Kathleen Folbigg will receive a $2 million compensation payment from the NSW government, which her lawyer has called “woefully inadequate and ethically indefensible”.
Once considered among the worst serial killers, Folbigg spent two decades in prison over the deaths of her children, before her name was cleared in 2023 when new scientific evidence cast reasonable doubt over her convictions. Folbigg was granted an unconditional pardon and released from prison.
In compensation for her wrongful imprisonment, legal experts had estimated Folbigg might expect one of the highest compensation payouts in the country’s history, upwards of $10 million.
However, on Thursday, Folbigg’s solicitor, Rhanee Rego said Folbigg had been offered $2 million by the government, describing it as “a moral affront” and “profoundly unfair and unjust”.
“The system has failed Kathleen Folbigg once again. Kathleen lost her four children; she lost 20 of the best years of her life; and she continues to feel the lasting effects of this ongoing trauma,” Rego said, calling “urgently” for an inquiry into how the NSW government decided on the compensation figure.
Attempting to put the sum into perspective, Rego compared Folbigg’s compensation to that of Lindy Chamberlain, another mother falsely convicted of murder, who received $1.3 million, only $700,000 less than Folbigg more than two decades later.
In a statement, NSW Attorney General Michael Daley said the decision was based on “thorough and extensive” consideration of Folbigg’s application for compensation.
Greens MP Sue Higginson has spoken out in support of Folbigg saying the $2 million compensation “barely covers what Kathleen could have earned on a full-time salary over 20 years”.
Higginson was heavily involved in pressuring the government to release Folbigg after an independent inquiry into her imprisonment.
“Kathleen has not only lost 20 years of wages, she has lost her four children, her home and her employability. She has racked up legal costs fighting her wrongful conviction, she has lost her superannuation,” Higginson said in a statement on Thursday.
At a press conference, Higginson also urged NSW premier Chris Minns to use his power to correct the wrong and meet with Folbigg to address the issue.
“Wrongful conviction is probably one of the most heinous things that the state can perpetrate on a person,” said Higginson. “The state of NSW did this to Kathleen Folbigg, a woman who had lost her own children.”