Baby killer mum defends her diary entries in court

KATHLEEN Folbigg maintains her diary entry that reads “lock me up and throw away the key”, written after the deaths of three of her four children, was “due to mental illness concerns” rather than going to prison.

Under examination from her barrister, Jeremy Morris SC, at the NSW Coroners Court yesterday, Folbigg agreed she had been pondering her position on earth and difficulties over the years when she made the entry.

The 51-year-old mother was jailed in 2003 for at least 25 years for killing her four babies – Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura – in the decade from 1989.

She was giving evidence yesterday for a third day at an inquiry into her convictions.

The June 1997 entry reads: “Don’t think I’ll suffer Alzheimer’s Disease, my brain has too much happening, unstored and unrecalled memories just waiting, heaven help the day they surface and I recall, that will be the day to lock me up and throw away the key, something I’m sure will happen one day.”

Under questioning from her ex-husband’s barrister on Tuesday, Folbigg (pictured) said: “I was reflecting and wondering whether I could end up in a mental institution if I was to recall all of the memories that I’d ever had in my life.”