Kathleen Folbigg is even called the ‘greatest’ serial killer of Australia”, after being convicted in 2001 of the deaths of her four children. The now 55-year-old woman was released by New South Wales Attorney General Michael Daley, who signed a full pardon after genetic testing showed the children died of natural causes.
Twenty years ago, Kathleen Folbigg was sentenced to 30 years in prison for allegedly asphyxiating sons Caleb and Patrick and daughters Sarah and Laura, who died between 1989 and 1999, aged between 19 days and 19 months.
The woman always maintained her innocence and in 2019, after several appeals and an autonomous investigation into the deaths, the case was reopened, with a new trial taking place that gave more relevance to the medical evidence devalued in the first trial. .
This new lawsuit, led by retired judge Tom Bathurst, led the court to accept that an investigation into genetic mutations had changed the understanding of child death.
However, according to Michael Daley, the unconditional pardon granted this Monday does not invalidate Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions. This requires a court ruling in criminal cases.which could take a year if the woman decides to appeal.
Only if his conviction is overturned by that court will Flobigg be able to sue the Australian government for multi-million dollar damages. for what is already regarded as one of the greatest mistakes of the Australian judiciary.
Married to Craig Folbigg since the late 1980s, Kathleen had her first child at the age of 21, Caleb, who died when he was 19 days old. The cause of death was given as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
She became pregnant again in 1990 and had another son, Patrick. Tests showed he was normal and healthy. But when he was four months old, he had an event that left him with brain damage and seizures. Four months later he died of convulsions.
Sarah, the third child, died at 10 months and the cause of death was also recorded with SIDS. But when their fourth daughter, Laura, died on March 1, 1999 at the age of 18, the police began an investigation.
The marriage ended and on April 19, 2001, Folbigg was arrested and charged with four counts of murder.
flying pigs
For the prosecution of the Australian Public Prosecution Service “sudden death of babies is a tragedy”, so “two are suspects”, but “three are murders until proven otherwise”. The prosecutor even compared the hypothesis that the children died of natural causes to that of flying pigs.
“I cannot rule out the possibility that one day piglets will be born with wings and flying. Is that a reasonable doubt? No,” the magistrate told the judge at the 2003 trial.
The prosecution used Folbigg’s diaries, which her husband had turned over to the police, as confessions of guilt. “I feel like the worst mother in the world, afraid that (Laura) will now leave me, as Sarah did. I knew I was moody and cruel to her at times and she walked away, with a little help,” Folbigg wrote. “It can’t happen again. I’m ashamed of myself. I can’t tell (my husband) because he will worry about leaving you with me.”
The woman did not confess, there was no apparent motive, and no one claimed to have seen her kill her children. But the jury found her guilty of the murder of the four children.
She was sentenced without recourse to 30 years in prison, without parole of 25 years – by which time she would have been 60 years old.
The battle of scientists
In 2015, with the appeal exhausted, Folbigg’s lawyers petitioned the Governor of New South Wales asking him to investigate the convictions.
Lawyers argued that new evidence had emerged regarding scientific advances on SIDS.
Kathleen’s defense team contacted Professor Carola Vinuesa, co-director of the Center for Personalized Immunology at the Australian National University, and asked her to sequence the children’s genomes to see if there was a genetic mutation causing SIDS.
During their research, Vinuesa and his team found a previously unreported variation in the CALM2 gene, which controls how calcium is transported in and out of heart cells.
Studies have shown that variations in the CALM 2 genes can cause heart problems in young children, and when they sequenced the genomes of all four children, they found that both daughters carried the same CALM2 mutation as their mother.
Vinuesa and her team wrote to the judge that the daughters would likely die as a result of the variant. adespite the new finding, the judge chose not to reopen the investigation.
new developments
In November 2020, scientists published even more compelling evidence.
Led by Danish Professor Michael Toft Overgaard, a team of experts in six countries discovered that the CALM2 variant in Folbigg and her two daughters can cause disease – just like other CALM2 variants.
They concluded that the variant changed the girls’ heart rhythm, making them more susceptible to heart problems – mainly from the medication they were given. Sarah was on antibiotics for a cough, while Laura was treated with paracetamol and pseudoephedrine for a respiratory infection shortly before she died. Laura had inflammation of the heart when she died, to the point that three teachers stated they would have considered it the cause of death.
In the case of the boys, the scientists found other variations in their genes, one variant inherited from their mother and the other probably from their father, though he refused to provide a sample to the researchers.
Only 75 people in the world are known to be carriers of mutations in their CALM1, CALM2 or CALM3 gene that have been proven to be lethal in children.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about these variations being very rare in the world, but about the chances of Kathleen finding someone like Craig and having this combination of mutations between the two. Once genetics come into play, the stats go beyond the roadside window”underlined Vinuesa.
“Someone is being told that the thing they had on them was passed on to the kids. That’s emotionally heartbreaking,” said Tracy Chapman, Kathleen’s best friend who has been in contact with her. “The reality is that Kath lost four children. And she wasn’t allowed to grieve the way a mother should.”
genetic responses
Advances in genetic testing — including the findings in the Folbigg case — could also help find answers for others dealing with the unexplained deaths of their children.
Vinuesa says it’s likely that in the years to come other families who have suffered SIDS will discover that a genetic mutation is to blame.
“In most families where SIDS has died, no one has yet sequenced the genomes of the children,” she said. This can help families find answers — and also help those who are concerned about being targeted by the law.
“Many families live in fear because two or more children have died and they fear that one day someone will knock on their door with some kind of police investigation,” she said. “We now know that when you have a genetic disease … it’s not rare.”
Source: DN
