Decades-old DNA from the children of serial killer Kathleen Folbigg including newborn blood spots and frozen organ tissue has been analysed for the inquiry into her convictions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Counsel assisting, Gail Furness SC, on Monday said a multidisciplinary panel of experts had conducted genomic sequence testing on the samples using technologies that have emerged since Folbigg's NSW trial in 2003.
Folbigg was jailed for at least 25 years after she was found guilty of killing her four babies - Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura - in the decade from 1989.
The 2019 inquiry is focused on medical advances and new research including three or more infant deaths in the one family attributed to unidentified natural causes.
Ms Furness said the expert reports from Sydney and Canberra found "no known pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in genes that could explain unexpected death" in any of Folbigg's four children.
The inquiry was told in March that Folbigg would give evidence about damning entries in a diary she kept during the period her babies Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura died at Singleton between 1989 and 1998.
The entries included comments like "She left, with a bit of help", about the death of Sarah in 1993 which a judge later said "made chilling reading".
Folbigg's lawyer Isabel Reed said at the time that her client would not be attending the inquiry in person. Folbigg was following proceedings via an audio-visual link from jail. It had not been confirmed if Folbigg would give evidence in person. Her evidence is not expected until the second part of the inquiry in April.
The inquiry continues.
- with Sarah McPhee, Australian Associated Press
