Killer mother condemned by her diary

An Australian mother. convicted today of murdering three of her children and the manslaughter of the fourth, was condemned by her own diary.

Kathleen Folbigg, 35, smothered her children over a 10-year period and blamed the deaths on epilepsy, heart disease or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Prosecutors said she killed them because they cramped her social life and made it hard to fit in shopping and trips to the gym.

A jury in Sydney decided she murdered Patrick, Sarah and Laura, aged between eight and 19 months, and was responsible for the death of Caleb, who was just 19-days-old when he died.

Damning evidence from Folbigg’s diary was read at her trial.

In one entry she said Laura, who was the youngest and lived longest of her children, was only alive at that point because she was well-behaved.

“She’s a fairly good-natured baby – thank goodness, it has saved her from the fate of her siblings,” Folbigg wrote. “I think she was warned.”

She also compared herself to her father, a gangland enforcer who killed her mother by stabbing her 27 times when Folbigg was a baby in 1969.

Obviously I’m my father’s daughter,” she wrote.

Outside court, her estranged husband, Craig Folbigg, said he was happy with the verdict. He said it “set four beautiful souls free to rest in peace”.

Folbigg will be sentenced next month.