A friend of Kathy’s has spoken to the 7.30 Report about the terrifying moment Laura Folbigg stopped breathing in her care.

After Laura, Kathy’s fourth child, was born Karren offered to help look after her and undertook a CPR course to ensure she was prepared for emergencies.

Karren was babysitting Laura one day while Kathy ran some errands. About 20 minutes after Laura fell asleep on Karren’s couch, Kathy called to check on her 12-month-old daughter.

Karen was shocked to discover Laura lying on the lounge, her face “a funny colour, like it had drained”.

“I actually got on the floor and bent over. I couldn’t hear her breathing, couldn’t feel her breathing. I sort of went into panic mode. I put my arms under her and scooped her up and was about to put her on the floor to start CPR, and she took a big gasp in and then a couple of breaths, and it was all good from there.

“But it was very scary. I believe she had stopped breathing. I did everything that I was trained to do to see whether she was breathing or not, and to me there was no breath, none at all.”

Dr Matthew Orde, a forensic pathologist at Vancouver General Hospital, told the ABC it is possible Laura suffered an acute, life-threatening event, or ALTE.

“The episode described by Karren Hall, when Laura was 12 months of age, could well be an ALTE,” he said.

Karren’s experience with Laura raises the possibility that Kathy’s children had a genetic abnormality which rendered them at risk of sudden death.

However, at a directions hearing in Sydney earlier today, the presiding judge, Reginald Blanch, revealed Kathy’s ex-husband, Craig Folbigg, refused to provide DNA evidence to a lawyer ahead of the inquiry into the deaths of their four children.

Craig filed a complaint with the Law Society of NSW about being contacted by his ex-partner’s legal team.

The court heard a DNA sample had already been provided by Kathy for genetic testing. The inquiry will now ask Craig to provide a sample as well.

Meanwhile, a confidential briefing note written by one of Australia’s top forensic pathologists has been obtained by the ABC which raises fresh questions about the conviction of Kathy in 2003 for smothering all four of her children: Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura.

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