The New South Wales attorney general has ordered a second public inquiry into the conviction of the woman dubbed “Australia’s worst female serial killer”, amid claims that new scientific evidence could clear Kathleen Folbigg over the deaths of her four children.
On Wednesday the NSW attorney general, Mark Speakman, announced the inquiry would consider whether there was “question or doubt” over her conviction in 2003 for the murder of three of her children and the manslaughter of a fourth.
It comes after a group of 90 scientists last year petitioned for Folbigg’s early release, arguing there was no medical evidence she smothered the children.
The petition came after scientists discovered two of Folbigg’s daughters had inherited a previously unknown genetic variant from their mother, which could lead to sudden and unexpected infant death.
Her two dead sons also had illnesses which could have caused them to stop breathing as they slept.
Speakman said on Wednesday that while he had formed a view that a pardon was “not appropriate” because the evidence “has to be tested”, he believed there were sufficient questions to warrant a second public inquiry.
“I can well understand why members of the public may shake their heads and roll their eyes with disbelief about the number of chances that Ms Folbigg has had to clear her name, and why does the justice system allow someone convicted of multiple homicides yet another go,” he said.
“But the evidence clearly in my view reaches the necessary threshold for some kind of intervention; it certainly rises to the level of question or doubt.
“That doesn’t mean that I’ve formed any view to the guilt or innocence of Ms Folbigg, or as to whether there is some reasonable doubt about her conviction. But certainly there was enough of a question or doubt to justify some form of intervention.”
Folbigg, now 54, was jailed in 2003 for murdering her children Patrick, Sarah and Laura, and for the manslaughter of her son Caleb between 1989 and 1999. She is not eligible for parole on her 40-year sentence for another six years.
A previous public inquiry in 2019 upheld Folbigg’s conviction, but Speakman said it was appropriate for another hearing to consider the new evidence.
“The fact that this evidence has come to light after the last inquiry, that obviously is not the fault of Ms Folbigg or her lawyers, she can’t be blamed for that,” he said.
Supporters of Folbigg welcomed the announcement, saying it showed there were “serious doubts” about her conviction.
Lawyer Rhanee Rego, who has worked as a solicitor for Folbigg, said there should be a “cooperative approach to establishing the scope of the inquiry”.
“For it to be fair and equitable, it must deal comprehensively with the new genetic evidence and the new diary evidence,” she said.
“At Ms Folbigg’s 2003 trial, only a handful of selected words were cherry-picked out of the total 50,000 words written by Ms Folbigg. The same cherry-picked entries were focused on at the 2019 Inquiry.
“We are confident that the overwhelming evidence will finally free Kathleen Folbigg and prove her innocence.”
ANU professor Carola Vinuesa, who discovered the gene mutation at the heart of the latest push for Folbigg’s acquittal, said the announcement “points to the need for Australia to build a more scientifically sensitive and informed legal system”.
“It must be capable of understanding advances in science and able to apply appropriately the information to legal cases. This will help reduce the likelihood of others enduring the miscarriage of justice that Kathleen Folbigg continues to face,” she said.
Speakman said on Wednesday that he had spoken with Craig Folbigg, Kathleen’s ex-husband and father of the dead children, who first told police about the suspicious diary entries which were key to her convictions.
Speakman said he was “truly sorry” that Craig Folbigg would be forced to sit through another inquiry.
