Kathleen Folbigg was demonised by a legal system that even punished efforts to establish her innocence | Emma Cunliffe

Submissions at Folbigg’s trial were based in misogynistic stereotypes and had no rational relationship with a charge of murder

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For more than 20 years, the Australian legal system has demonised a grieving mother as a child killer. Kathleen Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of killing her four children, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura. It is now accepted that her children could quite possibly have died of natural causes. She was finally released from prison on Monday.

Folbigg was released because commissioner Tom Bathurst, who is conducting an inquiry into her convictions, has reached the “firm view” that there is reasonable doubt about Folbigg’s guilt. He has not yet completed his report, and this task should not be rushed. Instead, he has provided information to the New South Wales attorney general, Michael Daley, about why he has concluded that Folbigg is not guilty of killing her children. To his credit, the attorney general has moved quickly and decisively to pardon Folbigg.

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