Craig Folbigg,Kathleen Folbigg’s former husband.Credit:Dallas Kilponen
He said it was a day “in which there are no winners. There are no winners from this story. It’s a terrible story of the full lives lost of a grieving father and a woman who’s been incarcerated when she shouldn’t have been for 20 years.”
The NSW Bar Association welcomed the decision. In a statement,it said the NSW appeal and review provisions ensured legal avenues of challenge had remained available to Folbigg as science advanced and new evidence became available.
Folbigg’s existing non-parole period was set to expire on April 21,2028.
Lindy Chamberlain,who was convicted in October 1982 of murdering her infant daughter Azaria and spent three years in prison before being released ahead of a royal commission,declined to comment.
Her then-husband Michael was convicted as an accessory but did not serve time behind bars.
The Chamberlains were pardoned in 1987 after the royal commission examined new evidence,and their convictions were formally quashed in 1988. They received $1.3 million in compensation in 1992.
The inquiry into Folbigg’s convictions heard expert evidence that a genetic variant shared by Kathleen,Sarah and Laura Folbiggmight cause cardiac arrhythmias – irregular heart rhythms – and sudden unexpected death.
The inquiry also heard that Patrick might have died as a result of an underlying neurogenetic disorder such as epilepsy.
Bathurst said in his memorandum to Daley that “there is a reasonable possibility that three of the children died of natural causes”,which meant tendency and coincidence evidence in relation to the death of Folbigg’s first child “falls away”.
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