- A woman was branded “Australia’s worst mother” when four of her infant children died.
- She spent 20 years in prison for manslaughter and murder until she was pardoned and freed in June.
- Her manslaughter convictions have now been overturned.
The woman who was branded “Australia’s worst mother” when four of her children died has had her murder and manslaughter convictions overturned.
Kathleen Folbigg, 56, spent 20 years in prison after being charged with murdering her children Sarah, Patrick, and Laura, and for the manslaughter of her child named Caleb, until she was pardoned and freed in June. All four children died between 1989 and 1999, with prosecutors accusing Folbigg of smothering them. The youngest was 19 days old, and the oldest was 18 months.
Folbigg was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2003, The Mirror reported, but this was reduced to 30 years. Diary entries were the main body of evidence, per the outlet, where Folbigg wrote about feeling “guilt” over her children’s deaths.
“I knew I was short-tempered and cruel sometimes to her,” she wrote in one entry. “She left, with a bit of help.”
In another passage, she wrote: “All I wanted was to shut her up and one day she did.”
“I feel like the worst mother on this earth,” she wrote. “Scared that she’ll leave me now like Sarah did.”
Folbigg later explained she wrote in the diaries because she blamed herself, The Mirror reported.
“I blamed myself for everything. It’s just I took so much of the responsibility because that’s, as mothers, what you do,” she said.
After losing multiple appeals, an inquiry ruled there was reasonable doubt over whether she was guilty last week, the BBC reported.
On Thursday, The New South Wales Supreme Court ruled that the evidence used against Folbigg was “not reliable,” per the BBC. The court heard that the children may have all been born with a rare gene mutation and died of natural causes.
Folbigg had always insisted the deaths of her children were not her fault. She said. Laura died from myocarditis, Patrick had epilepsy and died after having a seizure, and Caleb and Sarah died due to sudden death syndrome.
In 2021, more than 90 scientists signed a petition asking for a pardon of Folbigg, the Associated Press reported.
According to the BBC, a “substantial and extensive body” of new evidence led to Folbigg being pardoned and cleared of all charges on Thursday.
“I am grateful that updated science and genetics has given me answers as to how my children died,” Folbigg said, per the BBC.
“However, even in 1999, we had legal answers to prove my innocence.”
She added that prosecutors took her words “out of context and turned them against me.”
“I hope that no one else will ever have to suffer what I suffered,” she said.
