National

Kathleen Folbigg to walk from jail after pardon

By AAP Newswire

Jun 5, 2023

Kathleen Folbigg appearing at the NSW Coroners Court in 2019 — Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of killing her four children and has now been pardoned. -AAP Image

Kathleen Folbigg has been pardoned and could walk from prison within days after spending 20 years behind bars for the deaths of her four children.

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After a seven week trial in 2003 a jury found Folbigg guilty of killing her four babies - Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura - between 1989 and 1999.

NSW Attorney General Michael Daley said on Monday he had recommended to Governor Margaret Beazley she be pardoned and she had accepted the recommendation.

An inquiry into her convictions in April heard credible evidence they might have died of natural causes.

Mr Daley released a summary of findings prepared by Thomas Bathurst, who has been leading the Inquiry into Folbigg's convictions.

"There is a reasonable possibility that three of the children died of natural causes,' it said.

Mr Bathurst was "unable to accept… the proposition that Ms Folbigg was anything but a caring mother for her children".

Folbigg has always maintained her innocence, saying her four babies - Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura - all died of natural causes.

Rare genetic variants later identified in Folbigg and her daughters triggered the second inquiry into her conviction not long after a 2019 examination.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press