Kathleen Folbigg's Lawyer Criticizes $2 Million Compensation Offer as Another Failure

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Kathleen Folbigg, who spent two decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing her children, will receive a $2 million compensation payment from the NSW government.

Folbigg’s solicitor, Rhanee Rego, has called the sum offered “a moral affront” that was “woefully inadequate and ethically indefensible”.

“The system has failed Kathleen Folbigg once again,” Rego said in a statement.

Rego revealed the payment amount after government officials said Folbigg had requested details of the payment, including the amount, not be publicly shared.

Folbigg was jailed over the deaths of her four children before being freed in June 2023 after new scientific evidence cast reasonable doubt over her convictions.

On Thursday, NSW attorney-general Michael Daley confirmed the government would make an ex gratia payment to the 57-year-old.

Lawyer Rhanee Rego said the system had “failed Kathleen Folbigg once again”. Source: AAP / Leigh Jensen

“The decision follows thorough and extensive consideration of the materials and issues raised in Ms Folbigg’s application and provided by her legal representatives,” Daley said.

“The decision has been communicated to Ms Folbigg via her legal representatives.”

Ex gratia payments differ from court-administered compensation claims, which follow a set of precedents. These payments are typically unique instances and the decisions are often made by state cabinets.

Greens MP calls payment a ‘slap in the face’

Greens MP Sue Higginson described the offer as “an absolute slap in the face”.

“And a failure of the NSW premier to uphold the principles of fairness and justice,” Higginson told reporters.

“Kathleen Folbigg was imprisoned for 20 years, accused wrongly of the murder of her own children.

“She has suffered. She has now been released. She is owed compensation that rights the wrong of this state.”

Folbigg joins Lindy Chamberlain among the rare Australians long jailed but later acquitted and then compensated.

Chamberlain and her former husband Michael were awarded an ex gratia payment of $1.3 million in 1992 for their prosecution in the Northern Territory over the death of baby daughter Azaria.

In May, Western Australian man Scott Austic received $1.3 million on top of an earlier payment of $250,000 after serving nearly 13 years in prison.

Austic, who had been wrongfully jailed for murder, had sought $8.5 million after being acquitted in 2020 on appeal.

Both payments were ex gratia, unlike David Eastman, who was awarded $7 million in damages by the ACT Supreme Court in 2019.

Folbigg was convicted of three counts of murder and one count of manslaughter following the deaths of her children between 1989 and 1999.

She successfully appealed against her convictions after scientific discoveries in genetics and cardiology cast doubt on her guilt following two inquiries into her verdicts.

In 2024, Rego told the Australian Associated Press the compensation claim included a lengthy statement explaining her 24-year experience with the matter, submissions detailing errors by agents of government and an expert report assessing loss suffered by the former prisoner.