Mother’s Guilt podcast: British woman accused of smothering her two infants supports Kathleen Folbigg

A British woman who lost two sons to cot death and then was falsely accused of smothering them has come out in support of convicted murderer Kathleen Folbigg after hearing about her case on the Mother’s Guilt podcast.

A British woman who was accused of smothering her two infant children has reached out to support Kathleen Folbigg.

Susan Brierley, 60, from Cornwall lost her first son Michael at 10 months of age in 1982 and her second son, Simon in 1984 at three months old. Both autopsies determined sudden infant death.

She was accused of smothering her two sons. But her third son, Dean, now 38, was soon after birth found to suffer epilepsy related sleep apnoea, which is likely what her other sons died of.

The stress ruined her marriage, but her ex-husband has stayed a close friend and believes she never smothered their sons.

Folbigg, now 54, was jailed in 2003 for killing her children Patrick, Sarah, Laura and Caleb by smothering, between 1989 and 1999.

LISTEN TO THE EXCLUSIVE PODCAST, MOTHER’S GUILT: THE KATHLEEN FOLBIGG STORY. PRESS PLAY HERE.

Scores of scientists and medical experts have supported her innocence as it has been revealed her two daughters had a genetic variant that can cause sudden death. A second public inquiry into her convictions starts on Monday.

The accusation Ms Brierley killed her two sons happened 16 years after their deaths, in 2000, during bitter divorce proceedings when her then second husband, with whom had a then two-year-old daughter, enlisted British paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow to give evidence in court.

Susan Brierley was accused of smothering her two sons and has reached out to Kathleen Folbigg in support. Pictured here with her third son Dean who is now 38.

At the time, Roy Meadow believed in Munchausens by Proxy, a condition where mothers harm their children for attention.

His opinion that “One sudden infant death is tragic, two suspicious and three murder” wrongly imprisoned four British mothers in the late 1990s and early 2000s for killing their kids.

Women convicted on Meadow’s theory, which has since been thoroughly debunked, have been acquitted.

Mrs Brierley, who goes under a pseudonym because of a family court gag order, has never been charged with killing her sons, but Meadow accused her of smothering her two sons in court and she lost custody of her daughter, who she has not seen since.

Susan Brierley was accused of smothering Simon who died at age three months in 1984

Mrs Brierley has been following the Mother’s Guilt podcast from abroad and reached out to offer Kathleen Folbigg support.

“I was blindsided, as I am sure Kathleen was, it is hard enough losing babies, but I was naive in thinking the courts will see it for what it is, madness,” she said.

In the Crown’s case against Folbigg in 2003 medical experts gave evidence that four sudden infant deaths from natural causes was unheard of.

Michael died at 10 months of age in 1982 from SIDS.

“I feel her pain, I know it so well,” Ms Brierley said.

“Her babies are with her every day, in her heart, she knows she is innocent, and that is the worse feeling, but I am free, I have a different kind of prison, and I can’t imagine what they last nearly 20 years have been like,

“I know the loneliness and despair and the biggest thing is feeling alone.

“It eats away at me, I know I didn’t do it. I wouldn’t admit I had done anything wrong, that is what made matters worse, because I wouldn’t say I smothered them. Tell her I am thinking of her.”

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Originally published as Mother’s Guilt podcast: British woman accused of smothering her two infants supports Kathleen Folbigg