Folbigg inquiry rocked as police produce recordings as inquiry about to end

Up to 530 hours of previously undisclosed recordings from bugs planted in the home of Kathleen Folbigg have rocked an inquiry into her 2003 conviction for killing her four children.

Kathleen Folbigg appears via video link during an inquiry in 2019. Picture: AAP

Up to 530 hours of previously undisclosed recordings from bugs planted in the home of Kathleen Folbigg have rocked an inquiry into her 2003 conviction for killing her four children, leaving lawyers rushing to assess them before closing submissions are made in April.

NSW Police produced a box of cassette tapes taken from ­listening devices in Folbigg’s marital home in Singleton to the inquiry on Friday.

Counsel for the police Sarah Love said the bombshell material had only recently been found after extensive searches that began last year. While the exact number of hours contained on the cassettes was unknown, she said “the most generous estimate is about 530 hours”.

Folbigg, 55, is serving a minimum 25-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2003 of the murder of her children Patrick (eight months), Laura (10 months) and Sarah (19 months), and the manslaughter of her son Caleb (three weeks).

The inquiry held its final day on Friday, with closing submissions to be heard on April 26. But the potentially revelatory tapes could throw that timeline off.

Asked by inquiry head former NSW chief justice Tom Bathurst, KC, whether police had conducted a search for tapes that were recorded for the purposes of the original trial, Ms Love said: “My understanding is they were not. The listening device cassettes that were for the purpose of the trial were disclosed.”

It is unclear whether the cassettes contain relevant information to the inquiry, but Justice Bathurst condemned the police for producing the tapes as the inquiry was coming to a close.

“It really is very unsatisfactory what has occurred,” he said. “It puts Dr Woods (counsel appearing for Folbigg) in a very, very difficult position.”

Ms Love said it could take 38 weeks for the cassette tapes to be transferred onto an electronic form, but Justice Bathurst said that would be unfair to make Folbigg wait that long.

“I don’t want Ms Folbigg waiting,” he said. “The tapes will be made available to Dr Woods and it’s up to him to make any application in relation to this matter, but it is a real concern they were only produced so late.”

Gregory Woods, who has represented Folbigg throughout the inquiry, said it would be difficult to find a machine to play cassettes and said it was “extra­ordinary” that the tapes had only just been produced.

“I’m not sure if I know anybody who actually has a tape device that is able to listen to cassettes,” he said. “It’s not clear to me whether or not the time involved reflects anything that was recorded at all … whether it was 50 hours or 200 hours of silence.

“I don’t know. But it’s extraordinary that the DPP apparently didn’t have this material.”

Friday’s hearing heard from psychiatrist Yumna Dhansay, who made a sensational about-face during cross-examination, conceding that because Folbigg hid one of her diaries from police she could be guilty.

She had initially been adamant Folbigg’s diaries, which were perceived as incriminating evidence in her 2003 trial, did not contain any admissions of guilt but should “be interpreted as having been written by a grieving mother”.

But on Friday Dr Dhansay ­accepted that Folbigg “probably … had something to hide”.