Robert Farquharson
Robert Donald William Farquharson (born 1969) is an Australian man convicted of murdering his three sons on 4 September 2005, by deliberately driving his car into a farm dam.
[3] On 17 December 2009, he won the right to a retrial, due in part to the key witness for the prosecution, Greg King, facing potential criminal charges himself at the time of the original trial.
Helen Garner published This House of Grief (2014) as a response to the crime and the ensuing trials, in which Farquharson is heavily depicted.
[5][7] About 7 pm on 4 September 2005, as Farquharson was returning his children to their mother after a Father's Day access visit, his white 1989 VN Commodore vehicle veered across the Princes Highway between Winchelsea and Geelong, in Victoria, crashed through a fence and came to rest in a 7.4 meter deep disused former quarry turned farm dam[8] where it filled with water and submerged.
[9] Police alleged that Farquharson was in control of the vehicle in the moments before it crashed into the dam and that he earlier told a friend, Greg King, that he had intended to kill his children to get back at his wife.
"[14] Sergeant Glen Urquhart gave evidence that the steering wheel of Farquharson's vehicle would require a 220-degree turn to veer as it did on the highway to leave the road.
Police video re-enactments of the crime scene played before the court showed the car veering left, instead of right, towards the dam at the exact position on the highway the accident happened.
Matthew Naughton, an associate professor and specialist in sleep and respiratory medicine, told the jury that it was highly unlikely Farquharson had had a coughing fit in the moments before the accident.
[18] Cam Everett, the owner of the property where the dam was located, told the court that a total of seven vehicles had crashed through his farm fence in eight years.
He said this could be explained by the right camber of the road towards the dam as well as the fact that the car had poor wheel alignment, meaning it would move uncontrolled to the right.
[1] Gambino told her story to Australian magazine Woman's Day, saying that she did not believe Farquharson had killed their children,[26] but later changed her mind.
[27] Harpo Productions, the company of American talk show host Oprah Winfrey, was reported to have offered Gambino $1 million to appear on the programme and tell her story.
60 Minutes Australia, in an episode hosted by Nick McKenzie, spoke to numerous experts, most prominently Anna-Maria Arabia, chief executive of the Australian Academy of Science, while questioning much of the evidence presented by the prosecution.
[29][30] Some of the new evidence presented by 60 Minutes, in particular the computer modelling of the crash, was done after the road involved had been considerably altered by upgrades made to it in the intervening period.
The 60 Minutes piece was prompted by a joint investigation done by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, whose five part podcast, Trial By Water, also questions whether or not Farquharson was unfairly convicted.
[31][32][33] No firm conclusions regarding the events of 4 September 2005 were reached by either of the 2024 reviews; rather, questions were raised as to whether or not Farquharson had received a fair trial, or if in fact the conviction should again be revisited.
