Had Been Imprisoned For 20 Years Related To The Death Of Four Children, This Mother Received Condolences

Judge's hammer illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Joe Gratz)

JAKARTA - A woman who was jailed for 20 years in connection with the deaths of her four children, was forgiven by the Australian State of New South Wales on Monday after judicial review found no reasonable doubt about the initial sentence.

ura Megan Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of her anna-child murder. Folbigg insists she is innocent, saying that her children died of natural causes.

Preliminary investigations in 2019 found evidence that strengthened Folbigg's error. However, a second investigation led by former Supreme Court Justice Thomas Bathurst reviewed his sentence in 2022, after new evidence showed the two children had genetic mutations that could lead to their deaths.

New South Wales State Attorney General Michael Daley, pardoned Folbigg on Monday, after a summary of findings from the Bathurst investigation found reasonable doubts for each sentence.

"Today's results are confirmation that our justice system is able to provide justice, and show that the rule of law is an important foundation of our democratic system," Daley said.

"Given everything that's happened over the last 20 years, it's impossible not to feel sympathy forvillage and Craig Folbigg," he said.

Daley said unconditional pardons would allow Folbigg to be released, but would not reverse his sentence.

In a memo to the Attorney General, Bathurst said, there is a reasonable possibility that the three children died from natural causes, two due to genetic mutations known as CALM2-G114R and another due to the underlying neurogenic disorder.

Such doubts then weaken the case in relation to the murder of his fourth child, Bathurst added.

"Furthermore, I cannot accept the proposition that the existing evidence shows that Folbigg is not at all a mother who cares about her children," he said.