‘Woefully inadequate’: Folbigg set to receive $2 million from NSW government

Kathleen Folbigg is set to receive $2 million in an “act of grace” payment from the NSW government after a historic inquiry led to her convictions over the deaths of her four young children being quashed by the state’s top court.

But her supporters say the figure is grossly inadequate and indefensible in light of the decades she spent behind bars.

Folbigg was pardoned in June 2023 by the NSW governor and released from prison after serving 20 years of a minimum 25-year sentence over the deaths of her four children. She spent more than two years waiting for the government to make a decision about an ex gratia payment.

Her release was triggered by a landmark inquiry that concluded genetic evidence cast reasonable doubt about her guilt over her children’s sudden deaths in infancy and early childhood.

Her convictions – three counts of murder and one of manslaughter – were formally quashed in December 2023.

Folbigg’s longtime solicitor, Rhanee Rego, said in a statement: “This is profoundly unfair and unjust.

“The sum offered is a moral affront – woefully inadequate and ethically indefensible.

“The system has failed Kathleen Folbigg once again. Kathleen lost her four children. She lost 20 of the best years of her life and she continues to feel the lasting effects of this ongoing trauma.

“The payment does not reflect the extent of the pain and suffering Kathleen has endured. This should be about the system recognising the significance of what it did to her.

“An inquiry is urgently needed to understand how the government decided on this figure. When Lindy Chamberlain was exonerated ... she received $1.7 million [$1.3 million plus legal costs] for three years in prison.

“Kathleen Folbigg spent two decades in prison, yet for her wrongful imprisonment she has been offered $2 million.

“Kathleen Folbigg’s fight should be over. After being failed at her conviction and abused in prison, she is now being treated with contempt by the very system that should be making amends.”

Lindy Chamberlain and her then-husband Michael were pardoned in 1987 over the death of their daughter, Azaria, who was taken by a dingo at Uluru, and their convictions were quashed in 1988 following a royal commission. The Chamberlains received a combined $1.3 million ex gratia payment plus costs.

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, a member of the state’s upper house and the party’s justice spokesperson, said the figure was “a shocking and insulting offer from Labor Premier Chris Minns, to the woman who was failed in the most incomprehensible way by the state he leads”.

“I’m astounded at the lack of reason, financial accounting, reflection and empathy this offer represents,” Higginson said.

She said $2 million “barely covers what Kathleen could have earned on a full-time salary over 20 years”.

“Kathleen has not only lost 20 years of wages, she has lost her four children, her home and her employability. She has racked up legal costs fighting her wrongful conviction, she has lost her superannuation, and she has been the victim of one of the worst injustices in this state’s history,” Higginson said.

Nationals upper house MP Wes Fang said: “It cannot be a coincidence that this offer was made on the same day we [Fang and Higginson] moved for an inquiry into this matter in the Parliament.

“This figure isn’t a genuine attempt at compensation, it’s simply provided as a ‘we don’t want to appear before a committee to explain our delays and actions’ money.

“More than ever, we need this inquiry to progress, to examine how this government determined this inadequate figure and why it took two years to provide her an offer, given they probably spend more on their staff lunches in a year, than they’ve ultimately offered her.”

Folbigg served 20 years of 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, at the family’s NSW homes. The children were aged between 19 days and 19 months.

The Crown case that Folbigg smothered her children without leaving any physical trace was circumstantial and relied heavily on her diary entries, which were alleged to contain admissions.

But an inquiry headed by former NSW chief justice Tom Bathurst, KC, heard for the first time expert psychological and psychiatric evidence that did not support this interpretation.

The Bathurst inquiry also heard expert evidence that a genetic variant Folbigg shared with her daughters might cause cardiac arrhythmias – irregular heart rhythms – and sudden unexpected death. It also heard Patrick might have died as a result of an underlying neurogenetic disorder such as epilepsy. The genetic variant was discovered after Folbigg’s trial.

Bathurst concluded there was an identifiable natural cause of death for Patrick, Sarah and Laura, and that “once that conclusion is reached, any probative force of the coincidence and tendency evidence [in relation to Caleb’s death] is substantially diminished”.

“The evidence before the inquiry, at most, demonstrates that Ms Folbigg was a loving and caring mother who occasionally became angry and frustrated with her children. That provides no support for the proposition that she killed her four children,” Bathurst said.

In a statement, NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley’s office confirmed an ex gratia payment would be made but did not reveal the figure. The statement said that “[at] Ms Folbigg’s request” the government had “agreed to not publicly discuss the details of the decision”.

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