Kathleen Folbigg was found guilty of killing her four children 20 years ago today. An inquiry will soon decide whether Australia's worst female serial killer was wrongly convicted.
It's May 21, 2003, and a grieving father walks down the steps of Sydney's Supreme Court.
At the bottom is a throng of news cameras and reporters, poised with their microphones.
Wiping back tears, Craig Folbigg unfolds a piece of paper and begins reading.
"My most humble thanks go to 12 people, who I've never formally met, who today shared the honour of having set four beautiful souls free to rest in peace," he says.
He's talking about his children: Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura.
Police alleged they were all smothered by their mother, Kathleen Megan Folbigg.
A jury agreed.
But last month, for the first time since her arrest in 2001, prosecutors conceded there is a reasonable doubt over her guilt.
An inquiry fuelled by a groundswell of support from the scientific community – and backed by legal academics – has put Folbigg on the brink of clearing her name.
Where it began
The first two Folbigg children died at the family home in Mayfield, a suburb of Newcastle.
Caleb was 19 days old when he died on February 1, 1989, and Patrick was eight months old when Kathleen called her husband on February 18, 1991.
"It's happened again," she screamed.
Sarah and Laura Folbigg died aged 10 months and 19 months respectively, in the Hunter Valley towns of Thornton and Singleton, in 1993 and 1999.
All four deaths were investigated by pathologists, who listed a possible cause for Caleb and Sarah as SIDS, while Patrick's was linked to his epilepsy.
When it came to Laura, it was inconclusive.
The criminal investigation began on the day of Laura's death, March 1, 1999.
It was dubbed Operation Open Bay, headed by Detective Senior Constable Bernie Ryan.
Evidence was gathered through phone taps and listening devices, but the recordings contained no material confessions of criminality.
Then Craig Folbigg discovered his wife's diaries. He was so concerned by their contents, he handed them to investigators.
June 3, 1990: "This was the day that Patrick Allan David Folbigg was born. I had mixed feelings this day. wether or not I was going to cope as a mother or wether I was going to get stressed out like I did last time . I often regret Caleb & Patrick, only because your life changes so much, and maybe I'm not a Person that likes change. But we will see?"
June 18, 1996: "I'm ready this time. And I know Ill have help & support this time. When I think Im going to loose control like last times Ill just hand baby over to someone else. Not feel so totally alone, getting back into my exercise after will help my state of mind & sleeping wherever possible as well. I have learnt my lesson this time."
On July 23, 1999, Kathleen was subjected to a nine-hour interview at Singleton police station, where she was asked about the contents of her journals.
She repeatedly denied harming her children, claiming they died suddenly in their beds from natural causes.
Detective Senior Constable Ryan travelled to England in 2000 to seek the opinions of paediatric forensic consultant Professor Peter Berry, who later stated he found it "probable" the children were suffocated.
In February 2001, Gregory Coles, from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Newcastle, decided there was not enough evidence to charge Folbigg and recommended a full coronial inquest.
An acting state coroner then ruled police should lay murder charges, after reading the investigators' brief but without hearing evidence from the parents.
On April 19, 2001, both Folbigg parents were arrested. Craig was interviewed on suspicion of hindering a police investigation, but was released without charge.
Kathleen was charged with four counts of murder.
She would eventually be convicted of murdering Patrick, Sarah and Laura.
The jury also accepted she caused Patrick grievous bodily harm through an earlier smothering attempt in 1990, leading to his epilepsy.
For Caleb, the guilty verdict was for manslaughter.
In the media, Folbigg was dubbed "Australia's worst female serial killer".
She is currently serving a sentence of at least 25 years in prison.
The groundswell
Rhanee Rego was still at school when Folbigg was jailed, but now she's one of dozens of lawyers and academics who've joined the campaign to free her.
She was introduced to the case while studying law, taking a placement with barrister Robert Cavanagh in 2017 who asked her to look over the file.
"He just said to me, 'do you want to have a look at this, I'd like your opinion on it'.
"The rest is history. I'm going to see it through to the end."
Based in Newcastle, Ms Rego is now Folbigg's solicitor.
"Kathleen is a remarkable woman," she told the ABC.
"Not only because she has endured what I would regard as Australia's worst miscarriage of justice.
"But because she has stayed strong despite the odds to ensure that the system understands what really happened to her children."
In 2003, there weren't many people on the side of Kathleen Folbigg.
Even her husband at trial would testify against her, saying he "fell to pieces" after Caleb's death while she "pretty much basically just got on with her life".
Only a few loyal to her, such as close friend Tracy Chapman, have been prepared to publicly say Folbigg was not guilty of the crimes of which she was convicted.
But over the years that campaign has slowly gathered pace.
Public pressure led to an initial judicial inquiry in 2019, which ended with retired District Court judge, Reginald Blanch, finding the evidence then available “reinforces” Folbigg’s guilt.
At that inquiry, Kathleen had taken the stand to claim her innocence: "I don't know why any of my children died but I didn't kill them."
Since 2021, more than 150 scientists have signed a petition calling for Folbigg's immediate release, after new medical evidence suggested her children may have died of natural causes.
It relates to the discovery that Folbigg's two daughters had inherited a rare gene mutation, known as CALM2 G114R.
Research published in 2021 found the mutation can cause cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death in children, by interrupting the movement of calcium in the heart muscle.
The discovery helped spark the recent Special Commission of Inquiry, headed by retired Chief Justice Tom Bathurst.
Behind the scenes, a high-powered public relations company working pro bono and a celebrity agency have been amplifying calls for her to be pardoned.
Ms Rego says different people support Kathleen for a "variety of reasons".
"It all comes down to the fact … that this is a serious miscarriage of justice."
The children's father remains convinced of his former wife's guilt.
In a submission to the recent inquiry, Craig Folbigg's lawyers said the new medical evidence does not change "the fundamental implausibility of the hypothesis that four children in the one family died of natural causes before reaching the age of two".
A theory debunked
Folbigg's lawyers argue the evidence of expert medical witnesses called at the trial was tainted by a controversial theory know as Meadow's Law, which had already been discredited.
The maxim attributed to UK paediatrician Roy Meadow reads as follows:
"One sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder, until proven otherwise."
Law professor Emma Cunliffe, who studied Folbigg's prosecution for a book on women wrongly convicted for killing their children, says this presumption was "demonstrably untrue".
She says the last part of the phrase, "until proven otherwise", effectively reverses the criminal burden of proof onto grieving parents, "and that was an impossible burden".
Direct references to Meadow's Law were ruled out at trial, but Professor Cunliffe says the theory came in "through the back door" via the questioning of experts.
At Folbigg's trial, three medical experts who subscribed to Meadow's Law were called as Crown witnesses.
One said that she could only think of "natural disasters" or a "plane crash" as natural causes for the children's deaths based on the evidence.
The Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi SC, likened the chances of all four children dying from natural causes to seeing "piglets flying".
Now, Folbigg's lawyers have told the Bathurst inquiry the medical evidence paints a different picture.
Two genetic experts, who travelled from Denmark to give evidence at the inquiry, said they believe the rare condition was the "likely" cause of death for Folbigg's daughters, Sarah and Laura.
Other medical conditions such as seizures, SIDS and mutations in the gene BSN were suggested as possible causes of death for the two boys.
Patrick was diagnosed with epilepsy at four months, and Caleb had suffered from breathing issues.
Dr Monique Ryan, a paediatric neurologist and Federal MP, was engaged by Folbigg's legal team in 2019 to review Patrick's medical notes.
"I couldn't really see that there was a smoking gun," she told the ABC.
"I really wasn't convinced that Patrick was subjected to an inflicted injury."
Dr Ryan says multiple infant deaths in the same family is unlikely, but each instance shouldn't be looked at "in a vacuum".
"We're not talking about four isolated events. And I think that is something that was not appreciated at the time.
"The chances of lightning striking four times are higher if a tree is on top of a hill and exposed, and you're in a lightning-prone area."
The diaries
The diaries Kathleen Folbigg kept during her pregnancies and motherhood became a key pillar to the circumstantial case against her at the 2003 trial.
With no physical evidence of harm to the children, the prosecution led evidence that four natural unexplained infant deaths in one family was unknown to science.
They argued the diaries showed the virtual admissions of guilt from a mother who struggled in her role and smothered her children to escape those responsibilities.
On 28 January 1998, Folbigg wrote: “Very depressed with myself, angry & upset – I've done it. I lost it with her. I yelled at her so angrily that it scared her, she hasn't stopped crying. Got so bad I nearly purposly dropped her on the floor & left her.
“I restrained enough to put her on the floor & walk away. Went to my room & left her to cry. Was gone probably only 5 mins but it seemed like a lifetime. I feel like the worst mother on this earth. Scared that she'll leave me now. Like Sarah did. I knew I was short tempered & cruel sometimes to her & she left. With a bit of help."
But there was no expert analysis of Folbigg's diaries provided for the jury at trial.
It wasn't until 2021 – 18 years later – that experts were engaged to provide an opinion on their contents.
Sophie Callan SC, counsel assisting the Bathurst inquiry, said the witnesses had concluded the diaries showed a "grieving mother" rather than a remorseless monster.
Professor Cunliffe believes the diaries were misconstrued at trial.
She says the propositions relating to the diaries "fundamentally misunderstood" the nature of maternal bereavement and how that could manifest in a woman's journal.
"The prosecutor depicted fairly normal mothering behaviours, such as Kathleen's desire to visit the gym, leave the child at creche … as signs of a mother who was not coping well with motherhood."
It's an argument echoed by Ms Rego, who says the diary entries were "cherry-picked" to suit a narrative of guilt.
"I think Kathleen has been subject to an analysis by many people in the system holding her to a standard of motherhood that does not exist," she says.
"She grieved in her own way. But yet again, like Lindy Chamberlain, that just wasn't good enough.
"But I question if she was crying, would those have been crocodile tears? I don't think women can win; we expect more of them than they can offer."
Will Folbigg be released?
Folbigg remains in prison as she awaits Mr Bathurst's findings, who has been urged to conclude there is a reasonable doubt over the convictions.
It could result in the 55-year-old being released from high-security jail for the first time in 20 years. If or when that might be is unclear.
But Folbigg's two-decade legal battle has sparked calls for law reform in New South Wales.
Some supporters point to the UK's Criminal Convictions Review Commission – which has helped clear other mothers convicted of murder — as a model to follow.
Anna-Maria Arabia, Chief Executive of the Australian Academy of Science, says the Folbigg inquiries are an "absolute demonstration" of the need for legal reform.
"It is imperative that we do not miss an opportunity to develop a more scientifically sensitive legal system.
"If Kathleen Folbigg were being tried today, I do not believe she would be convicted based on the strength of the scientific evidence available."
Ms Rego was inspired to undertake a PHD on NSW's post-conviction review systems through her experience in Folbigg's case.
For now, she is calling on her client to be released immediately.
"Every day that goes by is another day of unjustified incarceration for Kathleen Folbigg."
Credits
Words and interviews: Heath Parkes-Hupton and Ursula Malone
Digital production: Nicola Gage
Additional vision: Australian Story
