Folbigg,now 55,is serving a minimum 25-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2003 of the murder of three of her children,Patrick,Sarah,and Laura,and the manslaughter of her first child,Caleb. Each died suddenly between 1989 and 1999 in their Hunter Valley home,aged between 19 days and 18 months.
DNA sequencing and scientific research after her convictions revealed Folbigg shared a novel genetic variant with her daughters,Sarah and Laura,that may cause cardiac arrhythmias – irregular heart rhythms – and sudden unexpected death. The variant was not found in Caleb or Patrick.
Kirk was part of a team of experts in Sydney who assisted in a previous inquiry in 2019 into Folbigg’s convictions. They concluded the genetic variant was of “uncertain significance”.
A separate team of experts in Canberra concluded it was “likely pathogenic”,meaning it was likely to cause disease.
Former NSW chief justice Tom Bathurst,KC,who is overseeing the second inquiry,put it to Kirk on Thursday:“You have a person who’s died. You can’t identify a clinical cause;you know she has a[genetic] variant which has been classified as a variant of uncertain significance.
“Would you dismiss that variant,absent any other evidence,as a possible reason for the sudden death?”