Kathleen Folbigg says she's 'grateful' for pardon

STORY: In the statement Folbigg thanked her family and friends and called the release a "victory for science and especially truth."

"For the last 20 years I have been in prison I have forever and will always think of my children, grieve for my children and have missed them and love them terribly," Folbigg said.

Since 2003, the 55-year-old was in prison over the deaths of her four children but was pardoned after a judicial review found there was reasonable doubt about the original convictions.

Folbigg was convicted for the murder of her three children and manslaughter of her fourth but she had maintained her innocence and said the children had died of natural causes.

An initial inquiry in 2019 found the evidence reinforced Folbigg's guilt. However, a second inquiry led by former chief justice Thomas Bathurst revisited her convictions in 2022 after new evidence suggested two of the children had a genetic mutation that could have caused their deaths.

Bathurst, in a memo to the attorney general, said there was a reasonable possibility three of the children died from natural causes, two due to a genetic mutation known as CALM2-G114R and one because of an underlying neurogenic disorder.