Kathleen Folbigg to receive ex gratia payment after 20 years of wrongful conviction; here’s who else has been compensated in Australia

Kathleen Folbigg, who spent 20 years behind bars after being wrongly convicted of killing her four children, will receive an ex gratia payment from the New South Wales Government, more than a year after she was released from prison.

According to news.com.au and The Daily Telegraph, the payment is understood to be $2 million, though the NSW Government has not officially confirmed the amount.

In a brief statement released on Wednesday, NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley said the government had decided to approve the ex gratia payment following “thorough and extensive consideration” of Folbigg’s application and materials submitted by her legal team.


“The decision has been communicated to Ms Folbigg via her legal representatives,” the statement read. “At Ms Folbigg’s request, the Attorney-General and Government have agreed to not publicly discuss the details of the decision.”

The government also said it would not make further comments on the matter.

Folbigg, now 57, was convicted in 2003 for the deaths of her four babies, Caleb, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura, between 1989 and 1999. Folbigg was found guilty of three counts of murder and one count of manslaughter for the deaths of her children from the same time period.

She successfully appealed against her convictions after scientific discoveries in genetics and cardiology cast doubt on her guilt following two inquiries into her verdicts. Later, she was granted a pardon and released in June 2023

According to a report in Onenews, in 2024, Folbigg's lawyer, Rhanee Rego, told AAP the compensation claim included a lengthy statement explaining her 24-year experience with the matter, submissions detailing errors by government agents, and an expert report assessing the loss suffered by the former prisoner.

Other Australians compensated after wrongful convictions

Folbigg joins some rare cases in which Australians have been long jailed but later acquitted and compensated.

Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were granted an ex gratia payment of AU$1.3 million in 1992 for their prosecution over the death of their daughter Azaria.

Scott Austic, acquitted in 2020 after serving nearly 13 years in prison, was awarded AU$1.6 million by the Western Australian government in 2023.

Unlike these ex gratia payouts, David Eastman received AU$7.02 million in damages from the ACT Supreme Court in 2019, after spending 19 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.