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The best friend of a woman found guilty of killing her four children has opened up about their relationship – giving details about how she is ‘well-respected’ in jail.
Kathleen Folbigg, 51, was convicted of murdering three of her infant children and the manslaughter of another from 1989 to 1993.
She was sentenced to 30 years prison, a sentence she is halfway through.
Her best friend, Newcastle mother Megan Donegan, 50, told news.com.au other prisoners and prison guards have ‘respect’ for the convicted child killer.
Ms Donegan said she visits Folbigg a few times a year and speaks on the phone with her regularly.
Kathleen Folbigg, 51, (pictured right) who was convicted of murdering three of her infant children and the manslaughter of another, is reportedly well respected in prison
During their phone calls Mrs Donegan said Folbigg ‘has the biggest laugh’ because she is able to find ‘amusement in the mundane’.
However Mrs Donegan said her friend was still impacted by being behind bars.
‘Of course she’s depressed where she is but she’s not letting it eat away at her,’ she said.
The interview comes just days after it was revealed an inquest will be launched into Folbigg’s case and conviction.
The inquest will focus on medical advances that could confirm if the children died from natural causes or not.
Folbigg was convicted of murdering her daughter Laura (pictured left) and was also convicted for the manslaughter of Caleb (pictured right)
Folbigg was convicted of murdering her eight-month-old son Patrick in 1991 and daughters Sarah at 10 months in 1993 and Laura, 19 months, in 1999.
She was also convicted of the manslaughter of her son Caleb who died at just 19 days, in 1999.
It was her damning diary entries that ultimately sealed Folbigg’s fate, with a series of admissions detailing her tendency to be ‘short tempered and cruel’ towards the infants.
‘With Sarah all I wanted was her to shut up. And one day she did,’ she wrote.
More than a decade after she was jailed, lawyers for Folbigg lodged a petition in 2015 casting doubt on some of the evidence that led to her conviction.
At a directions hearing in Sydney on Thursday, counsel badisting Gail Furness SC said the crown case at trial was ‘circumstantial’ and consisted of four areas of evidence.
The crown case was that the ‘totality of the evidence’ pointed to Folbigg’s involvement in all four deaths, she said.
Patrick Folbigg (pictured) died in 1991 and his mother Kathleen Folbigg was found guilty of his murder
Ms Furness said the main report relied upon in the application is an undated, 91-page paper by forensic medicine Professor Stephen Cordner from Monash University.
‘He concluded that there is nothing from a forensic pathology viewpoint to suggest that any of the children had been killed,’ she said.
According to former NSW District Court chief judge Reginald Blanch, who is heading the inquiry, hearings are unlikely to begin until late February 2019.
The location is yet to be confirmed but the inquiry is slated to run for six to 12 months.
During their phone calls Mrs Donegan said Folbigg ‘has the biggest laugh’ because she is able to find ‘amusement in the mundane’
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