Filicide Planned

Farquharson accused of 'grooming' witness 

AAP

June 04, 2009 02:53pm

A MAN convicted of killing his three children by driving them into a dam tried to "groom" a prosecution witness into giving the "right" answers to police, a court has heard.

Robert Farquharson, 39, is appealing his conviction for the murders of Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two.

The three drowned in a dam near Winchelsea in Victoria's south-west on Fathers Day 2005.

Just months earlier Farquharson told his friend Gregory King at a local fish-and-chip shop he would make his wife pay by killing their three sons on Fathers Day so she would remember it for the rest of her life.

After the boys died, Mr King wore a recording device and tried to get Farquharson to talk about the fish-and-chip shop conversation.

Mr King told Farquharson he was to be interviewed by police the next day.

Farquharson urged him to focus on the positives.

"All you have to say is he's a good bloke, I've known them (Farquharson and ex-wife Cindy Gambino) for a long time, that I loved my kids and that we (Cindy and I) get along,'' Farquharson said.

Today, Douglas Trapnell for the Crown said this conversation was evidence of a guilty Farquharson coaching his friend to give the right answers to police.

"If this was a sex case we would say he was grooming,'' Mr Trapnell said.

But he said the case against Farquharson stood up even if Mr King was not believed.

But Farquharson's lawyer Peter Morrissey said much of the fish-and-chip shop conversation did not take place.

"It was simply unbelievable that he (Mr King) did not tell his wife these details,'' Mr Morrissey said.

"It is unbelievable that he would not approach anyone about it.''

He said if the evidence of Mr King was not believed, a conviction could not be sustained.

The appeal before Chief Justice Marilyn Warren and justices Geoffrey Nettle andRobert Redlich continues.

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