Australian Dad guilty of killing three sons*

By Katie Bice

October 06, 2007 01:00am
Article from: Herald Sun

    * Robert Farquharson drowned three sons
    * Wife hysterical at hearing verdicts
    * He maintains innocence and is to appeal

AN evil dad faces life in jail after a jury found he had revenged
himself on his estranged wife by condemning their three sons to a watery
grave.

Robert Donald William Farquharson, 38, deliberately drove into a dam and
left trapped sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, to drown so Cindy
Gambino would suffer for the rest of her life.

As the foreman intoned each murder verdict - "Guilty. Guilty. Guilty" -
Ms Gambino became hysterical, crying and wailing.

Escorted outside the Supreme Court, she fell to her to knees and was
cradled by relatives. "Why? Why? Why?" she asked.

As the verdicts were read, Farquharson looked towards his former wife.

He displayed no further emotion other than small shakes of his head.

The boys' grandmother, Beverley Gambino, was comforted by other relatives.

After the jury left, she had to be carried from court.

Trial judge Justice Philip Cummins called a short recess so both women
could be comforted.

They left court in an ambulance, Ms Gambino in a wheelchair and her
mother on a stretcher.

Farquharson left court in handcuffs, to await a plea hearing on a date
to be fixed.

Outside court his counsel, Peter Morrissey, said his client had
instructed him to appeal.

"The jury has found Robert guilty, but I can tell you he maintains his
innocence of the charges," Mr Morrissey said.

"He will maintain his innocence in court during the plea. He will be
sentenced, And he has given us instructions to appeal."

The father of three had pleaded not guilty to the three murders,
claiming that his sons had died in a tragic accident, the result of his
blacking out at the wheel after a violent coughing fit.

The jury of seven women and five men had been deliberating for three days.

During the six-week trial, they heard that two months before the
tragedy, on Father's Day 2005, Farquharson had angrily vowed to kill the
boys to pay back Ms Gambino.

He was bitter that in their separation she had taken the good car, and
had also moved on with another man.

And maintenance payments had left him financially strapped.

The court heard Farquharson had struggled to come to terms with the
breakdown, in late 2004, of his four-year marriage to Ms Gambino.

He sought counselling for depression, saying he was finding it difficult
to cope with the boys.

Prosecutors elicited evidence from civilians and expert crash
investigators and doctors to seal a conviction.

Mr Farquharson's childhood friend, Greg King, told the jury of a
sinister conversation in which Farquharson had stared him in the eyes
and said he would kill the three boys.

He said Farquharson had told him: "There's no way I'm going to let him,
her and the kids live together in my house and I have to f---ing pay for
it and also pay f---ing maintenance for the kids."

Mr King said Farquharson had told him it would involve an accident in a dam.

"He said she'd (Ms Gambino) remember it when it was Father's Day and I
was the last one to have them for the last time, not her. And then she
would suffer," Mr King recounted.

Police who reconstructed the crash told jurors the car's path from the
road to the dam involved three steering movements and there were no
signs of skid marks or emergency braking.

Doctors told the jury that Farquharson's claim that he had blacked out
while coughing was extremely unlikely, as the condition afflicted fewer
than 2 per cent of people.

Prosecutor Jeremy Rapke, QC, asked the jury to consider how it was
possible Farquharson was afflicted by the rare disorder while travelling
with his children on the only section of the 35km road between Geelong
and Winchelsea where there was a dam close by.

Ms Gambino and her mother were admitted to St Vincent's Hospital for
observation but were discharged last night.

"She (Ms Gambino) was very distressed," a hospital spokeswoman said.

Ms Gambino stared blankly ahead as she was helped to a waiting car.