Evil Melbourne dad who drowned his three young sons when he drove into a dam on Father’s Day launches new bid for freedom: ‘He’s innocent’

By William On May 2, 2024

A vicious child killer who was jailed for life after drowning his three sons in a dam is set to launch a new appeal against his sentence, with a specialist doctor proclaiming his innocence.

Robert Farquharson drove his Commodore into an icy dam with his boys Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, inside and left them to die on Father’s Day 2005.

He crashed into a seven-metre deep dam near Winchelsea, 117 kilometers south-west of Melbourne, and was the only survivor to swim free from the wreckage.

Separate juries found Farquharson guilty of murdering his children in both 2007 and a retrial in 2010 after his first conviction was overturned, in what High Court Judge Lex Lasry called “a terrifying death”.

But specialist respiratory physician Chris Steinfort, one of Farquharson’s most prominent supporters, said: “I think he is an innocent man.”

Robert Farquharson (pictured) drove a car into a dam with their three boys Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, inside and left them to die on Father’s Day 2005

Farquharson’s quest for freedom is based on new laws introduced in Victoria in 2019 that allow an appeal if there is new and compelling evidence of a substantial miscarriage of justice. ABC reported.

“It’s always somewhat disturbing when you think that someone has had a miscarriage of justice, and that I was somehow involved in that process,” Dr. Steinfort, who testified against Farquharson at previous trials, told reporters at 7:30 p.m. an interview that will be broadcast on Thursday evening.

Dr. Steinfort assessed Farquharson before his first trial and is convinced the crash was an accident caused by a cough-induced fainting spell known as cough syncope, although this was rejected by the juries.

“I said to him, ‘What happened?’ And (Farquharson) basically said, “Well, I really don’t know what happened,” Dr. Steinfort said.

“That made me think there might be something in it that caused the accident, and I wrote it all down in my medical file.”

Farquharson had been ill before the crash but took his sons on a drive to pick up KFC for dinner in nearby Geelong.

The accident happened as he was driving them back to Winchelsea, where they lived with their mother, Cindy-Gambino-Moules – they had separated the year before.

Mrs. Gambino-Moules died suddenly and unexpectedly, at the age of 50, in May 2022.

She initially believed that her former husband was innocent, but later changed her mind and believed that he had deliberately killed their children due to family violence.

The prosecution argued that Farquharson had made up that he was having a coughing fit that caused him to pass out.

Another medical expert, Dr. Thomas Naughton, testified that it was unlikely that Farquharson suffered from cough syncope.

Dr. Thomas Naughton said the condition was ‘extremely unusual’ and in Farquharson’s case ‘extremely medically unlikely’.

Jai, Bailey and Tyler Farquharson (pictured from left to right) died when their father drove them into a dam in Victoria in 2005

The boy’s mother, Cindy Gambino-Moules, is pictured leaving the High Court in Melbourne on May 11, 2010.

A key witness in the case told the court that Farquharson planned to kill his children to get back at Ms Gambino-Moules.

Greg King testified about a conversation with Farquharson two months before the murders, when his friend talked about getting revenge on his ex-wife and wanting to “take away the things that mean the most to her.”

Farquharson’s new appeal is expected to use the case of Geoffrey Ferguson, a truck driver who was jailed in 2015 after a fatal crash near Shepparton, Victoria.

Ferguson was released on appeal after a court accepted he had blacked out during a coughing fit.

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How the triple murder and Farquharson’s conviction unfolded

On September 4, 2005, Robert Farquharson, 37, had been on a Father’s Day outing with his three sons, Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2.

Cindy Gambino saw her three boys alive for the last time when she dropped them off at their father’s house that Sunday afternoon around 3 p.m.

She had ended the marriage ten months earlier and Farquharson had moved back in with his father.

He was returning his boys to Mrs Gambino – who later remarried and became Mrs Gambino-Moules – when he drove his car off the Princes Highway into a dam near Winchelsea, south-west of Melbourne.

Their car drove over the gravel median, crossed into oncoming lanes, crashed through a fence and drove past a row of trees before crashing into the dam.

Farquharson then left the children in the car, with youngest Bailey strapped into a baby seat as he swam to safety.

The father later said he blacked out while driving due to a coughing fit, which caused him to veer off the highway and wake up in the car with water up to his chest.

After a six-week trial and three days of deliberation, a jury found that Farquharson deliberately drove the vehicle into the water after damning evidence was heard in court.

A witness who saw Farquharson after emerging from the water on the side of the highway said the father babbled that he had “killed the kids.”

Shane Atkinson had been pulled over after he saw the child killer jump into the road and wave his arms.

The witness said the father was unwilling to call the police and declined his offer to rescue the children from the dam.

Three months after the drownings, police charged Farquharson with three counts of murder.

An old friend of the father, Greg King, told police he had heard him talk about his estranged wife paying for the breakup of their marriage by killing their children.

He wanted to do this so that Ms Gambino would remember it for the rest of her life, the court heard.

He had also said he wanted revenge for getting the bad car after their divorce, and for seeing another man.