Kathleen Folbigg’s first lawyer has slammed a compensation offer by the NSW attorney-general, saying the figure should be “a long way north” of $2 million.
Retired Newcastle lawyer Brian Doyle represented Ms Folbigg in the NSW Hunter region until she was committed for trial, when a public defender took over the case.
“My message to [the attorney-general and premier] would be to say, how would you feel if you were locked up for 20 years and at the end of it were only given $2 million dollars?” he said.
“Get your act together and make to her a proper offer.”
Retired Newcastle lawyer Brian Doyle was the first person to represent Kathleen Folbigg. (ABC Newcastle: Bridget Murphy)
Mr Doyle, who has met with Ms Folbigg since her release, said it was not surprising to hear she has experienced hardship, including delays in finding long-term housing.
“It just indicates how difficult it is for anybody when they get out of prison,” he said.
“But for a person who’s been there for 20 years for crimes they didn’t commit it’s even worse, and I would imagine the mental agony is pretty strong.”
Mr Doyle said it could be a lengthy process if Ms Folbigg chose to pursue further compensation through legal avenues.
“I suppose she could always go back to the attorney-general and say, ‘Well thank you for your offer but it’s ridiculous, how about you come back to us with a proper offer?’
“She always had the alternative to sue the state, but of course you get a Supreme Court and that could take years.”
Premier defends figure
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the $2 million being offered was what the state government could afford.
“This was the most amount of money that we believed we could allocate to this circumstance and this situation without pulling it away from other important programs,” he said.
“It’s the taxpayers of New South Wales’s money and it doesn’t come from a magic pot.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the $2 million ex-gratia payment was what the state could afford. (ABC News)
He said Ms Folbigg and her lawyers were free to pursue legal action if they wanted to seek further compensation.
“That lawyer is free to … sue the NSW government,” he said.
“This ex-gratia payment makes no judgement about that, there’s no NDA [non disclosure agreement] involved, there’s no future action that cannot be pursued by Ms Folbigg or her lawyers.”
Offer does not reflect ‘gravity’ of case
Emma Cunliffe, one of the first lawyers to argue Ms Folbigg had been wrongfully convicted, agreed the compensation offer was “grossly inadequate”.Â
Now a professor of law at the University of British Columbia, she said the offer did not “reflect the gravity of the wrongdoing on the part of the NSW government”.
“In particular, the very slow response of the government to evidence of Kathleen’s innocence over the years,” she said.
“The magnitude of the wrong [that] has been done to her has been minimised, and the legal system’s responsibility for that wrong has also been evaded.”Twenty years in jail
Kathleen Folbigg and her daughter, Laura. (Supplied)
Ms Folbigg was convicted in 2003 of killing her four children between 1989 and 1999.
In 2023, the convictions were quashed after a landmark Special Commission of Inquiry found reasonable doubt over her guilt due to the emergence of new medical evidence, leading to her being pardoned by the NSW attorney-general.
In 2024, Ms Folbigg applied for a compensation payment.
On Thursday, it was revealed Attorney-General Michael Daley had granted a $2 million compensation payment.
‘The reasonable range’
Dr Cunliffe said other Australian cases showed the amount being offered to Ms Folbigg was inadequate.
“David Eastman … received something in the order of $7 million for his 19 years in custody, Lindy Chamberlain received $1.3 million for three years in custody, and, of course, that is 30 years ago now,” she said.
“I would suggest something more in the order of $8-to-10 million would be in the reasonable range.”
Upper Hunter MP Dave Layzell is backing calls for an inquiry into the compensation being offered to Kathleen Folbigg. (ABC Upper Hunter: Jake Lapham)
Upper Hunter MP Dave Layzell has backed calls for an inquiry into how the NSW government arrived at its decision.
“To allow everyone to have some transparency in this government and their decision, that is really important,” he said.
“What she has been through, the trauma of losing her children, the trauma of going through the court system, the trauma of being in jail over that time.
“I don’t think there’s any amount of money that could actually compensate her properly.
“We just really need to make sure that amount will make her comfortable for the rest of her life and she can actually live it … and I hope that the days of the trauma in her life are over.”