Convicted child killer Kathleen Folbigg’s sentence under scrutiny

An extraordinary petition seeking a pardon for child killer Kathleen Folbigg will be considered by the NSW Attorney-General.

Kathleen Folbigg and her children, clockwise from top left: Caleb; Patrick; Laura; and Sarah.

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman will consider an extraordinary petition lodged by dozens of Australia’s most eminent scientists and medical professionals calling for a pardon for Kathleen Folbigg, the woman convicted of killing four of her children.

The confirmation comes after News Corp revealed 76 of Australia’s most respected scientists had joined 14 international experts to call for Folbigg to be immediately released from jail, saying new medical evidence “creates a strong presumption that the Folbigg children died of natural causes’’.

Nobel laureates Peter Doherty and Elizabeth Blackburn are among those who signed the petition, lodged with NSW Governor Margaret Beazley on Tuesday.

The Governor will take advice from Mr Speakman as to what ­action she should take, including whether Folbigg, who has served 18 years of her 30-year jail term, should be pardoned and released.

The Hunter Valley woman was convicted in 2003 of smothering her four small children — Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura — over a 10-year period from February 1989 to March 1999.

Mr Speakman’s office said the petition would be given “appropriate consideration’’. However, a spokesman noted Folbigg’s case had been tested previously in ­several judicial arenas.

“Ms Folbigg’s convictions for the murder of her children ­Patrick, Laura and Sarah, and the manslaughter of her son Caleb, have been examined in two ­appeals to the Court of Criminal Appeal, one special leave application to the High Court of Australia, and one inquiry,’’ the spokesman said.

“The inquiry, conducted by the former chief judge of the District Court, the Hon Reginald Blanch AM QC, concluded that ‘the investigations of the inquiry have … produced evidence that reinforces Ms Folbigg’s guilt’.

“Proceedings seeking judicial review of the inquiry are currently before the Court of Appeal with judgment yet to be delivered.

“As the Attorney-General will make a recommendation to Her Excellency the Governor to ­resolve the petition, it would not be appropriate for the Attorney-General to provide further comment at this stage.’’

Folbigg has always maintained her innocence, and scientists have always been deeply concerned about her conviction, as no scientific evidence exists that she smothered the children. Rather, diary entries that a jury believed went to her guilt, and the extremely unlikely proposition that four children from the same family could die of natural causes, weighed strongly against her.

The scientific experts say new genomic sequencing carried out on Folbigg and her two daughters showed they carried a gene ­mutation that was linked to sudden death in babies and small children.

The experts, many of whom have not been involved in the case but have concerns that the findings ignored medical and scientific evidence, now argue there has been a miscarriage of justice.

A Government House spokeswoman said: “In exercising the royal prerogative of mercy, the governor acts on the advice of the responsible minister, the attorney-general. Such advice is submitted to the governor in executive council. The governor awaits the ­attorney-general’s advice.’’

The prosecutor who secured the convictions against Folbigg, Mark Tedeschi, said it would be “quite unprofessional’’ for him to comment.

Reginald Blanch, the QC who conducted last year’s inquiry that upheld her convictions, is now the chief commissioner of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission. He declined to comment on the basis the matter was still ­before the Court of Appeal.

Pardons are rare but not unprecedented.

In 2012, Fred McDermott became the first person in NSW to receive a posthumous pardon. He had been wrongly convicted over the 1936 death of local shopkeeper Harry Lavers in Grenfell, NSW, and served many years in jail before dying in 1977.

Johann Ernst Siegfried Pohl was pardoned in 1992 after serving 10 years for the murder of his wife in Queanbeyan, NSW, in 1973. His pardon came after another man admitted to the murder.

Alexander McLeod-Lindsay was pardoned in the mid-90s after serving nine years in jail for the attempted murder of his wife Pamela in Sydney in 1964 before his conviction was overturned.