A MOTHER'S CONVICTION

AFTER ALL FOUR OF KATHLEEN FOLBIGG'S CHILDREN DIED IN INFANCY, A COURT FOUND HER GUILTY OF MURDER. TWENTY YEARS LATER, SCIENCE FINALLY UNCOVERED THE TRUTH

- Sarah Treleaven

DR CAROLA VINUESA was in her office at the John Curtain School of Medical Research in Canberra, Australia, one afternoon in August 2018 when she received a call that both changed her life and saved another. As a professor of immunology, Vinuesa immersed herself in the fascinating and complex world of genetics.

The call was from David Wallace, a former student at John Curtain whom she hadn't spoken to in years. He presented Vinuesa with a scenario that was equal parts shocking, intriguing and devastating: An Australian woman named Kathleen Folbigg had been sentenced to decades in prison for murdering her four children, all infants, over a period of 10 years. The case had captivated the nation. Many were abhorred by Folbigg's crimes; others questioned the veracity of her guilt.

Given the paucity of evidence used to convict Folbigg, asked Wallace, could Vinuesa's research shed light on what actually happened to the children?

Over the next five years, Vinuesa and an international team of scientists would dedicate much of their lives to answering this question. Their findings would shake up Australia's judicial system, raise questions about the treatment of mothers accused of killing their children and shine a light on the misuse of scientific evidence. FOLBIGG, WHO WAS BORN Kathleen Megan Britton in Balmain, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, on 14 June 1967, was haunted by tragedy, instability and alienation from the very beginning. In December 1968, her father, Thomas Britton, stabbed her mother to death during an argument; he served 15 years in prison before being deported to his native England. Young Kathleen was shipped off to live with her mother's sister in western Sydney.