Female serial killer who murdered her four kids could be freed as inquiry to hear they all had sudden death gene
A FEMALE serial killer who murdered her four kids could be freed as an inquiry is set to hear they all had a sudden death gene.
A second enquiry into the mystery case was announced this week in Australia after a petition was signed from prominent scientists calling on Kathleen Folbigg, 53, to be pardoned over new scientific evidence.
Carola Vinuesa, a professor of immunology at the Australian National University, said Folbigg may have been a carrier of the deadly “CALM2 G114R” gene variant that killed her children Patrick, Laura, Sarah and Caleb.
She said the evidence – discovered in 2018 – was “proof beyond reasonable doubt of Ms Folbigg’s innocence and natural causes for the deaths”.
Her children may have inherited the gene which causes a condition called Calmodulinopathy that can cause a sudden cardiac death in very young children, scientists have said.
They say Folbigg’s two girls had the deadly gene while her sons Caleb and Patrick had another genetic mutation that could have led to their deaths.
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A jury at the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney found Folbigg guilty of the manslaughter of 19-day-old Calab in 1989, and of murdering Patrick, eight months old, in 1991, 11-month-old Sarah in 1993 and 19-month-old Laura in 1999.
Her children’s deaths were initially blamed on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
But she was sentenced to at least 25 years in jail in 2003 after her husband Craig found her incriminating diaries.
Her dad, Thomas John Britton, was a professional hitman who had stabbed her mum to death.
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The Times reported back then that they revealed a desperate, tortured woman who knew she was a danger to all her babies but had nowhere to turn for help.
She had outlined a battle of wills with her kids, criticising herself as the worst mum in the world, while admitting that Sarah had died “with a bit of help”.
“Obviously I am my father’s daughter,” Folbigg wrote in her diary on October 14, 1996.
But 90 scientists – including two Australian Nobel Laureates, medical practitioners, science leaders and prominent Australians – signed a petition calling for her immediate pardon and release from jail.
Prof Vinuesa, who has been championing Folbigg’s release for four years now, said the mutation that the convicted killer carries was “as severe as those that have been described to cause the sudden death of children both while asleep and while awake”.
“After discovering this mutation, we put together an international team of experts who have worked with children with similar mutations,” she said.
“They used very well validated biochemical exercises in the laboratory and proved that these mutations caused arrhythmias.”
The professor welcomed the second inquiry saying she has “more than 99 percent confidence” the mutation is lethal.
“This evidence is overwhelming,” she said.
This particular mutation were as severe as those that have been described to cause the sudden death of children both while asleep and while awake
Professor Carola Vinuesa
NSW Attorney-general Mark Speakman said the new evidence “certainly rises to the level of question or doubt” that Folbigg killed her kids and ordered a new inquiry.
Folbigg’s solicitor Rhanee Rego said her client is a victim of an “horrendous miscarriage of justice”.
“It’s widely known that miscarriages of justice take a long time for the system to rectify,” she said.
“In the case of Ms Folbigg, she has fresh genetic evidence, and no court or inquiry has looked at this yet.
“So there needs to be mechanisms in place for the legal system to evaluate new evidence that comes to light after a legal process – and we’re very confident this new inquiry will examine properly and comprehensively this overwhelming new evidence.”
Folbigg’s convictions are among the most contentious in Australian history and are on par with those of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain who were wrongfully accused of killing their daughter after claiming she had been taken by a dingo.
During a public appearance in court, she defended diary entries she made at the time and insisted she didn’t kill her kids.
Breaking down in tears, she said she “misses them all the time” and “never stops” searching for the reason her babies died.
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Folbigg was initially jailed for 40 years, with a non-parole period of 30 years, but an appeal later reduced her sentence to 30 years with a non-parole period of 25 years.
She is not eligible for parole until 2028.
‘There was no physical evidence the children were murdered’ claim experts[/caption] All four children died at a very young age[/caption]