Child killer Kathleen Folbig will get another chance at freedom after the New Wales Attorney General recommended a new investigation to investigate her sentence.
Lawyers for Folbig say she may have been unjustly convicted of killing her four children.
They pointed to new scientific evidence related to the CALM2 genetic mutation found in two children.
“Although Ms. Folbig has made many attempts to clear her name, this new evidence and its widespread endorsement by scholars cannot be ignored,” Attorney General Mark Spiekman said Wednesday.
Mr Spickman said the new evidence was enough to start an investigation.
However, deciding what will happen next will be for the person appointed to lead it, retired Chief Justice Thomas Bathurst.
“At the end of the investigation, Mr. Bathurst will prepare a report,” Spickman said.
“If he believes there are reasonable doubts about Ms. Folbig’s guilt, Mr. Bathurst may refer the case to the Criminal Court of Appeals for further consideration.”
Folbig is serving a 30-year sentence for the murder of his four children, who ranged in age from 19 days to 18 months when they died in isolated incidents from February 1989 to March 1999.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF KATHLIN FOLBIG
In 2003, she was convicted of killing her children Patrick, Sarah and Laurie and of the unintentional murder of her 19-day-old son Caleb.
Diary entries in which she expressed guilt and suffering for the deaths of her children, as well as frustration and struggle with upbringing, were key points in the prosecution’s case.
Mr Spickman said he did not recommend pardoning Ms Folbig because he believed the best way to reach a “fair solution” would be to publicly hold new evidence.
The new investigation will be the second ordered by Mr. Spickman.
Previously, in 2019, it was concluded that the investigation had confirmed her guilt.
https://thewest.com.au/news/kathleen-folbiggs-conviction-to-be-scrutinised-by-new-inquiry-c-6844342
