[imagesource:twitter/abc]

A woman once branded “Australia’s worst female serial killer” has been pardoned after modern DNA testing revealed that her children had genetic mutations that likely caused their deaths.

Kathleen Folbigg has maintained her innocence all these years, but at the new inquiry, headed by retired judge Tom Bathurst, prosecutors accepted that research on gene mutations had changed their understanding of the children’s deaths.

Prosecutors were forced to acknowledge that there was reasonable doubt that Ms Folbigg was guilty of each offence.

The unconditional pardon does not quash Ms Folbigg’s convictions, and a Criminal Court of Appeal will have to overturn the conviction in the coming year.

The mother’s campaign to be released began when a team of immunologists found her daughters, Sarah and Laura, shared a genetic mutation that can cause sudden cardiac death. Similarly, her son was also found to have a gene mutation that was linked to sudden-onset epilepsy.

“We did the first test and found a [gene] variant that looked very suspicious… even then in November 2018, we thought this [a] very high likelihood, if found in the children, to be the culprit.”

According to researchers, there are only 134 known cases worldwide of the potentially deadly heart condition linked to the genetic mutation.

Prof Carola Vinuesa, who led the research team from the Australian National University, said an unusual genetic sequence was immediately obvious in Ms Folbigg’s DNA before the children’s samples were even tested.

Her children died suddenly between 1989 and 1999, aged between 19 days and 19 months, and prosecutors at her trial alleged she smothered them. At the time, lawyers acting on her husband’s behalf insisted on the “fundamental implausibility” of four children from one family dying of natural causes under the age of 2.

Folbigg has now been released from prison and will in most likelihood sue the courts for a wrongful conviction.

Unfortunately, all the money in the world will not be able to bring back her lost years or children.

[source:bbc]