined that the evidence against the defendant, as well as her diaries, proved her guilt.
“The only reasonably open conclusion is that someone intentionally harmed the children, and suffocation was the obvious method. The evidence did not point to anyone other than Mrs. Folbigg,” Blanch then stressed.
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An investigation that turns the case around
But the case took a turn in 2020, when a team of scientists, coordinated by the Spanish immunologist Carola García de Vinuesa and led by the Danish Michael Toft Overgaard, concluded that the deaths of the Folbigg babies could be due to genetic causes.
The scientific research, published in the specialized journal “Europace”, of the European Association of Cardiology, linked a genetic mutation (CALM2) of Sarah and Laura, with sudden cardiac death.
In addition, the study, made up of an international team of 27 scientists, found that the children carried rare variants of a gene that kills rodents by epileptic seizures.
The case was reopened again following a letter sent in March 2021 to the Australian authorities by a hundred scientists, including two Nobel laureates, requesting clemency and Folbigg’s release.
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“This is our second Lindy Chamberlain case here in Australia.”
Greens MP @SueHigginson_ has lambasted the NSW judicial system for its conviction of Kathleen Folbigg for the deaths of her four children 20 years ago, following Folbigg’s pardon. pic.twitter.com/Qh0gFPw3U0
— 10 News First Sydney (@10NewsFirstSyd) June 5, 2023
Finally, the governor of the state of New South Wales signed the pardon on Monday after learning the conclusions of the report on the case by retired judge Thomas Bathurst.
The jurist came to “the firm consideration that there are reasonable doubts as to Folbigg’s guilt” in each of the deaths.
The review found that two girls have a rare genetic mutation while one boy would have had an “underlying neurogenic condition”. Given these factors, Bathurst determined that the death of the fourth child was also not suspicious.
The defendant’s future
The pardon does not imply that the 55-year-old woman is acquitted of the crimes attributed to him, which falls within the jurisdiction of the Criminal Court of Appeals, and it is possible that Folbigg may claim compensation.
The 55-year-old woman was released after receiving pardon and traveled to a farm in the north of the state where she will now live next to her friend and staunch supporter, Tracy Chapman.
This case should revive the discussion to strengthen the interactions between law and science
In a statement, Chapman thanked her for the support and stated that the last 20 years “have been terrible for Kathleen”, especially because of the “pain and suffering she has endured after the loss of her four children”.
For her part, Folbigg’s attorney, Rhanee Rego, called the pardon a “defining moment in a long and painful journey” and said that the case exposes that the “legal system can make mistakes”.
“This case should revive the discussion to strengthen the interactions between law and science, to make important reforms so that the legal system makes decisions based on the best available scientific evidence, not on speculation,” he said in statements to the local press. .
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP and EFE
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