Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

Was a while ago. Kathleen Folbigg was sent to gaol for life for murdering her 4 babies over a 10 year span. They all died of suffocation or undetermined causes.


 


I recall the case well. She was convicted on the basis of her diary entries where she 'admitted' she felt responsible for the deaths of her babies and she felt she wasn't good enough as a mother. She also wrote about her awful relationship with her husband - he used to call her fat, he played around and she was terrified he was going to leave her.


 


He is the one who found her diary and handed it over to the police with an accusation of murder.


 


She has always said she was innocent and has appealed the case a few times. Now she has forensics experts agreeing with her.


 


Who knows what's true. But it will be interesting to see where this ends up.


 


ONE of Australia's top forensic law authorities believes the convicted child killer Kathleen Folbigg would walk free from jail if granted a retrial today - because of inaccurate evidence presented at her original trial.


Gary Edmond, a legal expert in forensic science at the University of NSW, believes a recent review of case material demonstrates that Folbigg's trial was tainted by unreliable, misleading and now outdated medical evidence.


 


''It is quite likely that experts provided evidence at the trial which they might not give today - and this needs to be reconsidered because you can't have someone remain in jail just because they were prosecuted at a particular point in time … especially if the science has moved on,'' he said.


 


''In the past few years, there have been startling revelations about problems across forensic science and medicine which should give us even more pause for what has gone in the past, particularly in controversial areas.''


 


Folbigg is serving a reduced sentence of 25 years after she was convicted in 2003 of murdering her children Patrick, eight months, Sarah, 10 months, and Laura, 19 months, between 1991 and 1999, and the 1989 manslaughter of her son Caleb, aged 19 days. While the causes of death were never determined, a picture emerged during the trial of an emotionally fragile mother with a personality disorder - whose damaging diary entries were interpreted as literal admissions of guilt.


 


But Folbigg has always maintained her innocence and Professor Edmond argues that with no scientific evidence proving any of her babies were murdered, the diary extracts alone are ''insufficient'' to keep her in jail, adding: ''They add verse but, you also have to say, they're pretty ambiguous.''


 


Once, four infant deaths in the same family automatically pointed to murder but as the legal academic Emma Cunliffe has demonstrated through six years of extensive research, that is no longer the case.


Doctor Cunliffe has written to the NSW Attorney-General, Greg Smith, attacking the medical research presented at Folbigg's trial as incomplete and misleading.


 


Dr Cunliffe cites at least eight similar cases worldwide in which mothers, in recent years, have been accused of infant murders - many of them multiple crimes. They include the Melbourne woman Carol Louise Matthey, who was charged in 2005 with smothering four children over five years. ''All the other women subjected to that form of prosecution have either been acquitted by courts of appeal or have had the evidence against them excluded by judgment,'' Dr Cunliffe said. ''Folbigg is the last one standing.''


Dr Cunliffe and Professor Edmond are not the only voices calling on Mr Smith to reopen the case. Professor John Hilton, who conducted the autopsy on Folbigg's second child, Sarah, in 1993, agrees a review is ''warranted''.


 


Professor Hilton, who was called by the prosecution as a witness in the Folbigg trial, said: ''We live in a changing world. Medicine and science never stand still - they progress. Now obviously, I sit on the medical and scientific side of all this … but it seems to me the conviction stood, or was based on, the diaries … which were open to multiple interpretations.''


 


He added: ''If you read the court transcripts, you will see that my evidence was hardly favourable to the prosecution's case.''


 


He added: ''While homicide was a possibility, there was no pathology evidence to support it.''


Of Folbigg's diary extracts, Professor Cordner said: ''It is well recognised that self-blame is a common response to infant death.''


 


While all of Folbigg's legal avenues have been technically exhausted, a spokeswoman for the Attorney-General confirmed on Saturday an application for review can be lodged under the Crimes (Appeal and Review) Act 2001.


 


How the case against a mother unfolded


 


FEBRUARY 19, 1989 Caleb dies; aged 19 days. Originally thought to have died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Now deemed to have died of suffocation.


 


FEBRUARY 13, 1991 Patrick dies, aged eight months. Originally believed to have died of a blockage of the airways due to an epileptic fit. Now deemed have died of suffocation.


 


AUGUST 30, 1993 Sarah dies, aged 10 months. Originally thought to have died of SIDS. Now deemed to have died of suffocation.


MARCH 1, 1999 Laura dies, aged 19 months. Cause of death not determined.


 


APRIL 19, 2001 Kathleen Folbigg is arrested at home after a two-year police investigation.


 


MAY 21, 2003 Found guilty of murdering Patrick, Sarah and Laura and of the manslaughter of Caleb; found to have inflicted grievous bodily harm on Patrick in 1990.


 


OCTOBER 24, 2003 Sentenced to 40 years' jail with a non-parole period of 30 years.


 


FEBRUARY 17, 2005 Sentence reduced by 10 years and her non-parole period by five years. Appeal against sentence dismissed.


 


DECEMBER 21, 2007 Loses a second appeal in the NSW Supreme Court. Will be eligible for release in 2028, at age 61.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/new-science-would-let-folbigg-go-free-20130202-2dr7y.html#ixzz2JmMij2Ic


 


 

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

She was convicted on the strength of comments like that instead of on the medical evidence.


 


But really, if these comments were read without the knowledge that there was a dead child, you would look at the words with different eyes.


 


Perhaps you would simply see them as a mum having a a frustrating day. Or having a hard time coping. Or unnecessarily taking on responsibility for a death simply because she feels she should have been a different type of mother.


 


Other entries in her diary talks about her love of her babies and how much she wants them. So it's not as if those thoughts she put on paper were all consuming.


 


 

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

*pepe
Community Member

i can actually relate to a lot of her comments, as i'm sure many other mothers can.


 

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?


 


 


The 2003 case is the sentencing


 


The 2005 case was about appealing the length of the initial sentence handed down


 



 


That is what I thought initially. What is the 2002 case you were looking for?

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

What busy new mum keeps a diary on this stuff?

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

There are years of her diaries missing as well (destroyed by herself).

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

Az, if you pull up the 2003 sentencing case in Am's post back there, it goes into a bit of detail about behavior displayed by Kathleen during her time in the first foster home.


 


 


And just curious, wasn't May 1987 a rough time for a just 18 year old to buy a house? Wasn't that when all the super high interest rates were happening?


 


I mean, in 2 years she earned enough to save for half a deposit on a house? How much money could a 16 - 18 year old have earned in that time?


 


In 1990 I know I needed minimum 20% deposit for a house.


 


Anyone know what either hers or her partner/husband did for employment?


 


Anyone know how old he is?


Some people can go their whole lives and never really live for a single minute.
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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?


What busy new mum keeps a diary on this stuff?



 


Also if she was in doubts about her ability as a mother, depression or anything like that why didn't she seek medical help?

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

Yes, it was 1987 when the interest rates got up to 22%, they didn't stay up that high for long so maybe they purchased the house when the rate had dropped back a lot. Also people were forced to sell their homes because of the higher interest and their  repayments were a lot more.There were some bargains to buy for those with cash/large deposits with houses that had to be sold quickly.


 


It was her and her OH that bought the house together... maybe he had a lot of savings when she met him?


 


It is mentioned several times, that after each death of her babies, she didn't seem consumed with grief and went back to work very quickly.


There is also a comment she made about earning money for her OH, as if that was very important.

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?


 


Anyone know how old he is?



 


He was 45yo in 2006, according to a news article at the time.

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Re: Anyone remember the Folbigg case?

He was a car salesman.

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