Kathleen Megan Folbigg (née Donovan; born 14 June 1967) is an Australian woman who was wrongfully convicted in 2003 of murdering her four infant children.
[1] She was pardoned in 2023 after 20 years in jail following a long campaign for justice by her supporters,[2] and had her convictions overturned on appeal a few months later.
[3][4] No direct evidence of the alleged crimes was ever found, but in the personal diary discovered by her husband and handed over to the police, several entries seemed to suggest she might have harmed, and indeed murdered, her children.
Subsequent research published in 2020 led ninety eminent Australian scientists and medical professionals, in March 2021, to petition the NSW Governor to pardon Folbigg.
On 8 January 1969, her biological father, Thomas John "Taffy" Britton, murdered her mother, Kathleen May Donovan, by stabbing her 24 times.
She left school at the age of fifteen, and married Craig Gibson Folbigg in 1987, a marriage that was to end in 2000 with a divorce.
They pointed out that no physical evidence could link Folbigg to murder; it was an entirely circumstantial case with very little consensus among the scientific experts who testified at trial.
Due to the nature of her purported crimes, Folbigg resided in protective custody to prevent possible violence by other inmates.
Regarding the expert testimony from 2003, he stated, "In my view, it is wrong to rely on the forensic pathology evidence provided in this case to support the conclusion that one or more of the Folbigg children are the victims of a homicide.
[18] In June 2015, Folbigg's legal team delivered an official petition, including Cordner's report, to the Attorney-General's office in Sydney.
Three years later, on 22 August 2018, New South Wales Attorney-General Mark Speakman announced there would be an inquiry into the convictions, to "ensure public confidence in the administration of justice".
[19] "The petition appears to raise a doubt or question concerning the evidence as to the incidence of reported deaths of three or more infants in the same family attributed to unidentified natural causes in the proceedings leading to Ms Folbigg's convictions," he said.
Vinuesa and her colleague, geneticist Todor Arsov, first started with Folbigg's DNA, and both found a mutation in her CALM2 gene.
Vinuesa found Folbigg's mutation to be significant, as other calmodulin variants have been associated with severe cardiac disorders and sudden death in infancy.
[21][22] However, in the 500-page report, released in July 2019, Reginald Blanch, a former chief judge of the District Court found he did not have "any reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Kathleen Megan Folbigg for the offences of which she was convicted".
[26] On 5 June 2023 the NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley advised the Governor Margaret Beazley to exercise the royal prerogative of mercy and pardon Folbigg.
On 8 November 2023, ABC News reported that Folbigg would have her case referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal to consider whether she should be exonerated.
[29] On 4 March 2021, a petition signed by more than 100 eminent scientists, including Dr. Carola García de Vinuesa,[30] was published by the Australian Academy of Science, calling for the NSW Governor to pardon Folbigg, and providing compelling scientific and medical explanations for each of the deaths.