on 03-02-2013 08:37 AM
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a recent review of case material demonstrates that Folbigg's trial was tainted by unreliable, misleading and now outdated medical evidence.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
on 03-02-2013 03:51 PM
The monitor thing.... it can be very stressful having false alarms continuously but that reads like it was her husband's idea?
on 03-02-2013 03:55 PM
Maybe az for baby S, but if she felt it should be used I am sure she could have continued to use it.
For L, she was the one discontinued to use the equipment and her husband complained to Sister Tanner at Westmead Hospital about her not using the monitor and recording the information.
Fourth baby, 3 previous died wouldn't you do everything you could to make sure that baby lived?
on 03-02-2013 04:00 PM
The mid 90s is a lifetime away from the mid 80s, Crikey. So many changes and advances occur in a short time.
Sarah was born in 1997.
Plus she did realize she was feeling depressed and having mood swings and temper outbursts etc - she wrote about it in her diaries, spoke about it with her husband and he in turn told his sister and the people who supplied the SIDS monitor thing.
on 03-02-2013 04:04 PM
These children were born - one in 1989 and 3 between 1991 and 1999.
The mother had her foster sister and husband's sister willing to help her.
on 03-02-2013 04:39 PM
Don't get me wrong. I am not defending her or condemning her. I really don't know.
The only thing I see is that the whole thing is not black and white. It's all very grey - from her state of mind, her husbands indifference to her loneliness and fears, to the medical evidence given (or tossed aside), to her childhood history, to the involvement of the police in wanting to pursue a murder charge at all costs.
Perhaps it depended on the family dynamics, where she lived, who she had to rely on etc...... she lived in a country town, not a city.
In her diaries she talks about her loneliness constantly. By all accounts she never got along with her foster sister and who knows what the dynamics of her relationship was with her SIL. She doesn't appear to have any friends and relied on husband for all her support.
I can't help but think that if she was a man who's alleged crime was as serious but there was a lack of concrete evidence, there is no way he would have been charged.
And furthermore as the expert I think she was a victim of her times. As the expert in the article says: ''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.
The fact is that none of the evidence shows that the babies were murdered. And in 2 (or 3?) cases the babies had clear medical conditions that could have caused their deaths. I can't help but wonder if it is the incredulity and horror at the loss of 4 babies from one one mother that meant that EVERYONE concluded it had to be murder regardless of the evidence.
on 03-02-2013 04:42 PM
It's a bit like Lindy Chamberlain isn't it? There was so little evidence but they still convicted her.
Everyone thought the possibility of what actually occurred was simply too incredible to be true. And we all condemned her at the time. Most of the country thought her guilty.
on 03-02-2013 04:54 PM
Similar also to Kelli Lane... with multiple pregancies (seemingly unwanted children) missing baby etc... no evidence what happened to baby Teagan.
Expert advice given and accepted in court cases of the past seems to be have been challenged a lot recently.
Professor Edmond pointed to Jeffrey Gilham and Gordon Wood, both of whom suffered a miscarriage of justice due to flawed forensic submissions, and argued there was a ''very real possibility'' that Folbigg had suffered the same fate. (from link in OP)
on 03-02-2013 04:57 PM
The news articles do state she enjoyed going out and socialising with her friends. When she was at home with a new baby.. she wouldn't be able to do that.
on 03-02-2013 04:58 PM
Also she went back to work fairly quickly after each babies death, so not as if she was at home all by herself for long periods of time.
on 03-02-2013 04:58 PM
Professor Edmond pointed to Jeffrey Gilham and Gordon Wood, both of whom suffered a miscarriage of justice due to flawed forensic submissions, and argued there was a ''very real possibility'' that Folbigg had suffered the same fate. (from link in OP)
Interesting that both of these men (and MEN being the critical word) were acquitted.