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- When Kathleen Folbigg was imprisoned for murdering her four children her best friend Tracy Chapman was determined to free her.
- Tracy devoted 20 years of her life to help fight for justice.
- Spat at in the street, mentally and physically exhausted and with her marriage at breaking point Tracy never gave up.
- Now she’s fighting on to make sure no other miscarriages of justice happen to women again,
Here Tracy Chapman, 58 , Northern NSW shares her courageous story in her own words.
Staring numbly at the grainy photograph of the woman in the newspaper, I shook my head in disbelief.
The worst serial child killer in Australia, the headline read.
The woman in the photo was my childhood best friend Kathleen Folbigg.
It was May 2003 and I was in shock as I read that Kath, then 35, had been convicted of killing her four young children, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura.
‘This is crazy,’ I said to my partner Phil, then 36.
I’d met Kath at Kotara Public School in Year 2 and we just clicked.
Forthright and strong, she’d defended me from bullies.
She often visited my place, where we’d laugh and joke with my sibling.
As teens, at school we’d sit in the sun and plot ways to convince our parents to let us go to parties.
At 17, Kath left school to work at a servo before going on to marry Craig Folbigg in 1987.
After school I moved to Sydney to study a business degree, and Kath and I eventually lost touch.
‘Kath… had been convicted of killing her four young children, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura.’
When I heard Kath had given birth to her first child, Caleb, in February 1989, I went to visit.
She’d always wanted to be a mum and, now her boy was here, she was radiating with joy.
Devastatingly, he died just a week later at 19 days old from SIDS. I was heartbroken for her. But unsure how to support her, I thought it best to let her grieve in peace.
Nearly two years later, I learned from my parents that Kath’s second son, Patrick, died at four months old as a result of his epilepsy.
I couldn’t believe it had happened again. By then it’d been years since Kath and I had spoken but I kept her in my thoughts always.
When I heard she gave birth to a girl, Sarah, in October 1992, I prayed it was the happy ending she dreamed of. But heartbreakingly, Sarah passed away at 10 months from SIDS, like Caleb.
‘This is shocking. Is this something genetic?’ I said to my parents.
In what seemed like the cruellest twist of fate, she lost her fourth child, Laura at 18 months in March 1999.
Afterwards, it was discovered Laura had had myocarditis – inflammation of the heart – but her cause of death was undetermined.
Now though, after going through a life-threatening emergency C-section to give birth to my son, Presley, I couldn’t imagine the trauma of not only losing four children, but being labelled Australia’s most hated woman.
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Worse, Kath’s husband and family had turned on her too, giving evidence against her during the trial.
Prosecutors had also read entries from Kath’s diaries, painting a picture of a deranged abuser.
All I wanted was her to shut up, she’d written about Sarah. And one day she did.
Stress made me do terrible things, she wrote in another entry about Laura.
I feel like the worst mother on this earth… I knew I was short tempered and cruel sometimes to [Sarah] and she left. With a bit of help.
‘I’m going to fight to free Kath’
Despite her defence team’s arguments, the jury found Kath guilty of one count of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to do grievous bodily harm against Patrick, the manslaughter of Caleb, and the murders of Patrick, Sarah and Laura.
In October 2003, she was sentenced to 40 years in prison with a non-parole period of 30 years.
‘This isn’t right,’ I cried to Phil, sure she couldn’t be capable of what others were saying.
After months of writing to her, I visited Kath in jail in 2004. I could see the pain in her eyes, but she was still the same, kind, steadfast friend that I remembered.
Writing to her after, I asked Kath for the real truth and the meaning behind her journal entries.
I blamed myself. I convinced myself that I’d failed as a mother, a woman even… she wrote, explaining she’d suffered depression for many years.
Now I was certain of one thing – she was innocent.
Back home, I began to hatch a plan.
‘I’m going to fight to free Kath,’ I told Phil.
‘You better be darn sure,’ he said.
From then on, Kath and I spoke on the phone every week in her six-minute call from prison. I sent her pyjamas and money for her costs in prison.
And I visited her frequently, often with our childhood friends Lans and Megz.
In February 2005, after an appeal, Kath’s sentence was reduced to 30 years with 25 years non-parole.
But it wasn’t enough.
Determined to free my childhood friend, I stepped down from my job as Chief Education Officer for TAFE NSW for health reasons and to focus everything on Kath’s plight.
I spent days and nights trawling legal texts and contacted every expert I could think of to prove her innocence.
In 2013 I agreed to a TV interview on 60 Minutes, in the hope people would understand how Kath had been failed by the judicial system. Instead I was met with death threats after people found my number.
‘You’re that child killer’s friend,’ he shouted before spitting in my face.
During a trip to Sydney, a man crossed four lanes of traffic to approach me.
‘You’re that child killer’s friend,’ he shouted before spitting in my face.
Someone even pointed a laser from a gun at me.
Though terrified, and the strain on our family financially and mentally was huge, I refused to give up.
When the University of Newcastle Legal Centre, and barristers Robert Cavanagh, Nicolas Moir and Isabel Reed, took on Kath’s case I was thrilled.
And in 2017 incredible student lawyer Rhanee Rego joined the fight to clear Kath’s name.
Professor of Immunology and Genomic Medicine Carola Vinuesa from the Australian National University became involved.
Through DNA testing, Carola’s team discovered Kath carried a unique and potentially deadly cardiac mutation called CALM2 G114R, which had been passed down to her girls.
A Danish team also found Caleb and Patrick carried variants of another potentially lethal gene BSN, shown to cause early onset fatal epilepsy in mice.
When a judicial inquiry in 2019 failed, we were devastated for Kath.
Nearly at breaking point with my marriage and physically sick, likely due to stress, I kept going.
In May 2022, after a petition from 90 highly esteemed scientists worldwide, an inquiry into Kath’s convictions began.
Astonishingly, in June 2023, after considering the DNA evidence and expert assessment of her diary entries as expressions of a grieving mother, not confessions, Kath was pardoned.
‘Thank you,’ Kath said over and over. ‘We did it.’
I was vacuuming when I got a call to say Kath had been released.
An hour later when Kath arrived at my house, I could scarcely believe that, after 20 years of fighting, my friend was finally free.
‘Thank you,’ Kath said over and over. ‘We did it.’
She stayed at our farm for six months, as we helped her get her identity documents before she moved to her own place.
In August this year she was offered $2 million compensation from the NSW government after her convictions were quashed.
She’d been innocent all along.
Now I’ve helped clear Kath’s name I can do things I’d put on hold.
I finished a Master in Counselling, I’m working on a Master in Autism and Neurodiversity studies, and focusing on my animal assisted therapy business, Animal Assisted Growth and Learning Australia.
And I’m spending time with Phil, now 59, and our son Presley, 22.
To me, Kath’s case was about more than just her. I hope to inspire others to be the most compassionate people they can.
I won’t stop campaigning for a better legal system so this miscarriage of justice never happens to a woman again.
‘Inside Out’ by Kathleen Folbigg and Tracy Chapman is available online.
Kathleen Folbigg, 58, says:
‘I will always be grateful for the days I now have as a free woman. Never forgetting. Only sometimes forgiving. But always trusting and knowing that Tracy is walking alongside me, as I am her… I take so much comfort in that, as it means I shall never be alone or abandoned again.’
