While ultimately successful, the voice of scientific expertise was difficult to establish in the emotionallycharged circumstances of the Kathleen Folbigg case; reopening the inquiry with fresh scientific perspectives relied on the discretion of the Attorney General of New South Wales. Public opinion is overwhelmingly shaped by the Australian media, and sustaining the attention of the political and legal system required a sustained campaign by a team of friends, philanthropists, scientists and legal professionals championing the cause.

Kathleen Megan Folbigg was arrested in 2001, accused of murdering her four infant children. She was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment, with a nonparole period of 25 years.

Scientific and medical research suggesting the daughters might have died of natural causes was rejected by a judicial inquiry in 2019. Subsequent research published in 2020 led ninety eminent Australian scientists and medical professionals (led by the Australian Academy of Science) to petition the NSW Governor to pardon Folbigg, succinctly demonstrating that all four deaths could be explained as the effects of very rare genetic factors.

In June 2023, Folbigg was unconditionally pardoned by NSW Governor Margaret Beazley and released from prison, having served 20 of her minimum 25 year sentence. Her convictions were overturned in a subsequent decision by the NSW court of criminal appeal in December 2023.

The key members of “Team Folbigg” here relate the barriers they experienced to having complex genetic science considered as robust legal evidence in an Australian judicial system, and present the case for change.

00:00:00 Welcome
00:02:47 Ms Tegan Taylor
00:05:55 Mr Peter Yates
00:23:39 Ms AnnaMaria Arabia
00:40:41 Ms Tracy Chapman
00:56:22 Panel Discussion
01:13:58 Q&A

Speakers:
Dr Peter Yates AM FTSE FAICD
Director of Linfox Australia and Mutual Trust P/L
Chair of AIA Australia, The Australian Science Media Centre, The Royal Children's Hospital Foundation, The Shared Value Project, The NHMRC Centre for Personalised Immunology and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology

Ms AnnaMaria Arabia
CEO at the Australian Academy of Science
Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy

Panellists:
Ms Tracy Chapman
Lifelong friend and advocate of Kathleen Folbigg

Professor David Balding FAA
Statistical Geneticist, The University of Melbourne

MC:
Ms Tegan Taylor
Science Journalist, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Presented by the Royal Society of Victoria in partnership with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (‪@ATSEOrgAu‬) and the Australian Academy of Science (‪@ScienceAcademyAu‬) for National Science Week in 2024, filmed with the support of the Inspiring Victoria program.

A short summary of this presentation is also available from    • Science, Media and the Law: Lessons f...   .