Australian mum jailed wrongfully for 20 years speaks out on ordeal

Renewed calls for justice reform after genetic mutation found to have caused deaths of her 4 kids

- Jonathan Pearlman

During her two decades in jail for killing her four babies, Ms Kathleen Folbigg was known as Australia’s worst female serial killer and was described in the media as the country’s “most hated woman” and “lord of death”.

Despite insisting that she was innocent, Ms Folbigg was convicted by a jury in 2003 of the manslaughter of her first child, aged 19 days, and the murders of her other three children aged between eight months and 18 months over a 10-year period from 1989 to 1999.

Prosecutors said Ms Folbigg had smothered her children despite a lack of physical evidence but suspicions of her guilt were fuelled by her cool demeanour and the emergence of a diary in which she appeared to blame herself for the deaths.

But Ms Folbigg was innocent.

She was released in 2023 after being pardoned following a judicial inquiry which heard new scientific evidence that the deaths were caused by a rare mutation in a gene that is essential to keep the heart beating.

The inquiry heard that the criminal court allowed incorrect evidence that there had never been three or more cases of unexplained baby deaths in a single family.

Experts also said the diary entries did not indicate guilt but showed a mother torn by grief and depression.

Ms Folbigg has now begun to speak about her ordeal after the release of a book co-written with an old friend, Ms Tracy Chapman, who fought for her freedom.

Talking to ABC’s Conversations programme on Sept 4, Ms Folbigg, 58, said the revelation that a genetic mutation led to her children’s deaths had helped to win her freedom but also brought a new mix of pain and guilt.

“It was a great relief off my shoulders. It was double-edged, though,” she said.

“Because I was in prison, accused of murdering my children. I didn’t physically do it but carried something (a genetic mutation) that did”