As Kathleen Folbigg adjusts to life outside a prison cell she is revelling in her new life as “a forever free woman” on a secluded farm in NSW.
The mother-of-four is staying at her friend Tracy Chapman’s property on the mid-north coast as she comes to grips with how the world has changed over the past 20 years.
For the moment Folbigg was amazed just to wake up in her own bed as “a forever free woman”, Ms Chapman said.
“We’re just going to enjoy the moments as as they come today and tomorrow and the day after,” she told Nine’s Today show on Wednesday.
While the difficult issue of compensation for her two-decade ordeal is on everyone’s lips, Ms Chapman said it was too soon to pursue the matter.
“I don’t want to go there – the legal team don’t want to go there.
“We’re all wrapping our arms around her … and the money, whatever comes will come, but not right now,” she said.
“Kath just wants freedom.”
The 55-year-old received an unconditional pardon and was released from Grafton jail on Monday after an inquiry heard new scientific evidence pointed to reasonable doubt about her guilt following her 2003 conviction for the deaths of her four children.
She posted a video on Tuesday thanking her friends and family for their unwavering support and revealed she had not stopped thinking about her children during the long years in prison.
“[I] grieve for my children and I miss them and love them terribly,” she said.
Now Ms Folbigg is hankering to be reunited with their ashes.
“I know she wants to go and find where the kids are, and go and see the kids, that’s really important to her,” Ms Chapman said.
Ms Folbigg’s lawyer Rhanee Rego said the next hurdle for the legal team would be to get her convictions quashed in the Court of Criminal Appeal, followed by compensation.
“Her freedom was always the first step,” she said.
“She will be wanting to clear her name and that can only come from the Court of Criminal Appeal.
– AAP
