Mother jailed for 20 years for killing her four children is pardoned and freed

An Australian mother who was jailed for 20 years for killing her four children despite insisting they died of natural causes has been freed.

Kathleen Folbigg, 55, was condemned as one of the country’s worst serial killers following the deaths of her four children – sons Caleb and Patrick and daughters Sarah and Laura – at very young ages.

Caleb, her first son, was born in 1989 and lived only 19 days. Patrick, born a year later, died at eight months. Two years later, her daughter Sarah died at 10 months, and then her fourth child, Laura, died aged 18 months in 1999.

She always maintained that her children died of natural causes, but prosecutors in her 2003 trial claimed this was too much of a coincidence.

The prosecution argued that the chances of four babies in one family dying from natural causes so young were so small as to be implausible. They also interpreted passages from her diary as confessions of guilt.

In each case, Ms Folbigg was the person who found her child’s body but there was no physical evidence that she had caused their deaths.

She was sentenced to 25 years - but on Monday, Michael Daley, the New South Wales attorney general, said a new inquiry had in fact found “reasonable doubt” that she killed her children.

‘Terrible ordeal’

Ms Folbigg has now received a full pardon from the governor of New South Wales, who ordered her immediate release.

“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,” said Mr Daley.

“It has been a 20-year-long ordeal for her ... I wish her peace.”

On Monday, Thomas Bathurst, the former state chief justice who has been leading a new inquiry into the case, found that there was a reasonable possibility that three of the children died of natural causes.

In the cases of Sarah and Laura, a genetic mutation known as CALM2-G114R could have caused their deaths, the inquiry found.

There was also “persuasive expert evidence” that Patrick may have died from an underlying neurogenetic disorder such as epilepsy, said Sophie Callan, who is helping with the inquiry.

“The coincidence and tendency evidence which was central to the (2003) crown case falls away,” said Mr Bathurst as regards the death of Caleb. “The balance of evidence … [was] that she was a loving and caring mother.”

Mr Bathurst’s full report will be released at a later date.