2021: At the time of filming Kathleen Folbigg had spent 19 years in prison for murdering her four children. The Baby Killer Conspiracy s1e1: Kathy Folbigg, Reality 2024
Sarah is the third child to die at four and a half weeks. ibid.
Sally Clark: ‘The police officer says that there is evidence that Harry was unlawfully killed.’ ibid. comment
I never never shook him. He is just so precious. ibid. Sally Clark
It gets worse … He [pathologist] decides to go back to Christopher’s post-mortem, and he changes his mind. He decides his [Christopher’s] death wasn’t natural causes: he was smothered. ibid. comment
She [Sally Clark] was charged with the murder of Christopher and the murder of baby Harry. ibid.
Donna Anthony found guilty of killing her two children, smothering first Jordan, then a year later Michael. ibid. TV news
The star witness was Professor Roy Meadow. ibid. comment
Kathy: Laura Elizabeth Folbigg, 1 year 8 months: The autopsy report was undetermined. ibid.
8 months after Kathleen loses her fourth child, a woman in Salisbury is arrested on suspicion of the murder of her 3 babies: Angela Cannings. ibid.
Meadow’s Law: One sudden death is a tragedy, two suspicious, three murder unless proven otherwise. ibid.
After 2 years, Sally Clark goes on trial for the murder of her babies, Christopher and Harry. ibid.
Sally Clark trial: Professor Meadow walked in as if her was the star of the show. ibid.
He [Professor Meadow] was convinced he was never wrong. ibid.
Sally Clark: The solicitor who was found guilty of murdering her two sons when they were babies was given two life sentences today. ibid.
Meadow’s Law: This was a very dark time for women. ibid.
Sally Clark: Life For Baby Killer Mother. The Baby Killer Conspiracy s1e2, newspaper headline
Professor Roy Meadow ended up being the Witchfinder General. ibid. comment
My name’s John Sweeney and I’m an old-school reporter and I write books. In 2001 when I was at the BBC I started digging into the facts of the Sally Clark case. I talked to a ton of doctors, and people who know their way round statistic. And they said that the statistic that Roy Meadow gave to the jury in the trial was just plain wrong. ibid.
1 in 73 million: The statistic was taken completely out of context … I was horrified by this statistic. ibid. professor re Meadow
Poor Sally Clark had her life ruined by a grotesque mistake. ibid. Sweeney
Professor Meadow destroyed these women. ibid. Levin
It remains unexplained. That doesn’t mean it is murder. But like the witches of Salem, they want someone to go down for it. ibid. Michael Mansfield QC
Angela Cannings: What are we saying? That this mother decided she was going to have more children so she could kill them. I couldn’t believe it. ibid. Meadow
Angela just fell on her seat. I think she was just numbed and stunned. ibid. comment
Convinced on the word of doctors with a theory. ibid.
I rang Macclesfield hospital. They were very unpleasant. ibid. Marilyn Stowe investigates
Microbiology report Harry Clark: Natural causes. ibid. Stowe
Sally Clark, the woman convicted of killing her two baby sons has been freed by the Court of Appeal in London. ibid. TV news
Cannings: The pathologist had withheld evidence. ibid. Sweeney
Folbigg: There is no evidence of smothering, so the diaries are circumstantial. ibid. comment
I was convinced that Angela Cannings had been wrongfully convicted. ibid. Sweeney
There was a history of cot death inside Angela Cannings’ family going back three generations. This is hard evidence. ibid. Sweeney
Angela Canning is a free woman, another mother proved innocent of killing her babies. ibid. TV news
The Attorney General has been reviewing nearly 300 cases after concerns about disputed medical evidence in trials dealing with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or Cot Death. ibid.
In 2005 Professor Sir Roy Meadow was struck off the medical register. ibid. Sweeney
He was reinstated not long afterward. ibid. comment
Kathy Folbigg: A campaign to free her. ibid.
The challenge was to sequence the [Folbigg] family’s DNA … Using some amazing new technologies, we found that the two girls had the same mutation as the one found in Kathleen … We also found these other mutations in the boys. ibid. Professor Vinuesa, Immunogeneticist
Mothers I think were being targeted. They were easy prey. ibid. comment
For centuries witch-hunts raged through Europe and the Americas. Causing the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. To this day, the most infamous hunt of all ravaged a small religious community in colonial Massachusetts. The horrors begin when children in a minister’s house have violent fits, an affliction that seems to be caused by the devil. Witches: Truth Behind the Trials, National Geographic 2024
March, 1692: The accused are dragged in front of magistrates. A confession is needed before they are sent to trial. ibid.
‘All these factors are feeding into the division in Salem and perpetuating this mood of suspicion, potentially of hostility, to one’s neighbours.’ ibid. comment
As the court assembles in Salem Town, the accused witches are lead from jail desperately hoping they will find mercy. ibid.
‘The bodies aren’t even buried properly; they’re thrown into a nearby crevice in a rock.’ ibid. comment
‘19 were hanged; others died in prison.’ ibid.
The witch-hunt spread across New England. ibid.
Governor Phipps dismantles the courts responsible for the brutal witch trials. ibid.
Halloween, 1590 Scotland: In a matter of months these suspected witches will have to fight for their lives in Scotland’s first-ever witch trial presided over by the King himself. Witches: Truth Behind the Trials II: Scotland: The King & the Witches
To stop the agony, they confess to attending the Witches’ Sabbath … [and] used diabolical magic to harm the King of Scotland, James VI. ibid.
Denmark: ‘A process of passing the buck until we get down to the people who are least able to defend themselves.’ ibid. comment
‘Now we have this great Satanic conspiracy that James sees as a really genuine threat to himself and to the whole nation.’ ibid.
July 17th 1645, Chelmsford, Essex: There are 50 counts of witchcraft that are going to be heard. Witches: Truth Behind the Trials III: England: The Witchfinder’s Cruel Crusade, comment
Elizabeth says that not only is she a witch but some of her neighbours are witches are well. ibid.
14 women are taken up the gallows, led up the ladder and choked before this great jeering excited crowd. ibid.
Hopkins and Stearne travel father into Essex with plans to hunt evil witches they believe are terrorising the country. ibid.
We have reports that there are many as 150 witches are in the jail, and witnesses coming forward with all these bizarre stories. ibid.
Random and monumentally silly efforts to provde actual forensic evidence for the witch trials. ibid.
As the 13th and 14th centuries past, perceptions shift and the world becomes dangerous for anyone identified as a witch. Witches: Truth Behind the Trials IV: Germany
‘The surge to accuse is driven by ordinary people who really do believe that the suspects have ruined their lives.’ ibid. Professor Hutton
With witches now a serious threat to the Christian world panic sweeps into the Germany land where one of the first ever mass witch trial begins. Hundreds of innocent people will be executed. ibid.
Witch-hunting committees continued to spring up in villages across the region. ibid.
Sweden, the mid-1600s: A simple argument between two children sparks a horrific series of witch trial known as the Great Noise. Witches: Truth Behind the Trials V: Sweden
The argument about herding goats causes the greatest witch panic in northern Europe. ibid.
1668 to 1676: 300 people were executed. ibid.
‘Sweden was where it broke out after the big witch hunts were over in central Europe.’ ibid. Professor Hutton
1711, Islandmagee: ‘It’s now Mary Dunbar who is the apparent centre of the demonic attacks’ Witches: Truth Behind the Trials VI: Ireland, Professor Hutton
Janet Carson is the first person accused of witchcraft in Islandmagee. But she won’t be the last. ibid.