“So elated”: Kathleen Folbigg’s reunion with lifelong friend following pardon
After spending 20 years behind bars Kathleen Folbigg is starting a new chapter as a free woman, and the first person who welcomed her back was her lifelong friend, Tracy Chapman.
Folbigg, 55, who was convicted of killing her three children Patrick, Sarah and Laura and the manslaughter of her firstborn Caleb between 1989 to 1999, was pardoned on Monday and released immediately.
Just hours after she walked out a free woman, Folbigg was reunited with her lifelong friend in a warm embrace on Chapman’s farm in northern NSW.
"I am so elated it's not funny. I am nervous and I am everything," Folbigg told 9News.
With her newfound freedom, Folbigg couldn’t say what would come next.
"I don't know. I need a drink of water. I don't know about anything else," she said.
Chapman, who was an advocate for Folbigg since her conviction 20 years ago, created a “sanctuary” on the farm in case her best friend was pardoned, so she could have somewhere "peaceful, quiet,” to return to where “she's surrounded by animals".
Folbigg has always maintained her innocence, and said that her children all died of natural causes.
Former NSW Chief Justice Tom Bathurst KC, has submitted the new scientific evidence in an inquiry into the death of her babies, and is currently writing up a final report, which could be finished this month.
Images: Nine News