Australian murders three sons as a lesson to ex-wife

MELBOURNE - An Australian man murdered his three sons by driving his car into a dam on Father’s Day as a “delicious reward” for his ex-wife for getting involved in a relationship with another man, a court heard Thursday.

Robert Farquharson, 41, was found guilty by a Supreme Court jury of murdering his three sons - Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2 - on Father’s Day, 2005.

As the verdict was delivered, Farquharson shook his head, shouted “no” and appeared shocked and upset, while his supporters in court, including his sisters, wept.

Farquharson had pleaded not guilty and told jurors he had a coughing fit, blacked out and woke up in the dam near Winchelsea, in Victoria’s southwest, the Australian reported.

In his closing address, prosecutor Andrew Tinney said Farquharson’s resentment and anger towards his former wife “drove him to commit an almost unspeakable act of vengeance”.

After murdering the children, Farquharson had the “delicious reward” of telling his ex-wife, Cindy Gambino, about the deaths, Tinney said.

A friend of Farquharson gave evidence that he had vowed to pay Gambino back “big time” for forming a new relationship and getting “the good car” when they split.

And the last person to see the children alive, a motorist named Dawn Waite, told the jury Farquharson was not coughing but driving slowly and veering left and right moments before he swerved into the dam.

Farquharson’s lawyer, Peter Morrissey, said the fact that Farquharson had invited a friend to join them on their Father’s Day trip meant he could not have been planning to murder the boys.

Morrissey said his client was a shy and uneducated man, who loved his children.

Farquharson was convicted in 2007 of his son’s murders and sentenced to three life terms. However, the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction in 2009 and ordered a retrial, saying a miscarriage of justice occurred.