Kathleen Folbigg appeal dismissed

Former NSW District Court chief judge Reginald Blanch QC in 2019 found significant investigations had failed to find a reasonable natural explanation for any of the deaths of Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura, who all died before their second birthday in the decade to 1999.

Folbigg's own explanations and behaviour in respect of her diaries, which weren't available in any of the mother's criminal appeals, made "her guilt of these offences even more certain", Mr Blanch concluded.

But the jailed woman challenged those conclusions in the NSW Court of Appeal, claiming Mr Blanch had failed in his obligation to conduct an inquiry that examined the potential the deaths could have been natural.

Her supporters say Sarah, Laura and their mother share a genetic mutation that has been linked to sudden deaths in young children - a theory Mr Blanch concluded didn't raise reasonable doubt.

Folbigg's judicial review application was dismissed on Wednesday with the appeal court saying there was "ample basis" for Mr Blanch's ultimate conclusion.

"This was not a case in which the judicial officer's conclusion was at odds with the scientific evidence," the court said.

"The scientific evidence raised a theoretical possibility that there were innocent explanations for the deaths of the two girls.

"However, the judicial officer was required to consider evidence that, although the CALM2 abnormality in Ms Folbigg and the two girls involved a change in an amino acid in the vicinity of Gly114, their circumstances departed from the reported cases of deaths associated with CALM abnormalities."

The change in the affected amino acid was not the same, the change was hereditary and the girls had died at younger ages and, based on the evidence, not during exertion.

Prior symptoms were absent and Folbigg had not developed cardiac manifestations commonly associated with the genetic abnormality.

Thus, the girls' deaths were outliers in comparison to those reported in scientific literature.

"When these matters were weighed with the inculpatory inferences derived from Ms Folbigg's diary entries and her evidence in seeking to present innocent explanations of them, there was an ample basis, consistent with the scientific evidence, for the judicial officer to conclude that there was no reasonable doubt as to Ms Folbigg's guilt," the court found.

The court, constituted by Justices John Basten, Mark Leeming and Paul Brereton, also ordered Folbigg pay the state's legal costs for February's two-day hearing.

Folbigg moved her eyes towards the ceiling as she learned of the decision from prison, where she's serving a 25-year minimum term.

She lost three appeals against her 2003 convictions, including one in the High Court in 2005.

However, Wednesday's decision is unlikely to quell calls for her release.

Three weeks ago, a group of prominent scientists put their name to a petition calling for a pardon and Folbigg's immediate release, saying the genetic data was compelling evidence she did not kill her children.

The 90 signatories included Australian Academy of Science president John Shine, epidemiologist Professor Fiona Stanley, Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty and former chief scientist Professor Ian Chubb.

The petition is currently before NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, who served six years as President of the NSW Court of Appeal before her 2019 appointment to Government House.

IN THE NEWS:

* JUNE 14, 1967 - Kathleen Megan Donovan (later Folbigg) born

* JANUARY 8, 1969 - Folbigg's mother murdered by her father

* 1987 - Kathleen marries Craig Folbigg

* FEBRUARY 20, 1989 - Caleb Folbigg dies aged 19 days

* FEBRUARY 13, 1991 - Patrick Folbigg dies aged eight months

* AUGUST 30, 1993 - Sarah Folbigg dies aged 10 months

* MARCH 1, 1999 - Laura Folbigg dies, aged 18 months

* OCTOBER 24, 2003 - Folbigg sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder, non-parole period is 30 years. Later reduced on appeal to 30 years with a minimum of 25 years

* SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 - High Court refuses to grant special leave to appeal

* JUNE 10, 2015 - NSW governor David Hurley receives petition for review of convictions based on forensic pathology findings

* OCTOBER 28, 2018 - Former judge Reginald Blanch begins hearing inquiry into convictions

* MAY 2019 - An international medical registry reports that two US children have died of the mutation found in Sarah and Laura

* JULY 2019 - Blanch inquiry finds no reasonable doubt to Folbigg's convictions - v Validation of Folbigg mutation could not be completed before end of inquiry

* OCTOBER 2019 - Folbigg's lawyers apply for judicial review of the Blanch inquiry

* NOVEMBER 2020 - Likely role of CALM2 mutation in Sarah and Laura's death confirmed in world-leading study

* MARCH 3, 2021 - Scientists' petition for Folbigg pardon sent to NSW Governor Margaret Beazley

* MARCH 24, 2021 - NSW Court of Appeal dismisses challenge to Blanch inquiry, stating the conclusion was not at odds with the scientific evidence

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