Former NSW chief justice Tom Bathurst,KC,is heading an inquiry into Folbigg’s convictions and is considering whether there is reasonable doubt about her guilt. New research suggesting the genetic variant may cause cardiac arrythmias – irregular heart rhythms – and sudden unexpected death is a focus of the inquiry.
Folbigg’s DNA was sequenced and analysed after her conviction,along with DNA samples from her four children. That work revealed Folbigg and her daughters had a novel variant in a gene that produces the calmodulin protein,CALM2. The variant,known as G114R,was not found in Caleb or Patrick.
Calmodulin plays a role in heart function as well as other functions in the body,the inquiry has heard.
A March 2021 article in the journalEP Europace –co-authored by Danish research scientists Professor Michael Toft Overgaard and Professor Mette Nyegaard,among others –examined the Folbiggs’ genetic variant.
It concluded that calmodulinopathy,a life-threatening arrhythmia syndrome,“emerges as a reasonable explanation for a natural cause” of the deaths of Sarah and Laura.
“I take it as co-authors you agree with that conclusion?” counsel assisting the inquiry,Julia Roy,asked Overgaard and Nyegaard on Tuesday.