Mum freed after 20yrs in jail over doubts she killed her 4 children

Rare gene meant kids could have died of natural causes

- DAN WARBURTON

A MOTHER branded "Australia's worst female serial killer" after being convicted of smothering her four children has been pardoned after nearly 20 years in jail.

Kathleen Folbigg, 55, spent almost two decades behind bars for murdering her children Patrick, Sarah and Laura - aged from eight months to 19 months between 1991 and 1999.

She was also found guilty in 2003 of the manslaughter of her first-born child, Caleb, who was just 19 days old when he died in Newcastle, north of Sydney, in 1989.

But Folbigg has always maintained her innocence and lodged repeated appeals to overturn her convictions.

A 2019 inquiry into her conviction reinforced her guilt but a second probe conducted in 2022 suggested two of the children's deaths were caused by a genetic mutation.

New South Wales attorney general Michael Daley said the probe had found reasonable doubt in the convictions, adding "given all that has happened.. it's impossible not to feel sympathy for Kathleen".