The Australian Kathleen Folbigg, considered in her country until recently as the embodiment of the devil, was pardoned and released yesterday Monday after spending twenty years in prison accused of the death of her four babies (she always defended his innocence). The governor of the state of New South Wales signed the pardon after learning the conclusions of a report on the case by the retired judge, authorities said. The lawyer came to “the firm consideration that there are reasonable doubts about Folbigg’s guilt” in each of the deaths, after a scientific investigation coordinated by the Spanish immunologist Carola GarcÃa de Vinuesa linked the deaths of the babies to genetic defects.
“I am very pleased and happy. And not only because of Kathleen, but because science has been listened to”, explains Vinuesa to La Vanguardia. He reveals that on Monday morning Kathleen herself (who visited him in prison several times) called him. “It was very beautiful and exciting. She is very happy and grateful to the scientists who have worked on her cause.”
Folbigg’s children – Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura – died between 1989 and 1999 in Hunter-Newcastle, about 120 kilometers from Sydney, when they were between 19 days and 18 months old. The first to arrive in the world was Caleb, in 1989. He was born with laryngomalacia (flabby larynx), which made it difficult for him to breathe and swallow at the same time. He only managed to survive 19 days. He died of sudden infant death syndrome.
Two years later (1991) Patrick was born, who died at eight months during an epileptic attack. With only four months to live, he suffered from severe epilepsy and blindness.
Despite the impact of the loss of the two little ones, Kathleen and her husband did not lose hope and continued to try to become parents. In 1992, Sarah was born. However, he would die ten months later. And seven years later (1999) Laura would come into the world. Of the four, she was the one who managed to survive the longest, 18 months.
Three days before she died, Sarah, the third baby, was given antibiotics for a respiratory infection. And Laura, the last child, had a fever before she died.
According to Vinuesa, the problems for Folbigg began when the forensic pathologist, on the death certificate, did not specify myocarditis as the cause of death. “They alerted him that there had been three previous deaths in the family and he specified ‘undetermined cause’. This was the trigger for the police process.”
Scientists have known for some time that Sarah and Laura inherited a genetic mutation in the calmodulin protein, algen CALM2, which causes sudden death in young children from cardiac arrest.
Folbigg was not only convicted by the forensic report on Laura’s death, but also by what her husband found in her personal diaries, where there were sentences that could seem incriminating.
In 2003 Folbigg was sentenced to 40 years in prison, eligible for parole after 30 years. The Australian got the Criminal Court of Appeals to reduce her sentence to 30 years in 2005.
The case took a turn in 2020, when a team of scientists coordinated by Vinuesa concluded that the deaths of the Folbigg babies could be due to genetic causes. The case was reopened following a letter sent in March 2021 to Australian authorities by a hundred scientists, including two Nobel laureates, to request a pardon and the release of Folbigg, who eventually has come.
