Robert Farquharson

Farquharson met Cindy Gambino, in February 1990 and the two began a relationship.

Gambino had previously been in a relationship with a man who was killed in a car accident.

In October 1994, their first son Jai was born.

In 1996, Farquharson took a redundancy package from his employer and bought a lawn-mowing franchise servicing his local area, a venture which lost him A$40,000.

In July 1998, their second son, Tyler, was born and in 2000, Farquharson married Gambino.

They then had another son, Bailey, in December 2002 before the pair separated amicably in 2004.

Farquharson had avoidant personality disorder and bouts of depression, and sought the assistance of a psychologist and later a psychiatrist to deal with the separation.

He was prescribed the antidepressants Zoloft and later Avanza.

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.

Farquharson was convicted in an earlier trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment with no minimum term.

However, he maintained his innocence and appealed his sentence.

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 where it filled with water and submerged.

His three sons were unable to free themselves and drowned.

Farquharson managed to escape and alerted another driver who took him to nearby Winchelsea.

Police divers recovered the boys' bodies about 2 am the next day.

They were still inside the vehicle and were not restrained by seatbelts.

After a three-month investigation, police prepared murder charges against Farquharson and went to his Winchelsea home on 14 December 2005.

He was not there at the time but presented himself at the Geelong police station in the presence of his lawyer.

He was arrested and charged with three counts of murder.

He had previously requested and undertook a lie detector test, the results of which are inadmissible in court.

He later appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court, where he was remanded in custody and ordered to appear before the court on 7 April 2006.

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.

He was later granted bail and released from custody.

Farquharson's trial for the murder of his sons began in the Supreme Court of Victoria, before Justice Philip Cummins, on 21 August 2007.

A total of 49 witnesses appeared during the six-week trial.

Gambino told the court that she did not believe Farquharson intended to kill their children deliberately, saying "I believe with all my heart that this was just an accident and that he would not have hurt a hair on their heads. I don't believe this is murder."

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.

There was no evidence of braking before the car entered the dam.

The vehicle's headlights, heater and ignition system were all in the off position.

The body of the oldest child, Jai, was found protruding halfway out of the vehicle's front door.

The other boys were discovered in the back seat.

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.

Farquharson's car was found to pull slightly to the right, though not to the degree that would counteract the left-veering force according to Urquhart.

King, a bus driver, testified that he recalled a conversation with Farquharson two months before the incident outside a fish and chip shop.

He said his friend spoke of seeking revenge on his former wife and of wanting to "take away the things that mean the most to her", meaning the children.

King recalled Farquharson complaining how his wife had taken the newer of the two cars.

But King's wife could not recall her husband relaying this conversation to her that day.

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.

He was released on bail on 21 December, but was again convicted of murder on 22 July 2010.

Helen Garner published This House of Grief (2014) as a response to the crime and the ensuing trials, in which Farquharson is heavily depicted.