UNJUST JUSTICE- KATHLEEN FOLBIGG

"Try  to imagine your life being spread out, ripped

to pieces, examined, opinions cast, character

assassinated, your every word, action, thought,

doubted, and you’re told you don’t know yourself.

Add to that, because of all of the above becoming

the most HATED woman alive …You can’t. I now

live with that every day. I endure all of this knowing

that vindication will one day be mine. This is the last

time I’ll state – I did not kill my children"

These are the words of Kathleen Folbigg, the Australian mother convicted in October 2003 of murdering her four children aged between 19 days and 19 months. These words are from an extract of a letter written to her foster sister from the confines of Mulawa Women’s Prison in Sydney. The letter shows us a glimpse at the thoughts and feelings of a mother who maintains her innocence in the face of scathing and relentless public criticism.

Throughout her seven-week trial, Kathleen made front-page headlines in Australian newspapers and attracted the attention of the international community.

·        Who could forget the haunting images? - the Sydney Morning Herald’s front-page life-size color pictures of Kathleen’s four dead children positioned under the heading “Dead by their mother’s hand”.

·        Who could forget the statistics? That the odds of four babies dying of Sudden

·        Infant Death Syndrome in the same family are “a staggering one in one trillion”.

·        Who could forget the grieving husband and father.

Kathleen was portrayed, by the prosecution as a selfish woman who was obsessed with herself – particularly with working out at the gym and going out. Prosecutor MarkTedeschi, QC, argued that Folbigg “was deeply resentful of the intrusion her children had on her life, in particular on her sleep, her ability to go to the gym, and her ability to socialise including going out dancing” and that “she resolved this by killing them. She was totally obsessed with her own needs, wants and desires”.

Kathleen was labelled a “callous mother whose babies never stood a chance."

Today, more and more people are beginning to doubt Kathleen Folbigg’s guilt and the “expert medical” testimony that convicted her.

Buy my book about Kathleen Folbigg.

In a  book, Murder, Medicine and Motherhood  Emma Cunliffe, a professor of law in Canada, spent six years researching Kathleen Folbigg’s case. 

Emma Cunliffe believes that Kathleen was wrongly convicted based on unreliable evidence from medical experts. She argues that medical experts in the court trial neglected to give evidence that fully showed the then current uncertainty in the scientific and medical communities about repeated unexplained deaths of infants in a single family. Emma Cunliffe, is so convinced of Kathleen’s wrongful conviction she is calling on the NSW to introduce the same ''last resort'' mechanism that was used in the Northern Territory to quash Lindy Chamberlain's murder conviction. Emma Cunliffe says the medical uncertainty that existed at the time of Kathleen’s trial and the appeals had since moved to a consensus view: that repeated unexplained infant deaths in a single family can and do occur. She strongly believes that Kathleen conviction is unsound and should be reviewed. Dr Cunliffe's opinions have won support from eminent forensic pathologists, who share her belief that a review of Kathleen Folbigg's conviction should be examined. Professor John Hilton who was a prosecution witness in Kathleen’s trial believes that Dr Cunliffe book is a “valuable contribution to this whole matter and is deserving of notice by the relevant authorities.'' Professor Stephen Cordner, the director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine says of Dr. Cunliffe’s book  ''I think she's written a very even-handed book based on substantial research and persuasively concludes … that Kathleen Folbigg has been wrongly convicted.''