Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four young children have been quashed by an appeals court after an inquiry previously found there was reasonable doubt of her guilt.
The New South Wales court of criminal appeal on Thursday determined that Folbigg’s convictions should be overturned based on the findings of the inquiry.
Folbigg previously received an unconditional pardon in June and was released from jail after the inquiry heard new scientific evidence that indicated she might not be responsible for her children’s deaths.
She had spent two decades in jail after being convicted in 2003 and ordered to serve a minimum 25-year sentence for the suffocation murders of three of her children and manslaughter of a fourth.
The children, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura, died between 1989 and 1999 at ages ranging from 19 days to 18 months.
A pardon clears a person from all consequences of the offence they were found to have committed by a court but does not eliminate the conviction itself.
In his final report, released in early November, the inquiry commissioner, Tom Bathurst, found there was an “identifiable cause” for three of the deaths and Folbigg’s relationship with her children did not support the case she killed them.
The former NSW chief justice said the mother’s diary entries – controversially used during her trial to help secure her conviction – did not contain reliable admissions of guilt.
Folbigg’s supporters burst into tears and clapped following Thursday’s court decision.
Her lawyer previously said following Folbigg’s pardon, the next steps would be to have her convictions overturned followed by compensation from the state.
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