ID :
120458
Wed, 05/05/2010 - 21:46
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/120458
The shortlink copeid
Boys had terrifying death in dam: court
A Victorian man accused of the "wicked" murder of his three sons was seen swerving
across the road moments before he crashed into a dam where his children drowned, a
court has heard.
Robert Farquharson was not coughing and was looking out his window toward the dam
side of the road when a female motorist overtook him on the Princes Highway near
Winchelsea in Victoria's west on Father's Day 2005, a jury heard on Wednesday.
The woman noticed children in the back seat of the car and believed the car was
travelling at only about half the 100km/h speed limit and its driver was "perhaps
anxious", the Victorian Supreme Court heard on Wednesday.
Moments later she looked in her rear view mirror and observed the 1989 Holden
Commodore veer off to the right.
The woman assumed the driver had taken a turn-off.
Instead, Farquharson's car, in what prosecutors say was a "wicked and malevolent act
of multiple murder", had left the highway, travelled across a grassy area, gone
through a fence and narrowly avoided a tree, before plunging into the
seven-metre-deep dam.
His sons Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two, met "terrifying" deaths trapped in
the dark as the car sank to the bottom of the dam.
Farquharson, 41, who swam to safety, is facing a retrial in the Victorian Supreme
Court and has pleaded not guilty to their murder.
Farquharson says he had a coughing fit and blacked out, waking up in the dam.
In his opening address, prosecutor Andrew Tinney said when Farquharson made it to
shore he hailed two men in a passing car and told them he wanted to go to his
ex-wife Cindy Gambino's place.
"Give me a lift back to Winch," he allegedly asked the men.
"I've got to go tell Cindy I've just killed the kids."
The men offered to jump into the dam to search for the kids but Farquharson refused,
it is alleged.
When they arrived at Ms Gambino's house she asked why he hadn't stayed with the
children.
Farquharson replied: "They've already drowned."
Farquharson's lawyer Peter Morrissey urged jurors to look at the facts rather than
theories.
He said a key prosecution theory that a crash reconstruction which showed the car
required three steering movements to end up in the dam was incorrectly formulated.
Mr Morrissey asked jurors to give his client the presumption of innocence, saying
Farquharson has been "slaughtered" in the media.
"It's a very divisive case," he said.
"You've probably heard the arguments, you probably - you may have been part of the
arguments."
Mr Tinney said the woman who overtook Farquharson was the last person to see the
children alive.
"The very strange driving of the vehicle by the accused was the driving of a man
readying himself for the drastic and shocking step of murdering his children by
driving them into a dam," he said.
The court heard at the time of the alleged murders Farquharson was unhappy about the
amount of child support he was paying and resented Ms Gambino for getting the better
car when they separated.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry continues on Thursday.
across the road moments before he crashed into a dam where his children drowned, a
court has heard.
Robert Farquharson was not coughing and was looking out his window toward the dam
side of the road when a female motorist overtook him on the Princes Highway near
Winchelsea in Victoria's west on Father's Day 2005, a jury heard on Wednesday.
The woman noticed children in the back seat of the car and believed the car was
travelling at only about half the 100km/h speed limit and its driver was "perhaps
anxious", the Victorian Supreme Court heard on Wednesday.
Moments later she looked in her rear view mirror and observed the 1989 Holden
Commodore veer off to the right.
The woman assumed the driver had taken a turn-off.
Instead, Farquharson's car, in what prosecutors say was a "wicked and malevolent act
of multiple murder", had left the highway, travelled across a grassy area, gone
through a fence and narrowly avoided a tree, before plunging into the
seven-metre-deep dam.
His sons Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two, met "terrifying" deaths trapped in
the dark as the car sank to the bottom of the dam.
Farquharson, 41, who swam to safety, is facing a retrial in the Victorian Supreme
Court and has pleaded not guilty to their murder.
Farquharson says he had a coughing fit and blacked out, waking up in the dam.
In his opening address, prosecutor Andrew Tinney said when Farquharson made it to
shore he hailed two men in a passing car and told them he wanted to go to his
ex-wife Cindy Gambino's place.
"Give me a lift back to Winch," he allegedly asked the men.
"I've got to go tell Cindy I've just killed the kids."
The men offered to jump into the dam to search for the kids but Farquharson refused,
it is alleged.
When they arrived at Ms Gambino's house she asked why he hadn't stayed with the
children.
Farquharson replied: "They've already drowned."
Farquharson's lawyer Peter Morrissey urged jurors to look at the facts rather than
theories.
He said a key prosecution theory that a crash reconstruction which showed the car
required three steering movements to end up in the dam was incorrectly formulated.
Mr Morrissey asked jurors to give his client the presumption of innocence, saying
Farquharson has been "slaughtered" in the media.
"It's a very divisive case," he said.
"You've probably heard the arguments, you probably - you may have been part of the
arguments."
Mr Tinney said the woman who overtook Farquharson was the last person to see the
children alive.
"The very strange driving of the vehicle by the accused was the driving of a man
readying himself for the drastic and shocking step of murdering his children by
driving them into a dam," he said.
The court heard at the time of the alleged murders Farquharson was unhappy about the
amount of child support he was paying and resented Ms Gambino for getting the better
car when they separated.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry continues on Thursday.
