Australia acquits mother jailed for killing her children

An appeals court in Australia has overturned all convictions against a woman imprisoned for 20 years over the killing of her four children after scientific breakthroughs helped clear her name.

Once called "Australia's worst female serial killer," Kathleen Folbigg continued to maintain her innocence, saying that her children had died due natural causes over a decade between 1989 and 1999.

The case of Kathleen Folbigg 

Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children, and of manslaughter in the death of her fourth child.

She was found guilty of smothering and suffocating her children, aged between 19 days and 18 months old, in the circumstantial case that lacked forensic evidence.

However in June, she was pardoned at the New South Wales state government's direction and released from jail after scientific breakthroughs in recent years uncovered rare genetic mutations and congenital defects that helped explain the sudden deaths of the four children. 

On Tuesday, Chief Justice Andrew Bell overturned the convictions against Folbigg.

"While the verdicts at trial were reasonably open on the evidence available, there is now reasonable doubt as to Ms. Folbigg's guilt," Bell said. "It is appropriate Ms. Folbigg's convictions ... be quashed."

How did Folbigg react to the court verdict?

An emotional Folbigg addressed the media outside the court and thanked her supporters, lawyers and scientists.

"For almost a quarter of a century, I faced disbelief and hostility. I suffered abuse in all its forms. I hoped and prayed that one day I would be able to stand here with my name cleared," she  said.

"I am grateful that updated science and genetics has given me answers as to how my children died," Folbigg added.

She said that during the time of her trial there were legal answers to prove her innocence but they were "ignored" and "dismissed."

"The system preferred to blame me rather than accept that sometimes, children can and do die suddenly, unexpectedly, and heartbreakingly," Folbigg told reporters.

Meanwhile, Folbigg's lawyer, Rhanee Rego has said that her legal team was preparing a claim for "substantial" compensation for her wrongful incarceration.

dvv/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)