Murder accused dad unsure on seatbelts

A father accused of murdering his three sons by driving them into a dam says he
can't remember clearly whether or not he tried to unbuckle the boys from their
seatbelts.
Robert Farquharson told a jury it "slipped my memory" whether he unbuckled his sons
Jai, 10, Tyler, 7 and Bailey, two.
Prosecutor Andrew Tinney, SC, questioned how Farquharson could forget if he released
the seatbelts of his three children, who drowned in the car after it went into the
dam.
"Well, it's something that's probably slipped my memory, I don't know," Farquharson
said.
"To be honest, you probably - it's a very painful time and there's a lot of things
that I don't remember.
"There's probably things that I'd like to forget, and there's a lot of things that I
haven't dealt with about it either."
The court heard Farquharson has previously said he tried to unbuckle one of the boys.
The boys died on Father's Day 2005 after Farquharson's car left the Princes Highway
near Winchelsea, in Victoria's southwest, and ended up in a dam.
Farquharson has pleaded not guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to their murders
and says he had a coughing fit and blacked out.
He described himself on Friday as a "loving father" who "lost my three children in
front of my eyes".
Mr Tinney suggested to Farquharson that when he was in the dam, it didn't take him
long to determine the children were dead.
Farquharson rejected the suggestion.
"I don't know how long I was out there for," he said.
"It felt like an eternity ... it just felt so long."
After he got out of the dam, Farquharson asked a passing motorist to take him to his
ex-wife Cindy Gambino, the court heard.
He said seeing Ms Gambino after the deaths was something he "had to do".
Mr Tinney suggested Farquharson wanted to tell her he had killed the kids.
Farquharson said the allegation was not true.
He also rejected suggestions he did not like Ms Gambino.
Asked by Mr Tinney why on the night of the deaths he had asked police on three
occasions about what would happen to him, and not asked about the condition of the
boys, Mr Farquharson said he had asked about the boys.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry resumes on Monday.



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