Child killer launches new appeal: report

Robert Farquharson is led into a prison van at the Supreme Court in Melbourne, Friday, Oct. 15, 2010. The father who drowned his three sons by deliberately driving his car into a dam will appeal his sentence of life in prison with a minimum of 33 years that was handed down today. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

AAP

A father convicted of murdering his three young sons is reportedly preparing a new legal appeal.

Robert Farquharson’s car plunged into a dam at Winchelsea in southern Victoria on Father’s Day 2005.

He swam free but his three sons Jai, 10, Tyler, seven and two-year-old Bailey drowned.

Farquharson had separated from the boys’ mother and was returning home from an access visit at the time of their deaths.

He was found guilty of their murder in 2007 before his conviction was quashed on appeal in December 2009.

He was again found guilty in 2010 and sentenced to life with a minimum of 33 years, with a further two appeals later rejected.

Farquharson will base his latest appeal bid, scheduled for later this year, on Victorian laws introduced in 2019 that relate to new evidence that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the ABC reported on Thursday.

He has always maintained his innocence and two doctors diagnosed him with cough syncope, a condition that causes a person to pass out after a coughing fit.

That was contested by the prosecution and another medical expert who gave evidence in court.

The mother of the boys, Cindy Gambino-Moules, died in May 2022 after a medical episode at her home.

In January, Department of Health secretary Euan Wallace stripped Farquharson of rights over his children’ graves.