We've posted several times on dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON, who murdered his three sons during his child visitation time. He was yet another one of those controlling abusers who never should have been allowed visitation, never been allowed to be in a position where he could destroy these little boys--just to punish/control the mother for leaving him. Farquaharson is but one reason the Australian public is beginning to realize that mandatory, lock-step joint custody has been a disaster for children.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2010/10/15/219201_news.html
Dam death dad jailed for 33 years minimum
Aleks Devic October 15th, 2010
TRIPLE child killer Robert Farquharson has been sentenced to a minimum 33 years in jail for the murders of his three young boys.
Farquharson deliberately drove off the Princes Highway on Father's Day 2005 and into a icy Winchelsea dam where he left sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7 and Bailey, 2 to drown.
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Justice Lex Lasry said the three boys must have met terrifying deaths.
"Your crimes have devastated a significant number of people,'' he said.
"Primary among them is your ex-wife Cindy Gambino, the mother of these three children.''
During the sentence hearing, Farquharson screwed up his face and repeatedly shook his head as the judge outlined his crimes.
He also exhaled heavily several times.
When Justice Lasry said he would sentence Farquharson to life with a minimum term, Ms Gambino shook her head and cried.
She also turned around to face her ex-husband and threw her fists in the air when the judge described how her new partner Stephen Moules had to identify the three boy's bodies.
Farquharson had managed to escape the sinking vehicle and then flagged down a passing motorist who was told to drive to the home of Farquharson's ex-wife Cindy Gambino so he could break the news that he killed their children.
The Crown prosecution successfully argued Farquharson committed the crime to make Ms Gambino suffer for the rest of her life after the couple's bitter marriage bust up.
Farquharson continues to maintain his innocence and claims he blacked out from a coughing fit and when he woke up, he was submerged 7m into the dam.
Farquharson was originally sentenced to life in prison with no parole in 2007 but he had his conviction and sentenced quashed by the Court of Appeal which ordered a retrial.
A jury found him guilty again of the triple murder in July this year.
TIMELINE
1990 - Robert Farquharson meets his future wife Cindy Gambino. After some years as friends they begin a relationship and move in together.
October 1994 - The couple's first child Jai Farquharson is born.
July 1998 - Tyler Farquharson is born.
2000 - Farquharson and Ms Gambino are married.
December 2002 - The couple's youngest child Bailey is born. The couple's relationship is strained as Farquharson had not wanted another child.
November 2004 - Ms Gambino realises that she does not love Farquharson any more and asks him to move out of their house. The separation angers Farquharson. Ms Gambino becomes friendly with another man, Stephen Moules.
About May or June 2005 - In a conversation outside the local fish and chip shop Farquharson tells his good mate Greg King he will pay Ms Gambino back ``big time'' by ``taking away the most important thing'' to her.
September 4, 2005 - After taking the children to Geelong on Father's Day, Farquharson murders his sons by driving off the Princes Highway and into a dam. He gets out of the car and swims to shore.
December 2005 - Farquharson is charged with murdering his three sons and appears in court where he is granted bail.
August 2006 - Farquharson ordered to stand trial for the murder of his sons.
October 2007 - After a six-week trial Farquharson is found guilty of murdering the boys and the following month is sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
November 2007 - Farquharson lodges appeal against conviction.
December 2009 - Farquharson wins his appeal, his conviction is quashed and a new trial is ordered.
May 2010 - Retrial begins before Justice Lex Lasry.
July 2010 - After an 11-week trial Farquharson is again convicted of murdering his sons.
October 2010 - Farquharson is sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 33 years.
_ with AAP
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Friday, October 15, 2010
Monday, August 17, 2015
What drives a dad to murder his sons? (Australia)
We've reported on killer dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON before.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/what-drives-a-dad-to-murder-his-sons/story-fnu2q5nu-1227475281984
What drives a dad to murder his sons?
This story was published: 10 days ago August 08, 2015 12:16PM
NO ONE saw it coming. To friends and family Robert Farquharson was “poor Rob”, a short, chubby, unassuming and not overly bright country bloke who moped around the small Victorian town of Winchelsea after his wife left him.
Farquharson had appeared to be coping with the separation and getting on with his life. Then his car veered off the highway near town into a large dam, 10 years ago this Father’s Day. He escaped unhurt but his sons, Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, drowned.
When it emerged that this was no accident, friends and family were stunned. Even his estranged wife, Cindy Gambino, refused to believe that the seemingly meek and mild Farquharson was capable of murder.
It wasn’t until Farquharson’s second trial, which again found him guilty, that Cindy finally accepted that Farquharson had intentionally killed all of their children. Some Winchelsea locals still believe it was a tragic accident.
We all struggle to understand when someone who appears “normal” commits such a cold-blooded act. Robert Farquharson was the archetypal country bumpkin who worked as a labourer with the local council, volunteered at the local school and enjoyed hanging out with children.
The idea of his leaving his boys to drown was incomprehensible. But when you consider Farquharson’s personality disorder and background, it is not so surprising.
The youngest of four children, Farquharson was small for his age and grew up protected by siblings and his late mother, Faye. Genetic factors also appear to have contributed to his developing an avoidant personality disorder (AvPD).
An AvPD is a pervasive pattern of behaviour characterised by social inhibition and lack of social confidence, feelings of inadequacy and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation.
Farquharson couldn’t cope with adult responsibility. He mocked and antagonised his family, publicly lost his temper when he could not work machinery or tools, and let Cindy do most of the work and make most of the decisions. He used her as a protective shield.
When Cindy asked him to leave, Farquharson moved in with his father, seeking sympathy from many locals and blaming her for the marriage breakdown.
Outwardly he was moving on, but inwardly Farquharson seethed. Due to his AvPD he chose to be dependent on Cindy, but this also made him resentful. When she befriended another man, his rage quietly grew to the point where he plotted one of the world’s worst cases of family violence.
As this terrible tragedy showed, domestic violence is complex and many factors can contribute. Personality disorders often play a significant role and most people don’t realise how dangerous some people with one of these entrenched behaviour patterns can be.
Gerard Baden-Clay is another classic case of a murderer with a personality disorder. The Brisbane real estate agent appeared to be the perfect husband, father and small businessman — until he killed his wife, Allison, in April, 2012.
A great-grandson of Scouts founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Baden-Clay was president of the Kenmore Chamber of Commerce, ran Scout groups, supported the local school’s chaplaincy program and doted on his three daughters.
He actively promoted an image of himself as a successful and upstanding businessman, but it was far removed from the reality of his life. When Baden-Clay was charged with Allison’s murder, most Australians were stunned. But they shouldn’t have been.
Privately, Baden-Clay had spent years deliberately chipping away at Allison’s confidence, cheating with multiple women, big-noting himself in business and borrowing big money from friends when his franchise began to fail and incur massive debts.
His narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) meant he felt justified in fabricating a false image and doing or taking what he wanted, even if it hurt others.
An NPD is a pervasive pattern of behaviour characterised by an excessive need for admiration, inflated views of oneself not backed up by reality, exploitation of others, a strong sense of entitlement and marked arrogance.
Baden-Clay displayed these characteristics and was not as clever as he thought. His story that Allison had wandered off overnight, ending up in a creek 13 kilometres away, was unconvincing and he was convicted of her murder in 2014.
Yesterday lawyers for Baden-Clay argued that his conviction for the murder of his wife should be quashed on the grounds it was ‘unreasonable’. The three judges will give a written judgment, expected within three months.
Simon Gittany also had a false exterior masking something much more sinister — in his case an anti-social personality disorder (ASPD). An ASPD is a pervasive pattern of behaviour characterised by a disregard for and violation of the rights of other people coupled with a lack of remorse.
In public Gittany played the loving partner of his Canadian fiancee, Lisa Harnum. But he had a long criminal record for assault, theft and drug-dealing. He secretly spied on Lisa, controlled her every move and alienated her from her friends and her family in Canada.
When Lisa tried to leave in July, 2011, Gittany threw her from the balcony of their fifteenth floor Sydney CBD apartment and claimed she had suddenly climbed over. Judge Lucy McCallum disagreed and found him guilty of murder.
These perpetrators all had a personality disorder and their dysfunctional pattern of behaviour towards their partners was rigid, lacking in empathy and focused only on their own needs. In each case the results were deadly.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/what-drives-a-dad-to-murder-his-sons/story-fnu2q5nu-1227475281984
What drives a dad to murder his sons?
This story was published: 10 days ago August 08, 2015 12:16PM
NO ONE saw it coming. To friends and family Robert Farquharson was “poor Rob”, a short, chubby, unassuming and not overly bright country bloke who moped around the small Victorian town of Winchelsea after his wife left him.
Farquharson had appeared to be coping with the separation and getting on with his life. Then his car veered off the highway near town into a large dam, 10 years ago this Father’s Day. He escaped unhurt but his sons, Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, drowned.
When it emerged that this was no accident, friends and family were stunned. Even his estranged wife, Cindy Gambino, refused to believe that the seemingly meek and mild Farquharson was capable of murder.
It wasn’t until Farquharson’s second trial, which again found him guilty, that Cindy finally accepted that Farquharson had intentionally killed all of their children. Some Winchelsea locals still believe it was a tragic accident.
We all struggle to understand when someone who appears “normal” commits such a cold-blooded act. Robert Farquharson was the archetypal country bumpkin who worked as a labourer with the local council, volunteered at the local school and enjoyed hanging out with children.
The idea of his leaving his boys to drown was incomprehensible. But when you consider Farquharson’s personality disorder and background, it is not so surprising.
The youngest of four children, Farquharson was small for his age and grew up protected by siblings and his late mother, Faye. Genetic factors also appear to have contributed to his developing an avoidant personality disorder (AvPD).
An AvPD is a pervasive pattern of behaviour characterised by social inhibition and lack of social confidence, feelings of inadequacy and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation.
Farquharson couldn’t cope with adult responsibility. He mocked and antagonised his family, publicly lost his temper when he could not work machinery or tools, and let Cindy do most of the work and make most of the decisions. He used her as a protective shield.
When Cindy asked him to leave, Farquharson moved in with his father, seeking sympathy from many locals and blaming her for the marriage breakdown.
Outwardly he was moving on, but inwardly Farquharson seethed. Due to his AvPD he chose to be dependent on Cindy, but this also made him resentful. When she befriended another man, his rage quietly grew to the point where he plotted one of the world’s worst cases of family violence.
As this terrible tragedy showed, domestic violence is complex and many factors can contribute. Personality disorders often play a significant role and most people don’t realise how dangerous some people with one of these entrenched behaviour patterns can be.
Gerard Baden-Clay is another classic case of a murderer with a personality disorder. The Brisbane real estate agent appeared to be the perfect husband, father and small businessman — until he killed his wife, Allison, in April, 2012.
A great-grandson of Scouts founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Baden-Clay was president of the Kenmore Chamber of Commerce, ran Scout groups, supported the local school’s chaplaincy program and doted on his three daughters.
He actively promoted an image of himself as a successful and upstanding businessman, but it was far removed from the reality of his life. When Baden-Clay was charged with Allison’s murder, most Australians were stunned. But they shouldn’t have been.
Privately, Baden-Clay had spent years deliberately chipping away at Allison’s confidence, cheating with multiple women, big-noting himself in business and borrowing big money from friends when his franchise began to fail and incur massive debts.
His narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) meant he felt justified in fabricating a false image and doing or taking what he wanted, even if it hurt others.
An NPD is a pervasive pattern of behaviour characterised by an excessive need for admiration, inflated views of oneself not backed up by reality, exploitation of others, a strong sense of entitlement and marked arrogance.
Baden-Clay displayed these characteristics and was not as clever as he thought. His story that Allison had wandered off overnight, ending up in a creek 13 kilometres away, was unconvincing and he was convicted of her murder in 2014.
Yesterday lawyers for Baden-Clay argued that his conviction for the murder of his wife should be quashed on the grounds it was ‘unreasonable’. The three judges will give a written judgment, expected within three months.
Simon Gittany also had a false exterior masking something much more sinister — in his case an anti-social personality disorder (ASPD). An ASPD is a pervasive pattern of behaviour characterised by a disregard for and violation of the rights of other people coupled with a lack of remorse.
In public Gittany played the loving partner of his Canadian fiancee, Lisa Harnum. But he had a long criminal record for assault, theft and drug-dealing. He secretly spied on Lisa, controlled her every move and alienated her from her friends and her family in Canada.
When Lisa tried to leave in July, 2011, Gittany threw her from the balcony of their fifteenth floor Sydney CBD apartment and claimed she had suddenly climbed over. Judge Lucy McCallum disagreed and found him guilty of murder.
These perpetrators all had a personality disorder and their dysfunctional pattern of behaviour towards their partners was rigid, lacking in empathy and focused only on their own needs. In each case the results were deadly.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Killer dad's lawyers to argue new point in court (Australia)
Good grief. Will this guy EVER go away? Dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON was convicted of killing his three sons during visitation. Like most of these killer dads, he was miffed at Mom and wanted to get back at her. This case is one of many that have caused the Australian public to question the wisdom of their near mandatory joint custody laws.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/dam-dad-robert-farquharsons-lawyers-to-argue-new-point-in-court/story-e6frf7jo-1226144512413
Dam dad Robert Farquharson's lawyers to argue new point in court
September 23, 2011 12:48PM AAP
TRIPLE-CHILD killer Robert Farquharson will be allowed to argue that a jury should have had the option of convicting him of manslaughter when he makes his latest appeal bid.
Farquharson was sentenced to life in jail last year for the murders of Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two, who died after Farquharson drove his car into a country Victorian dam on Father's Day 2005.
A Victorian Supreme Court jury convicted Farquharson of three counts of murder, rejecting his argument he had blacked out from a coughing fit and woken up in the dam.
Farquharson has appealed against his conviction.
On Friday, his barrister Peter Morrissey SC applied to the Victorian Court of Appeal to be permitted to argue a further point at his appeal - that the jury should have had the option of convicting him on an alternative charge of manslaughter.
Appeal justices David Ashley and David Harper allowed the application.
An appeal hearing is expected to be held later this year or early in 2012.
Farquharson was last year ordered to serve a minimum of 33 years in prison.
He was returning home from a Father's Day access visit when he drove his car off the Princes Highway and into the dam near Winchelsea in Victoria's southwest.
Farquharson was first convicted of murdering his sons in 2007 and sentenced to life without parole.
But in 2009 he won an appeal and was granted a retrial.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/dam-dad-robert-farquharsons-lawyers-to-argue-new-point-in-court/story-e6frf7jo-1226144512413
Dam dad Robert Farquharson's lawyers to argue new point in court
September 23, 2011 12:48PM AAP
TRIPLE-CHILD killer Robert Farquharson will be allowed to argue that a jury should have had the option of convicting him of manslaughter when he makes his latest appeal bid.
Farquharson was sentenced to life in jail last year for the murders of Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two, who died after Farquharson drove his car into a country Victorian dam on Father's Day 2005.
A Victorian Supreme Court jury convicted Farquharson of three counts of murder, rejecting his argument he had blacked out from a coughing fit and woken up in the dam.
Farquharson has appealed against his conviction.
On Friday, his barrister Peter Morrissey SC applied to the Victorian Court of Appeal to be permitted to argue a further point at his appeal - that the jury should have had the option of convicting him on an alternative charge of manslaughter.
Appeal justices David Ashley and David Harper allowed the application.
An appeal hearing is expected to be held later this year or early in 2012.
Farquharson was last year ordered to serve a minimum of 33 years in prison.
He was returning home from a Father's Day access visit when he drove his car off the Princes Highway and into the dam near Winchelsea in Victoria's southwest.
Farquharson was first convicted of murdering his sons in 2007 and sentenced to life without parole.
But in 2009 he won an appeal and was granted a retrial.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Mum of dead children breaks down at ex-husband's murder trial (Victoria, Australia)
We previously posted on this case last December:
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2009/12/dad-who-drowned-3-sons-gets-to-spend.html
Yes, so amazing that Daddy survived this crash after "blacking out" and how only the three children were trapped in the car that sunk to the bottom of the dam. Yet another indictment of "shared custody," especially with psycho nutcases. This is Daddy's second trial.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/ex-wife-cindy-gambino-breaks-down-at-robert-farquharson-trial/story-e6frg6nf-1225863688017
Ex-wife Cindy Gambino breaks down at Robert Farquharson trial
Lauren Wilson From: The Australian May 07, 2010 2:39PM
A MOTHER has given a jury a harrowing account of the last moments she spent with her three sons before her estranged husband drove them into a dam in what prosecutors allege was a deliberate act of murder.
Robert Farquharson's three young sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2 drowned after being trapped inside their father's Holden Commodore when it sank to the bottom of a dam on the outskirts of Geelong on Fathers' Day in 2005.
Mr Farquharson has pleaded not guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to the murders of his children, maintaining he had a coughing fit and blacked out at the wheel.
The boys' mother Cindy Gambino chocked back tears in the witness box today as she described saying goodbye to her sons' for the last time.
Ms Gambino told the court that she had driven the boys over to Mr Farquharson's house with a framed photograph and saucepans for him as a Fathers' Day gift.
She said that after spending ten minutes at her former husband's home she asked her boys if they wanted to have dinner with their father and arranged for him to drive them home.
"The biggest regret of my life is asking that question," she sobbed.
"Bailey's last words to me where "cuddle mum" and I cuddled him and I left and that was the last time I saw them alive."
Ms Gambino said Mr Farquharson had a "love/hate" relationship with his children and "resented me something badly" after the pair separated in 2004.
She told the court she never denied Mr Farquharson access to the children, but "the worst part about it was that he never really asked to have them than often, and the kids never asked if they could see dad."
The court heard that Mr Farquharson would often complain about child maintenance payments and his difficult financial position.
Breaking into tears, Ms Gambino said the payments were set to slightly increase before the deaths of the children, but "it ended up not being increased because the children died and he didn't have to pay maintenance anymore."
She described the conduct of Mr Farquharson the night of their children's death as being, "like he lost his pushbike".
The trial continues.
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2009/12/dad-who-drowned-3-sons-gets-to-spend.html
Yes, so amazing that Daddy survived this crash after "blacking out" and how only the three children were trapped in the car that sunk to the bottom of the dam. Yet another indictment of "shared custody," especially with psycho nutcases. This is Daddy's second trial.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/ex-wife-cindy-gambino-breaks-down-at-robert-farquharson-trial/story-e6frg6nf-1225863688017
Ex-wife Cindy Gambino breaks down at Robert Farquharson trial
Lauren Wilson From: The Australian May 07, 2010 2:39PM
A MOTHER has given a jury a harrowing account of the last moments she spent with her three sons before her estranged husband drove them into a dam in what prosecutors allege was a deliberate act of murder.
Robert Farquharson's three young sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2 drowned after being trapped inside their father's Holden Commodore when it sank to the bottom of a dam on the outskirts of Geelong on Fathers' Day in 2005.
Mr Farquharson has pleaded not guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to the murders of his children, maintaining he had a coughing fit and blacked out at the wheel.
The boys' mother Cindy Gambino chocked back tears in the witness box today as she described saying goodbye to her sons' for the last time.
Ms Gambino told the court that she had driven the boys over to Mr Farquharson's house with a framed photograph and saucepans for him as a Fathers' Day gift.
She said that after spending ten minutes at her former husband's home she asked her boys if they wanted to have dinner with their father and arranged for him to drive them home.
"The biggest regret of my life is asking that question," she sobbed.
"Bailey's last words to me where "cuddle mum" and I cuddled him and I left and that was the last time I saw them alive."
Ms Gambino said Mr Farquharson had a "love/hate" relationship with his children and "resented me something badly" after the pair separated in 2004.
She told the court she never denied Mr Farquharson access to the children, but "the worst part about it was that he never really asked to have them than often, and the kids never asked if they could see dad."
The court heard that Mr Farquharson would often complain about child maintenance payments and his difficult financial position.
Breaking into tears, Ms Gambino said the payments were set to slightly increase before the deaths of the children, but "it ended up not being increased because the children died and he didn't have to pay maintenance anymore."
She described the conduct of Mr Farquharson the night of their children's death as being, "like he lost his pushbike".
The trial continues.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Dad accused of murdering 3 children 'said he would take kids from his ex-wife' (Victoria, Australia)
Dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON is on trial for the murders of his 3 sons. According to a witness, Dad had threatened before the murders that "he was going to take the kids from his ex-wife." Note that Dad made no effort to rescue these children from the freezing water after the car "accident." It was Mom's boyfriend who dived in in an attempt to find them.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/accused-killer-said-he-would-take-kids-20100512-ux8t.html
Accused killer 'said he would take kids'
DANIEL FOGARTY
May 12, 2010 - 6:54PM
AAP
A man accused of murdering his three sons by driving them into a dam on Fathers Day told a friend he was going take the kids from his ex-wife, a court has heard.
Robert Farquharson shrugged his shoulders when asked by friend Susan Hatty if that meant he was going to apply for custody.
Ms Hatty said Farquharson had been upset and talked about losing his car, his house, his wife and his kids, when they spoke on about four occasions between March and June 2005 at the local pub.
He had also mentioned he was paying child support, she told his murder trial in the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday.
"He mentioned to me that he was going to take the kids back off (his ex-wife) Cindy (Gambino)," Ms Hatty told the court.
The next time Ms Hatty spoke with Farquharson his three sons were dead.
On Father's Day 2005, Farquharson's car swerved across the Princes Highway, through a fence and into a dam near Winchelsea, in Victoria's southwest.
His sons Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two, drowned.
Farquharson, 40, is facing a retrial charged with their murders.
On the night the boys drowned, Ms Gambino's boyfriend Stephen Moules dived into the freezing cold dam in a futile attempt to rescue them.
He had told a hysterical Ms Gambino: "Don't worry, babe, I'll find your kids" the court has heard.
Mr Moules jumped a fence, took his boots and jacket off and jumped in the dam.
"I just tried to feel my way," he said.
"I could not see a thing. It was absolutely pitch black.
"The water was extremely cold ... I was extremely cold, very quickly."
The court heard Mr Moules, now engaged to Ms Gambino, spoke to Farquharson who was standing "as a boss would overseeing a project" near the dam.
When Mr Moules asked him why he didn't try and get the children out, Farquharson replied: "I don't know".
Farquharson also told Mr Moules: "I blacked out, I woke up and I was in the water and all of a sudden the car started to sink," the court has heard.
Less than two hours before the car went into the dam, Farquharson and his sons had happily shopped at Kmart in the Geelong suburb of Belmont.
Farquharson's sister Kerri Huntington, who works at the store, said she saw Farquharson and the three boys in the toy aisle at around 6pm.
She chatted to them briefly and made arrangements for them to catch up the next weekend.
She said Farquharson caved in to the demands of his children and bought them toys.
"They were happy," Ms Huntington recalled.
She said her brother was coughing and didn't look well.
Ms Huntington said she was aware he had been sick.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry is continuing.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/accused-killer-said-he-would-take-kids-20100512-ux8t.html
Accused killer 'said he would take kids'
DANIEL FOGARTY
May 12, 2010 - 6:54PM
AAP
A man accused of murdering his three sons by driving them into a dam on Fathers Day told a friend he was going take the kids from his ex-wife, a court has heard.
Robert Farquharson shrugged his shoulders when asked by friend Susan Hatty if that meant he was going to apply for custody.
Ms Hatty said Farquharson had been upset and talked about losing his car, his house, his wife and his kids, when they spoke on about four occasions between March and June 2005 at the local pub.
He had also mentioned he was paying child support, she told his murder trial in the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday.
"He mentioned to me that he was going to take the kids back off (his ex-wife) Cindy (Gambino)," Ms Hatty told the court.
The next time Ms Hatty spoke with Farquharson his three sons were dead.
On Father's Day 2005, Farquharson's car swerved across the Princes Highway, through a fence and into a dam near Winchelsea, in Victoria's southwest.
His sons Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two, drowned.
Farquharson, 40, is facing a retrial charged with their murders.
On the night the boys drowned, Ms Gambino's boyfriend Stephen Moules dived into the freezing cold dam in a futile attempt to rescue them.
He had told a hysterical Ms Gambino: "Don't worry, babe, I'll find your kids" the court has heard.
Mr Moules jumped a fence, took his boots and jacket off and jumped in the dam.
"I just tried to feel my way," he said.
"I could not see a thing. It was absolutely pitch black.
"The water was extremely cold ... I was extremely cold, very quickly."
The court heard Mr Moules, now engaged to Ms Gambino, spoke to Farquharson who was standing "as a boss would overseeing a project" near the dam.
When Mr Moules asked him why he didn't try and get the children out, Farquharson replied: "I don't know".
Farquharson also told Mr Moules: "I blacked out, I woke up and I was in the water and all of a sudden the car started to sink," the court has heard.
Less than two hours before the car went into the dam, Farquharson and his sons had happily shopped at Kmart in the Geelong suburb of Belmont.
Farquharson's sister Kerri Huntington, who works at the store, said she saw Farquharson and the three boys in the toy aisle at around 6pm.
She chatted to them briefly and made arrangements for them to catch up the next weekend.
She said Farquharson caved in to the demands of his children and bought them toys.
"They were happy," Ms Huntington recalled.
She said her brother was coughing and didn't look well.
Ms Huntington said she was aware he had been sick.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry is continuing.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Dad who drowned 3 sons gets to spend Xmas with family (Victoria, Australia)
Dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON is another one of those Exhibit A's for the failure of knee-jerk "shared parenting" schemes, the kind that pays no attention to the mental health or fitness of the parents involved. Seems Daddy wanted to "pay back" his wife for divorcing him, so he drowned their three sons. Naturally. Now Dad's getting a retrial, and is getting to spend Christmas with his family. How SWEET. He gets the egg nog and all the good cheer, while his three sons lay in a grave. Who says daddies are persecuted by the courts? Maybe the courts could stop by the house with cookies, too. Just to add to the holiday spirit, you know.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/farquharson-granted-200000-bail-after-drowning-murder-conviction-quashed/story-e6frg6nf-1225812476603
Farquharson granted $200,000 bail after drowning murder conviction quashed
Lauren Wilson From: The Australian December 21, 2009 2:35PM
A MAN facing retrial over the alleged drowning murder of his three sons on Fathers' Day in 2005 can spend Christmas with his family after being granted bail this afternoon.
Robert Farquharson had three life sentences without parole quashed last week, when the Victorian Court of Appeal determined a miscarriage of justice occurred during his murder trial.
In 2007, a jury found that Farquharson, 40, had deliberately driven his three sons - Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2 - into a dam on the outskirts of Geelong on Fathers' Day 2005 in an act of revenge against his former wife, Cindy Gambino.
Throughout the trial Farquharson maintained he had a coughing fit, blacked out at the wheel, and the car veered out of control into the dam.
Bail has been granted on the condition of a $200,000 surety.
On Thursday, Judges Marilyn Warren, Geoffrey Nettle and Robert Redlich ordered a retrial on the grounds that there were problems with the evidence of prosecution witness, Greg King, who said Farquharson, a long-time friend, had told him prior to the incident that he was, “going to pay (his wife) back big time.”
In evidence Mr King said Farquharson mentioned an, “Accident involving a dam where I survive and the kids don't.”
The Court of Appeal found that the Crown's failure to reveal to the jury that the witness was himself facing criminal charges deprived the defence the opportunity to challenge his testimony and amounted to a miscarriage of justice.
The judges also determined the jury had not been given proper instructions about considering the inconsistency in King's evidence.
“A difficulty for the crown was that King had, over time, given different versions of the kind of threats Farquharson made,” they wrote in their judgment.
“On one version, Farquharson was said to have told King that he would kill his children on Father's Day.
“On another version, Farquharson was said to have simply made general threats.”
He's expected to walk free from the Victorian Court of Appeal in the next hour.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/farquharson-granted-200000-bail-after-drowning-murder-conviction-quashed/story-e6frg6nf-1225812476603
Farquharson granted $200,000 bail after drowning murder conviction quashed
Lauren Wilson From: The Australian December 21, 2009 2:35PM
A MAN facing retrial over the alleged drowning murder of his three sons on Fathers' Day in 2005 can spend Christmas with his family after being granted bail this afternoon.
Robert Farquharson had three life sentences without parole quashed last week, when the Victorian Court of Appeal determined a miscarriage of justice occurred during his murder trial.
In 2007, a jury found that Farquharson, 40, had deliberately driven his three sons - Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2 - into a dam on the outskirts of Geelong on Fathers' Day 2005 in an act of revenge against his former wife, Cindy Gambino.
Throughout the trial Farquharson maintained he had a coughing fit, blacked out at the wheel, and the car veered out of control into the dam.
Bail has been granted on the condition of a $200,000 surety.
On Thursday, Judges Marilyn Warren, Geoffrey Nettle and Robert Redlich ordered a retrial on the grounds that there were problems with the evidence of prosecution witness, Greg King, who said Farquharson, a long-time friend, had told him prior to the incident that he was, “going to pay (his wife) back big time.”
In evidence Mr King said Farquharson mentioned an, “Accident involving a dam where I survive and the kids don't.”
The Court of Appeal found that the Crown's failure to reveal to the jury that the witness was himself facing criminal charges deprived the defence the opportunity to challenge his testimony and amounted to a miscarriage of justice.
The judges also determined the jury had not been given proper instructions about considering the inconsistency in King's evidence.
“A difficulty for the crown was that King had, over time, given different versions of the kind of threats Farquharson made,” they wrote in their judgment.
“On one version, Farquharson was said to have told King that he would kill his children on Father's Day.
“On another version, Farquharson was said to have simply made general threats.”
He's expected to walk free from the Victorian Court of Appeal in the next hour.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Dad found guilty of murdering 3 sons during visitation (Australia)
The case of dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON, who has just been convicted of murdering his 3 sons during visitation to "punish" his ex-wife, has dominated the Australian media for years now. This story has really highlighted why lock-step joint custody schemes do not work and how children are suffering and even being killed as a result.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/he-had-no-interest-in-saving-his-kids/story-e6frf7jo-1225895841983
He had no interest in saving his kids
Elissa Hunt From: Herald Sun July 23, 2010 12:00AM
HE said he loved his children more than life itself.
But the fact that Robert Farquharson wasn't willing to die saving them convinced a jury of his guilt.
The supposedly doting dad's decision to give evidence for the first time proved fatal to his case as he blundered his way through an account of why he was unable to rescue Jai, Tyler and Bailey on Father's Day 2005.
One might think that the last moments of his children's lives would be indelibly marked in a father's memory.
But Farquharson could recall little.
He was unable to say why he didn't free the trapped children from their seat belts or even turn on a light in the frightening pitch black of the dam just outside Winchelsea.
What he said was that maybe he'd made "an error".
As his three little boys were struggling with their last breaths under water in terrifying darkness, Farquharson was waving down a passing motorist. When driver Shane Atkinson was able to make enough sense of the man's explanation that he had accidentally driven into a dam, he immediately offered to jump in and search.
But Farquharson wasn't interested.
"He just kept on saying the same thing, that he had killed his kids and he wanted to tell Cindy (Gambino, the boys' mother) that he had killed his kids before he'd told anyone else," Mr Atkinson said.
Atkinson also offered his phone to call for help.
"If you'd just killed your kids, mate, you'd want to ring the ambulance or the police or someone," he told Farquharson. "But he just kept on saying ... time after time that he wanted to go back to Winch."
Mr Atkinson took him to Ms Gambino's house, where she opened her door to the devastating news that would change her life forever.
A search party returned to the dam. Ms Gambino made several hysterical calls to 000 and ran up and down near the water, screaming, "Please, God, not my babies, please don't take my babies."
Others including her new partner Steve Moules began diving into the freezing depths to look for the boys.
Farquharson wasn't among them. He stood on the sidelines, botting cigarettes and looking "like he'd lost his pushbike". "He stood ... with his arms folded, chest out and just stood there watching," Ms Gambino later recalled.
"There was no emotion, there was nothing, absolutely nothing on his face."
Hours later police informed Farquharson that his children had not survived.
Until then he hadn't asked about Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, or Bailey, 2, at all.
"I've never been in trouble before, so what's the likely scenario for me?" he asked.
He claimed he had blacked out while coughing, and woken with Jai telling him they were in water.
Farquharson claimed Jai tried to open a door and water came in so he closed it - but opened his own to get out, and suddenly the car sank. He said he dived down a few times but couldn't find the car.
Farquharson had remained mute at his first trial, but at his retrial prosecutors were finally able to grill him.
He was not a good witness.
He faltered under days of cross-examination by Andrew Tinney, SC, who summed up his failings as a witness in a stirring closing address.
On finding the car in the water, why did Farquharson turn off the ignition and headlights to leave them in total darkness? Why not turn on the internal light?
Why not undo the kids' seat belts so they could escape, knowing both rear doors could not be opened from the inside due to a child lock and a broken handle?
Instead Farquharson got himself out.
And when the car sank, rather than dive down over and over until he found them, he hailed a car and went to Winchelsea.
"In the real world not even the most selfish cowardly father around would do such a thing ... no matter what state of trauma the person was in," Mr Tinney said.
"In the real world no loving father would dream of departing from the car without securing the safety of his children first or going at least close to dying in the process."
While others were immediately suspicious of Farquharson's story, Ms Gambino was not among them.
"I believe with all my heart that this was just an accident and that he would not have hurt a hair on their heads," Ms Gambino told police after the accident.
As she struggled with her incredible grief in the weeks that followed, Farquharson would ring to complain.
He wasn't well.
The police wanted to "twist things around".
He had to deal with his grief all alone.
"I do defend you and I do believe in you," Ms Gambino continued to reassure him.
Ms Gambino had married him in 2000 because "it was the right thing to do".
By then they already had Jai, Tyler and a mortgage.
"I cared about him, but I wasn't in love with him," she later admitted.
Her yearning for another baby and Farquharson's strong opposition to the plan fractured an already faltering relationship.
Bailey was born in late 2002 but within two years the marriage was over.
They argued mostly about the kids in the first few months of their separation, and Farquharson refused to take Bailey overnight because he couldn't cope with a baby.
He paid maintenance, took care of the kids' sporting commitments and let Ms Gambino keep the better of their two cars.
But it wasn't without complaint. "Robbie was always down," former friend Greg King said. "He would have a laugh but he always had something to bitch about."
Ms Gambino agrees. "He was very down and out, very, 'Woe is me'," she told the jury.
"He always looked at his glass half empty."
And in the months before September 2005, there were plenty of things for Farquharson to gripe about.
He wasn't happy about Mr Moules spending so much time with the boys.
Child support payments were set to increase. Unable to afford his own place, he was stuck living with his father and in a financial rut.
And his 1989 Commodore was constantly in need of work: he had "the s--- car" while Ms Gambino and her new boyfriend rode around in a newer model.
"Nobody does that to me and gets away with it," Farquharson allegedly told Mr King outside the local fish and chip shop one day. "She wanted the best of everything, we couldn't afford it. Now it looks like she wants to marry that f------ d---head."
"There's no way I'm going to let him and her and the kids live in my f------ house again and I have to pay for it.
"I'm going to pay her back big time."
Mr King asked, "How is that, Robbie?" Farquharson replied, "I'll take away the most important thing that means to her," nodding towards where his children were standing.
"I said, 'What? The kids?' He said, 'Yeah'."
Farquharson denies ever uttering what Mr King claims he said next: that he would kill the boys.
"An accident by the dam and I survive and the kids don't," Farquharson said.
In the years afterwards, Ms Gambino suffered in her belief that an innocent man had been sentenced to life in prison for the most heinous crime imaginable.
It was not until the Court of Appeal overturned his convictions that Ms Gambino got what she calls "the missing piece of the puzzle".
That was motorist Dawn Waite, who had seen Farquharson driving moments before he veered off the road - completely conscious and not coughing.
Ms Gambino told the jury this time that she wanted him convicted of murder.
"I hate him for what he's done to my life," she said.
This time, as another 12 citizens found Farquharson guilty of her sons' murders, it was a different Cindy Gambino who listened serenely as the jury announced its verdict.
She shed no tears, but simply nodded her thanks.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/he-had-no-interest-in-saving-his-kids/story-e6frf7jo-1225895841983
He had no interest in saving his kids
Elissa Hunt From: Herald Sun July 23, 2010 12:00AM
HE said he loved his children more than life itself.
But the fact that Robert Farquharson wasn't willing to die saving them convinced a jury of his guilt.
The supposedly doting dad's decision to give evidence for the first time proved fatal to his case as he blundered his way through an account of why he was unable to rescue Jai, Tyler and Bailey on Father's Day 2005.
One might think that the last moments of his children's lives would be indelibly marked in a father's memory.
But Farquharson could recall little.
He was unable to say why he didn't free the trapped children from their seat belts or even turn on a light in the frightening pitch black of the dam just outside Winchelsea.
What he said was that maybe he'd made "an error".
As his three little boys were struggling with their last breaths under water in terrifying darkness, Farquharson was waving down a passing motorist. When driver Shane Atkinson was able to make enough sense of the man's explanation that he had accidentally driven into a dam, he immediately offered to jump in and search.
But Farquharson wasn't interested.
"He just kept on saying the same thing, that he had killed his kids and he wanted to tell Cindy (Gambino, the boys' mother) that he had killed his kids before he'd told anyone else," Mr Atkinson said.
Atkinson also offered his phone to call for help.
"If you'd just killed your kids, mate, you'd want to ring the ambulance or the police or someone," he told Farquharson. "But he just kept on saying ... time after time that he wanted to go back to Winch."
Mr Atkinson took him to Ms Gambino's house, where she opened her door to the devastating news that would change her life forever.
A search party returned to the dam. Ms Gambino made several hysterical calls to 000 and ran up and down near the water, screaming, "Please, God, not my babies, please don't take my babies."
Others including her new partner Steve Moules began diving into the freezing depths to look for the boys.
Farquharson wasn't among them. He stood on the sidelines, botting cigarettes and looking "like he'd lost his pushbike". "He stood ... with his arms folded, chest out and just stood there watching," Ms Gambino later recalled.
"There was no emotion, there was nothing, absolutely nothing on his face."
Hours later police informed Farquharson that his children had not survived.
Until then he hadn't asked about Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, or Bailey, 2, at all.
"I've never been in trouble before, so what's the likely scenario for me?" he asked.
He claimed he had blacked out while coughing, and woken with Jai telling him they were in water.
Farquharson claimed Jai tried to open a door and water came in so he closed it - but opened his own to get out, and suddenly the car sank. He said he dived down a few times but couldn't find the car.
Farquharson had remained mute at his first trial, but at his retrial prosecutors were finally able to grill him.
He was not a good witness.
He faltered under days of cross-examination by Andrew Tinney, SC, who summed up his failings as a witness in a stirring closing address.
On finding the car in the water, why did Farquharson turn off the ignition and headlights to leave them in total darkness? Why not turn on the internal light?
Why not undo the kids' seat belts so they could escape, knowing both rear doors could not be opened from the inside due to a child lock and a broken handle?
Instead Farquharson got himself out.
And when the car sank, rather than dive down over and over until he found them, he hailed a car and went to Winchelsea.
"In the real world not even the most selfish cowardly father around would do such a thing ... no matter what state of trauma the person was in," Mr Tinney said.
"In the real world no loving father would dream of departing from the car without securing the safety of his children first or going at least close to dying in the process."
While others were immediately suspicious of Farquharson's story, Ms Gambino was not among them.
"I believe with all my heart that this was just an accident and that he would not have hurt a hair on their heads," Ms Gambino told police after the accident.
As she struggled with her incredible grief in the weeks that followed, Farquharson would ring to complain.
He wasn't well.
The police wanted to "twist things around".
He had to deal with his grief all alone.
"I do defend you and I do believe in you," Ms Gambino continued to reassure him.
Ms Gambino had married him in 2000 because "it was the right thing to do".
By then they already had Jai, Tyler and a mortgage.
"I cared about him, but I wasn't in love with him," she later admitted.
Her yearning for another baby and Farquharson's strong opposition to the plan fractured an already faltering relationship.
Bailey was born in late 2002 but within two years the marriage was over.
They argued mostly about the kids in the first few months of their separation, and Farquharson refused to take Bailey overnight because he couldn't cope with a baby.
He paid maintenance, took care of the kids' sporting commitments and let Ms Gambino keep the better of their two cars.
But it wasn't without complaint. "Robbie was always down," former friend Greg King said. "He would have a laugh but he always had something to bitch about."
Ms Gambino agrees. "He was very down and out, very, 'Woe is me'," she told the jury.
"He always looked at his glass half empty."
And in the months before September 2005, there were plenty of things for Farquharson to gripe about.
He wasn't happy about Mr Moules spending so much time with the boys.
Child support payments were set to increase. Unable to afford his own place, he was stuck living with his father and in a financial rut.
And his 1989 Commodore was constantly in need of work: he had "the s--- car" while Ms Gambino and her new boyfriend rode around in a newer model.
"Nobody does that to me and gets away with it," Farquharson allegedly told Mr King outside the local fish and chip shop one day. "She wanted the best of everything, we couldn't afford it. Now it looks like she wants to marry that f------ d---head."
"There's no way I'm going to let him and her and the kids live in my f------ house again and I have to pay for it.
"I'm going to pay her back big time."
Mr King asked, "How is that, Robbie?" Farquharson replied, "I'll take away the most important thing that means to her," nodding towards where his children were standing.
"I said, 'What? The kids?' He said, 'Yeah'."
Farquharson denies ever uttering what Mr King claims he said next: that he would kill the boys.
"An accident by the dam and I survive and the kids don't," Farquharson said.
In the years afterwards, Ms Gambino suffered in her belief that an innocent man had been sentenced to life in prison for the most heinous crime imaginable.
It was not until the Court of Appeal overturned his convictions that Ms Gambino got what she calls "the missing piece of the puzzle".
That was motorist Dawn Waite, who had seen Farquharson driving moments before he veered off the road - completely conscious and not coughing.
Ms Gambino told the jury this time that she wanted him convicted of murder.
"I hate him for what he's done to my life," she said.
This time, as another 12 citizens found Farquharson guilty of her sons' murders, it was a different Cindy Gambino who listened serenely as the jury announced its verdict.
She shed no tears, but simply nodded her thanks.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Cop tells court that Dad's car was not out of control when children drowned (Geelong, Victoria, Australia)
We've posted on dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON many times before. He is currently on trial for murdering his children during visitation.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2010/05/25/176441_news.html
ROBERT FARQUHARSON RETRIAL: Cop tells court car was not out of control
Aleks Devic
May 25th, 2010
THE car being driven by accused child murderer Robert Farquharson was not out of control when it veered off the highway and into a Winchelsea dam, a court heard.
The Supreme Court was told yesterday the car clipped a tree before plunging 7m into a dam on Father's Day 2005.
The jury was also played a video of a submergence test, which showed a car, similar to Mr Farquharson's Holden sedan, nose-dive and fill with water almost immediately after the driver's side door was opened for only seconds.
Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, died after their father escaped a sinking car while they remained trapped inside.
Mr Farquharson, 41, has pleaded not guilty to his sons' murders arguing the car drove off the Princes Highway after he suffered a coughing fit that caused him to black out.
Sergeant Rohan Courtis told the court yesterday he walked along the Princes Highway and also took a path off the road searching for any tyre marks.
He also said there was no evidence the car had collided with a railing on the road.
"If there were any marks on that road it would have been pretty clear to see, but I could not see any marks on that road of any loss of control or any skidding," Sgt Courtis said.
"I was looking for black marks or scrape marks."
Sgt Courtis said he questioned Mr Farquharson in Geelong Hospital about two hours after the September 4 incident and did not hear the accused's voice quiver when he was speaking about how he tried to save his boys.
"He was co-operative, he wasn't distressed, he wasn't crying," he said.
"He was very matter-of-fact in what he was saying to me. It was like me having a conversation with you now."
Another policeman, Sergeant Brendon Boseley, who was also at the hospital, said Mr Farquharson asked him several times what would happen to him.
"He lifted his feet up and he thumped them on the rear of the trolley a number of times," Sgt Boseley said.
"I took that as he was distraught in relation to why he was there and also what was going to happen to him."
Police diver, Sergeant Rebecca Cassidy, said the car was pulled from the dam with the three boys inside.
She said the driver's side door was open when she reached the car.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry continues.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2010/05/25/176441_news.html
ROBERT FARQUHARSON RETRIAL: Cop tells court car was not out of control
Aleks Devic
May 25th, 2010
THE car being driven by accused child murderer Robert Farquharson was not out of control when it veered off the highway and into a Winchelsea dam, a court heard.
The Supreme Court was told yesterday the car clipped a tree before plunging 7m into a dam on Father's Day 2005.
The jury was also played a video of a submergence test, which showed a car, similar to Mr Farquharson's Holden sedan, nose-dive and fill with water almost immediately after the driver's side door was opened for only seconds.
Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, died after their father escaped a sinking car while they remained trapped inside.
Mr Farquharson, 41, has pleaded not guilty to his sons' murders arguing the car drove off the Princes Highway after he suffered a coughing fit that caused him to black out.
Sergeant Rohan Courtis told the court yesterday he walked along the Princes Highway and also took a path off the road searching for any tyre marks.
He also said there was no evidence the car had collided with a railing on the road.
"If there were any marks on that road it would have been pretty clear to see, but I could not see any marks on that road of any loss of control or any skidding," Sgt Courtis said.
"I was looking for black marks or scrape marks."
Sgt Courtis said he questioned Mr Farquharson in Geelong Hospital about two hours after the September 4 incident and did not hear the accused's voice quiver when he was speaking about how he tried to save his boys.
"He was co-operative, he wasn't distressed, he wasn't crying," he said.
"He was very matter-of-fact in what he was saying to me. It was like me having a conversation with you now."
Another policeman, Sergeant Brendon Boseley, who was also at the hospital, said Mr Farquharson asked him several times what would happen to him.
"He lifted his feet up and he thumped them on the rear of the trolley a number of times," Sgt Boseley said.
"I took that as he was distraught in relation to why he was there and also what was going to happen to him."
Police diver, Sergeant Rebecca Cassidy, said the car was pulled from the dam with the three boys inside.
She said the driver's side door was open when she reached the car.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry continues.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Killer dad prolongs pain with endless appeals (Winchelsea, Australia)
Dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON has appeared at Dastardly Dads many times over the years. He was CONVICTED back in 2009 of murdering his three sons, basically to "punish" their mother and to assert his "control" in a custody issue.
It's unbelievable that this sh** still manages to dodge justice....
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/killer-father-prolongs-pain/story-e6frfhqo-1226556122506
Editorial
Killer father prolongs pain
by: Editorial From: Herald Sun January 18, 2013 12:00AM
THE emotion-charged case of triple child-killer Robert Farquharson is set to arouse yet more controversy with lawyers for the convicted murderer planning a High Court appeal bid.
The Winchelsea father is seeking to exhaust every avenue to dodge the minimum 33-year jail term imposed for driving his car into an icy dam, drowning his three young sons.
Farquharson's barrister Peter Morrissey SC plans to argue that the judge in the murder trial erred by not putting to the jury the alternative charge of manslaughter.
If the High Court allows the appeal, it will further drag out what has already been a seven-year legal saga. Farquharson was jailed for life without parole in 2009 but won a retrial on his first appeal. A jury found him guilty again in 2010, and he was sentenced to life with a minimum 33 years' jail.
He queried that conviction, too - but in a ruling issued last month, three Victorian Court of Appeal judges unanimously dismissed all three grounds his legal team relied on in the battle to regain Farquharson's freedom.
Throughout it all, Farquharson has maintained the Father's Day crash was an accident, caused after he blacked out from a coughing fit while driving the boys back home to their mother. It goes without saying that all Victorians are entitled to a fair trial, and to appeal a guilty verdict - even those charged with a crime as heinous as the murder of their three children.
By any measure, the justice system has given Farquharson his fair go. His ex-wife and mother of the three boys, Cindy Gambino, has been forced to endure years of extra torment.
It is in the interests of the victims' family - and also taxpayers - to end this legal marathon. Two juries made up of ordinary Victorians have already found him guilty of murder. And just weeks ago the Court of Appeal has found that verdict should stand.
Attempts to win a new trial on a legal technicality will simply prolong the agony for all involved. Farquharson needs to accept the sentence dealt to him, and let all those affected by this tragedy get on with their lives.
It's unbelievable that this sh** still manages to dodge justice....
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/killer-father-prolongs-pain/story-e6frfhqo-1226556122506
Editorial
Killer father prolongs pain
by: Editorial From: Herald Sun January 18, 2013 12:00AM
THE emotion-charged case of triple child-killer Robert Farquharson is set to arouse yet more controversy with lawyers for the convicted murderer planning a High Court appeal bid.
The Winchelsea father is seeking to exhaust every avenue to dodge the minimum 33-year jail term imposed for driving his car into an icy dam, drowning his three young sons.
Farquharson's barrister Peter Morrissey SC plans to argue that the judge in the murder trial erred by not putting to the jury the alternative charge of manslaughter.
If the High Court allows the appeal, it will further drag out what has already been a seven-year legal saga. Farquharson was jailed for life without parole in 2009 but won a retrial on his first appeal. A jury found him guilty again in 2010, and he was sentenced to life with a minimum 33 years' jail.
He queried that conviction, too - but in a ruling issued last month, three Victorian Court of Appeal judges unanimously dismissed all three grounds his legal team relied on in the battle to regain Farquharson's freedom.
Throughout it all, Farquharson has maintained the Father's Day crash was an accident, caused after he blacked out from a coughing fit while driving the boys back home to their mother. It goes without saying that all Victorians are entitled to a fair trial, and to appeal a guilty verdict - even those charged with a crime as heinous as the murder of their three children.
By any measure, the justice system has given Farquharson his fair go. His ex-wife and mother of the three boys, Cindy Gambino, has been forced to endure years of extra torment.
It is in the interests of the victims' family - and also taxpayers - to end this legal marathon. Two juries made up of ordinary Victorians have already found him guilty of murder. And just weeks ago the Court of Appeal has found that verdict should stand.
Attempts to win a new trial on a legal technicality will simply prolong the agony for all involved. Farquharson needs to accept the sentence dealt to him, and let all those affected by this tragedy get on with their lives.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Dad convicted of murdering three sons during visitation loses appeal (Victoria, Austalia)
We've posted on killer dad ROBERT FARQUHARSON numerous times. Looks like he's staying in prison.
This is another case where the father murdered the children during court-ordered visitation.
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2012/12/07/Child_murderer_Farquharson_loses_appeal_824045.html
Child murderer Farquharson loses appeal
Friday, December 07, 2012 » 10:39am
A Victorian father who killed his three sons to get revenge against his ex-wife has lost his appeal.
A Victorian father who murdered his three sons by driving them into a dam to get revenge against his ex-wife has lost an appeal against his conviction.
43-year-old Robert Farquharson was jailed for life in 2010 after a Victorian Supreme Court jury found him guilty of murdering 10-year-old Jai, seven-year-old Tyler and two-year-old Bailey in September 2005 to get back at his ex-wife Cindy Gambino.
He appealed his conviction in May arguing that a jury should have had the option of convicting him of manslaughter.
But the Court of Appeal dismissed his application today.
Farquharson's lawyers had argued that evidence from a key witness, his friend Greg King, should not have been relied upon because it was inconsistent.
They said the prosecution should have put the theory of killing the boys through negligence, rather than intentionally, as an option for jurors to consider, claiming Farquharson had a respiratory condition that made him a risk on the road.
His appeal was dismissed after the court found it was open to the jury, on the whole of the evidence, to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of Farquharson's guilt.
They said the defence had not suggested at any stage during Farquharson's two trials that the jury should be directed to consider the alternative charge of manslaughter.
Members of the public sitting in the body of the court sobbed as the appeal was dismissed.
The children's mother, Cindy Gambino cried, 'It's done! It's dismissed!' before breaking down in tears.
Farquharson has twice been convicted of murdering his sons.
He was sentenced to life without parole after being convicted of the murders in 2007 but won an appeal and was granted a retrial.
After a second trial in 2010 he was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 33 years.
This is another case where the father murdered the children during court-ordered visitation.
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2012/12/07/Child_murderer_Farquharson_loses_appeal_824045.html
Child murderer Farquharson loses appeal
Friday, December 07, 2012 » 10:39am
A Victorian father who killed his three sons to get revenge against his ex-wife has lost his appeal.
A Victorian father who murdered his three sons by driving them into a dam to get revenge against his ex-wife has lost an appeal against his conviction.
43-year-old Robert Farquharson was jailed for life in 2010 after a Victorian Supreme Court jury found him guilty of murdering 10-year-old Jai, seven-year-old Tyler and two-year-old Bailey in September 2005 to get back at his ex-wife Cindy Gambino.
He appealed his conviction in May arguing that a jury should have had the option of convicting him of manslaughter.
But the Court of Appeal dismissed his application today.
Farquharson's lawyers had argued that evidence from a key witness, his friend Greg King, should not have been relied upon because it was inconsistent.
They said the prosecution should have put the theory of killing the boys through negligence, rather than intentionally, as an option for jurors to consider, claiming Farquharson had a respiratory condition that made him a risk on the road.
His appeal was dismissed after the court found it was open to the jury, on the whole of the evidence, to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of Farquharson's guilt.
They said the defence had not suggested at any stage during Farquharson's two trials that the jury should be directed to consider the alternative charge of manslaughter.
Members of the public sitting in the body of the court sobbed as the appeal was dismissed.
The children's mother, Cindy Gambino cried, 'It's done! It's dismissed!' before breaking down in tears.
Farquharson has twice been convicted of murdering his sons.
He was sentenced to life without parole after being convicted of the murders in 2007 but won an appeal and was granted a retrial.
After a second trial in 2010 he was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 33 years.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Fathers who kill the kids to punish the mother (Australia)
What all these cases have in common is that they were fathers who murdered their kids to punish the mother for leaving them. In every case, the father was able to kill the victims because he had access to them.
http://www.news.com.au/national/australian-fathers-who-murder-their-sons-and-daughters/story-fncynjr2-1226826739242
Australian fathers who murder their sons and daughters
This story was published: 3 days ago February 14, 2014 4:48PM
IT IS impossible to understand how Luke Batty’s father Greg could brutally murder his own son at cricket training.
He was just 11 years old and “the only bright light” in his dad’s life, according to Luke’s mum Rosie Batty.
“No one loved Luke more than his father. No one loved Luke more than me — we both loved him,” Rosie said yesterday.
Luke, a grade 6 student at Flinders Christian Community College in Tyabb, was killed during cricket practice about 6.30pm on Wednesday at the Bunguyan Reserve on Frankston-Flinders Rd.
The attack happened in front of shocked witnesses, including many children and friends of the young boy. His mother was also present.
Luke’s dad died after he was shot in the chest by police following his heinous crime.
He now joins a small number of troubled Australian men who have committed the unthinkable act of killing their own children.
ARTHUR FREEMAN
Today, little Darcey Freeman should be sitting in a small seat in a Victorian classroom. She would be in the later years of primary school, mastering her times tables.
That’s how it should have been. But she never made it to her first day of school on January 29, 2009.
At about 9am, her father Arthur Freeman pulled his Toyota Land Cruiser over into the extreme left hand lane of the Westgate Bridge, Melbourne’s tallest.
Near the highest point, he alighted from the car and pulled Darcey, 4, from the front passenger seat.
In front of his sons Ben, 6, and Jack, 2, he dangled Darcey, who was just days off turning 5, over the railing.
Then, to the horror of motorists, he dropped her. She fell 58m over the edge and, according to young Ben, did not scream.
Apparently emotionless, he drove off.
One of his surviving children, Ben, would then clamber into the front seat. He knew what he saw, even if he did not understand the gravity of it.
“I said ‘go back and get her. Darcey can’t swim’,” the child told police, later, in an interview. But Freeman kept driving. “He didn’t go back and get her,” the child said.
As the enormity of his actions set in, a trembling and crying Freeman then handed himself over to police at the Commonwealth Law Courts building.
Later, the Supreme Court concluded Freeman’s only motive could have been to hurt his former wife, Peta Barnes. Read the judge’s sentencing remarks.
Before his murder, Freeman rang his ex-wife, who was waiting at the school to witness her daughter’s milestone. “Say goodbye to your children,” he said. “You will never see them again.”
The earliest date he will be eligible to be released will be January 29, 2041. He will be 67 years old.
ROBERT FARQUHARSON
The children had presents for Robert Farquharson on the fateful 2005 day. Saucepans, as well as a framed photo of the three boys.
It was Father’s Day and it had been a big afternoon for Farquharson, a window cleaner, and his three boys, Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2.
According to a detailed account in The Australian Book of Family Murders, they had visited Geelong, 35 minutes away from their home in Winchelsea, where he had purchased presents for the boys. They dropped in on their aunt and ate KFC for dinner before they headed home.
Farquharson has always claimed he does not remember what happened next, except that he had a coughing fit and blacked out.
But courts have convicted him twice, in 2007 and 2010, for murdering his children that evening. He steered his car off the Princes Highway into a dark, deep dam.
All of his children drowned. He survived.
The smoking gun in the Farquharson case was a witness who said he told him he resented his ex-wife and had said he wanted to take the most important thing away from her — the children.
“You wiped out your entire family in one act,” ruled Justice Philip Cummins in the first trial.
“Only the two parents remained: you, because you had always intended to save yourself, and their mother, because you intended her to live a life of suffering.”
Farquharson has also lost a High Court appeal bid. He is serving a minimum sentence of 33 years behind bars.
RAYMOND LANGFIELD
Patrick Langfield, 13, was a beautiful boy. The nicest kid, “the best you could ask for”, his family and friends said. A school captain and athlete. Gifted and popular. Everyone held him in high esteem, reports said. He was very close to his parents.
The Catholic college student was shot dead by his dad, Raymond Langfield, in April 2012. The Wagga Wagga man and former rugby league player then killed himself.
Before the deaths, Langfield shot a video of his children sleeping and spoke of his love for them in past tense.
The family did not witness the deaths and the reasons why the tragedy occurred remain unknown, with a coronial inquest inconclusive.
The murder-suicide was “incomprehensible”, the coroner Megan Greenwood said.
“In particular, it is difficult to understand why Patrick died,” she said. “There is no evidence that enables me to shed any light on this question.”
Ms Greenwood said the father had been left devastated by the breakdown of his marriage with wife Debbie.
Langfield was medicated for anxiety and depression at the time.
PETER SHOOBRIDGE
Dubbed the “Tasmanian Devil”, Peter Shoobridge, 52, lived a quiet life on a property near Southernfield, Tasmania. He became a mass murderer when he slit the throats of his four daughters.
In the early hours of the morning on June 26, 1997, the antique restorer and poet snuck into the rooms of his daughters - aged 9, 12, 14 and 18 - and cut their throats.
After the murders, he drove to the nearby town of Cambridge and mailed letters explaining his actions to relatives, claiming he didn’t want his offspring living in this “troubled world”. After that, he returned home, called authorities alerting them to a murder suicide, then drove to his restoration workshop where he chopped his right hand off with an axe, then shot himself in the head with a .22 calibre rifle.
He had no history of mental illness.
“He was a hard working bloke, who didn’t smoke or drink, and he lived by himself. This is just unreal,” said neighbour Kevin Nykiel at the time.
Police believe Shoobridge’s recent separation from his Wendy - who retained custody of their daughters - was the reason for the mass murder.
http://www.news.com.au/national/australian-fathers-who-murder-their-sons-and-daughters/story-fncynjr2-1226826739242
Australian fathers who murder their sons and daughters
This story was published: 3 days ago February 14, 2014 4:48PM
IT IS impossible to understand how Luke Batty’s father Greg could brutally murder his own son at cricket training.
He was just 11 years old and “the only bright light” in his dad’s life, according to Luke’s mum Rosie Batty.
“No one loved Luke more than his father. No one loved Luke more than me — we both loved him,” Rosie said yesterday.
Luke, a grade 6 student at Flinders Christian Community College in Tyabb, was killed during cricket practice about 6.30pm on Wednesday at the Bunguyan Reserve on Frankston-Flinders Rd.
The attack happened in front of shocked witnesses, including many children and friends of the young boy. His mother was also present.
Luke’s dad died after he was shot in the chest by police following his heinous crime.
He now joins a small number of troubled Australian men who have committed the unthinkable act of killing their own children.
ARTHUR FREEMAN
Today, little Darcey Freeman should be sitting in a small seat in a Victorian classroom. She would be in the later years of primary school, mastering her times tables.
That’s how it should have been. But she never made it to her first day of school on January 29, 2009.
At about 9am, her father Arthur Freeman pulled his Toyota Land Cruiser over into the extreme left hand lane of the Westgate Bridge, Melbourne’s tallest.
Near the highest point, he alighted from the car and pulled Darcey, 4, from the front passenger seat.
In front of his sons Ben, 6, and Jack, 2, he dangled Darcey, who was just days off turning 5, over the railing.
Then, to the horror of motorists, he dropped her. She fell 58m over the edge and, according to young Ben, did not scream.
Apparently emotionless, he drove off.
One of his surviving children, Ben, would then clamber into the front seat. He knew what he saw, even if he did not understand the gravity of it.
“I said ‘go back and get her. Darcey can’t swim’,” the child told police, later, in an interview. But Freeman kept driving. “He didn’t go back and get her,” the child said.
As the enormity of his actions set in, a trembling and crying Freeman then handed himself over to police at the Commonwealth Law Courts building.
Later, the Supreme Court concluded Freeman’s only motive could have been to hurt his former wife, Peta Barnes. Read the judge’s sentencing remarks.
Before his murder, Freeman rang his ex-wife, who was waiting at the school to witness her daughter’s milestone. “Say goodbye to your children,” he said. “You will never see them again.”
The earliest date he will be eligible to be released will be January 29, 2041. He will be 67 years old.
ROBERT FARQUHARSON
The children had presents for Robert Farquharson on the fateful 2005 day. Saucepans, as well as a framed photo of the three boys.
It was Father’s Day and it had been a big afternoon for Farquharson, a window cleaner, and his three boys, Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2.
According to a detailed account in The Australian Book of Family Murders, they had visited Geelong, 35 minutes away from their home in Winchelsea, where he had purchased presents for the boys. They dropped in on their aunt and ate KFC for dinner before they headed home.
Farquharson has always claimed he does not remember what happened next, except that he had a coughing fit and blacked out.
But courts have convicted him twice, in 2007 and 2010, for murdering his children that evening. He steered his car off the Princes Highway into a dark, deep dam.
All of his children drowned. He survived.
The smoking gun in the Farquharson case was a witness who said he told him he resented his ex-wife and had said he wanted to take the most important thing away from her — the children.
“You wiped out your entire family in one act,” ruled Justice Philip Cummins in the first trial.
“Only the two parents remained: you, because you had always intended to save yourself, and their mother, because you intended her to live a life of suffering.”
Farquharson has also lost a High Court appeal bid. He is serving a minimum sentence of 33 years behind bars.
RAYMOND LANGFIELD
Patrick Langfield, 13, was a beautiful boy. The nicest kid, “the best you could ask for”, his family and friends said. A school captain and athlete. Gifted and popular. Everyone held him in high esteem, reports said. He was very close to his parents.
The Catholic college student was shot dead by his dad, Raymond Langfield, in April 2012. The Wagga Wagga man and former rugby league player then killed himself.
Before the deaths, Langfield shot a video of his children sleeping and spoke of his love for them in past tense.
The family did not witness the deaths and the reasons why the tragedy occurred remain unknown, with a coronial inquest inconclusive.
The murder-suicide was “incomprehensible”, the coroner Megan Greenwood said.
“In particular, it is difficult to understand why Patrick died,” she said. “There is no evidence that enables me to shed any light on this question.”
Ms Greenwood said the father had been left devastated by the breakdown of his marriage with wife Debbie.
Langfield was medicated for anxiety and depression at the time.
PETER SHOOBRIDGE
Dubbed the “Tasmanian Devil”, Peter Shoobridge, 52, lived a quiet life on a property near Southernfield, Tasmania. He became a mass murderer when he slit the throats of his four daughters.
In the early hours of the morning on June 26, 1997, the antique restorer and poet snuck into the rooms of his daughters - aged 9, 12, 14 and 18 - and cut their throats.
After the murders, he drove to the nearby town of Cambridge and mailed letters explaining his actions to relatives, claiming he didn’t want his offspring living in this “troubled world”. After that, he returned home, called authorities alerting them to a murder suicide, then drove to his restoration workshop where he chopped his right hand off with an axe, then shot himself in the head with a .22 calibre rifle.
He had no history of mental illness.
“He was a hard working bloke, who didn’t smoke or drink, and he lived by himself. This is just unreal,” said neighbour Kevin Nykiel at the time.
Police believe Shoobridge’s recent separation from his Wendy - who retained custody of their daughters - was the reason for the mass murder.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Why Fathers Kill (Sydney, Australia)
Carolyn Johnson is spot on. Daddies don't murder the kids because they "snap" or because they are overcome with grief and missing the kids or because an unfair court system has "deprived" them of their children. They kill the kids to punish the mom for leaving them. It's control and abuse.
In fact, in all the cases that Johnson has studied, the FATHER HAD CUSTODY/VISITATION. He simply used his custody and visitation time to obtain access to his victims, so as to commit their crimes.
We need to start listening to the mothers when they say Dad is threatening violence or has been violent in the past. And stop giving killers access to their victims.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/5018307/Why-fathers-kill
Why fathers kill
ADELE HORIN
Last updated 07:55 18/05/2011
Custody issues are not the main reason estranged fathers kill their children.
They kill to punish their wives for leaving them.
That is the conclusion of Australia's foremost expert on murder-suicide, Carolyn Johnson of Curtin University in Australia.
"Of the cases I studied, all the men had access to their kids and they used the access time to murder them," said Johnson, whose book Come with Daddy, explored murder-suicides after marital separation.
A police hunt for five-year-old Kyla Rogers ended on Monday night near Casino with the discovery of her body in a car beside that of her father, Paul, a New Zealander.
Earlier, the bodies of his former partner, Tania Simpson, and a "family friend", Anthony Way, also a New Zealander, were found in a flat on the Gold Coast.
Johnson said the kind of men who kill in these situations are those with a proprietorial attitude towards women and children.
They will not relinquish control, they are used to calling the shots in the family, and are often pathologically jealous. When they finally realise their wives are not coming back, they turn lethal.
"Homicide-suicide is their final act of control," she said. "Very often they let their wives survive to experience the extreme pain of losing their children."
Several recent high-profile cases in Australia have thrown the spotlight on estranged fathers who have resorted to murder.
Last month, Arthur Freeman was jailed for 30 years for throwing his daughter Darcey, 4, to her death off the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne.
The judge concluded he had used his daughter in an attempt to hurt his former wife "as profoundly as possible".
Freeman lodged an appeal against the sentence last week.
And last year another estranged father, Robert Farquharson, was jailed for a minimum of 33 years for deliberately driving his car into a dam and drowning his three sons near Geelong.
The judge said Farquharson had resented that his estranged wife had started a new relationship.
He has lodged an appeal.
Lesley Laing, a leading expert on family violence from Sydney University, said a history of controlling and violent behaviour was behind most cases of family homicide but too many people ignored or dismissed women's fears.
"The community reaction often is 'what more can we do to make this man or these men feel better' by changing family law or providing more services," she said. Instead the focus should be on the safety of women and children.
Laing recently completed research on the family law system's response to victims of domestic violence. She also chaired a committee which has led the NSW government to establish a domestic violence death review panel. She said the way to prevent more deaths of women and children was to find better ways to protect them.
At Men's Line, Australia's counselling service for men, 40 per cent of the callers are going through separation, and some are so angry they express a desire to hurt others or themselves.
"It's a very challenging situation for counsellors," the programme leader, Randal Newton-John, said.
He said many men relied entirely on their wives for emotional support and when the relationship broke down they had nobody to turn to.
He said it was essential that men going through separation sought help early for any emotional difficulties.
For Ingrid Poulson, the death of her two children and her father at the hands of her estranged husband in 2003 was beyond her worst nightmare.
Her husband, Phithak "Neung" Kongsom, had been violent, controlling and she had taken out an apprehended violence order, but she did not think he would ever kill the children.
Yesterday she said women had to be "hyper-alert" to signs that men were putting the children's welfare at risk.
The Australian organisation Dads in Distress receives about 5000 calls a year to its helpline, mostly from men having problems with Australia's Child Support Agency, restricted access to their children or apprehended violence orders taken out by former partners.
- Sydney Morning Herald
In fact, in all the cases that Johnson has studied, the FATHER HAD CUSTODY/VISITATION. He simply used his custody and visitation time to obtain access to his victims, so as to commit their crimes.
We need to start listening to the mothers when they say Dad is threatening violence or has been violent in the past. And stop giving killers access to their victims.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/5018307/Why-fathers-kill
Why fathers kill
ADELE HORIN
Last updated 07:55 18/05/2011
Custody issues are not the main reason estranged fathers kill their children.
They kill to punish their wives for leaving them.
That is the conclusion of Australia's foremost expert on murder-suicide, Carolyn Johnson of Curtin University in Australia.
"Of the cases I studied, all the men had access to their kids and they used the access time to murder them," said Johnson, whose book Come with Daddy, explored murder-suicides after marital separation.
A police hunt for five-year-old Kyla Rogers ended on Monday night near Casino with the discovery of her body in a car beside that of her father, Paul, a New Zealander.
Earlier, the bodies of his former partner, Tania Simpson, and a "family friend", Anthony Way, also a New Zealander, were found in a flat on the Gold Coast.
Johnson said the kind of men who kill in these situations are those with a proprietorial attitude towards women and children.
They will not relinquish control, they are used to calling the shots in the family, and are often pathologically jealous. When they finally realise their wives are not coming back, they turn lethal.
"Homicide-suicide is their final act of control," she said. "Very often they let their wives survive to experience the extreme pain of losing their children."
Several recent high-profile cases in Australia have thrown the spotlight on estranged fathers who have resorted to murder.
Last month, Arthur Freeman was jailed for 30 years for throwing his daughter Darcey, 4, to her death off the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne.
The judge concluded he had used his daughter in an attempt to hurt his former wife "as profoundly as possible".
Freeman lodged an appeal against the sentence last week.
And last year another estranged father, Robert Farquharson, was jailed for a minimum of 33 years for deliberately driving his car into a dam and drowning his three sons near Geelong.
The judge said Farquharson had resented that his estranged wife had started a new relationship.
He has lodged an appeal.
Lesley Laing, a leading expert on family violence from Sydney University, said a history of controlling and violent behaviour was behind most cases of family homicide but too many people ignored or dismissed women's fears.
"The community reaction often is 'what more can we do to make this man or these men feel better' by changing family law or providing more services," she said. Instead the focus should be on the safety of women and children.
Laing recently completed research on the family law system's response to victims of domestic violence. She also chaired a committee which has led the NSW government to establish a domestic violence death review panel. She said the way to prevent more deaths of women and children was to find better ways to protect them.
At Men's Line, Australia's counselling service for men, 40 per cent of the callers are going through separation, and some are so angry they express a desire to hurt others or themselves.
"It's a very challenging situation for counsellors," the programme leader, Randal Newton-John, said.
He said many men relied entirely on their wives for emotional support and when the relationship broke down they had nobody to turn to.
He said it was essential that men going through separation sought help early for any emotional difficulties.
For Ingrid Poulson, the death of her two children and her father at the hands of her estranged husband in 2003 was beyond her worst nightmare.
Her husband, Phithak "Neung" Kongsom, had been violent, controlling and she had taken out an apprehended violence order, but she did not think he would ever kill the children.
Yesterday she said women had to be "hyper-alert" to signs that men were putting the children's welfare at risk.
The Australian organisation Dads in Distress receives about 5000 calls a year to its helpline, mostly from men having problems with Australia's Child Support Agency, restricted access to their children or apprehended violence orders taken out by former partners.
- Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Men's murderous revenge: They kill their kids to punish the mother, not because of a lack of access or "support" (Sydney, Australia)
We've posted many times on ARTHUR FREEMAN, the Australian father who has been convicted of murdering his 4-year-old daughter during visitation. Predictably--but sickeningly--the Freeman case has aroused all the usual fathers rights apologists with the same old tired old excuses. You know, how it's always the fault of "the System" (but not Daddy) when a father murders his kids. It's good to see Debbie Kirkwood take on these idiots.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/mens-murderous-revenge-20110330-1cg80.html
Men's murderous revenge
Debbie Kirkwood
March 31, 2011
It's not angst over custody: fathers kill their children to punish their ex-partners.
SINCE Arthur Freeman was found guilty of murdering his four-year-old daughter, Darcey, much of the media focus has been on the distress of fathers going through separation and custody disputes. There has been a call for more support for fathers.
However, we must ask ourselves whether we are losing sight of the victims and, more importantly, whether this is the best approach to preventing these deaths from occurring in the future.
While the community understandably struggles to comprehend a parent killing a child, our research shows that these are not inexplicable tragedies. There is a particular type of filicide (the killing of children by parents) that occurs in the context of the separation of the parents.
In these ''spousal revenge'' cases - as recognised by the Freeman jury - fathers kill their children to punish their ex-partners. There is usually no prior violence against the children. In fact, they appear to love their children. The act of killing is directed towards harming the child's mother. The motive is revenge.
In the case of Freeman and Robert Farquharson (found guilty of three counts of murder of his sons Bailey, Tyler and Jai, aged two to 10, who drowned in a dam near Winchelsea), both fathers indicated that they wished to punish their ex-partner. Shortly before killing Darcey, Freeman told his ex-wife to say goodbye to her children and that she would never see them again - clearly to make her suffer. Farquharson told a friend that he would make his ex-wife suffer by taking what mattered to her most - her children.
Contrary to some claims, these cases are not about fathers losing access to their children. The reality is that in both cases, the fathers had access to their children and, in both cases, killed them during it.
There is no logic to the thinking that if a person is distressed about not spending enough time with their kids they would decide to kill them.
If, however, they are consumed with anger and hatred towards their ex-partner and wish to hurt them, then it is, tragically, a very effective means to do so.
The killing of the children in such cases should be recognised as a form of violence against the mother. We need to explore the relationship between the parents in order to understand the killing of children. In particular, the father's attitudes and behaviour towards the mother prior to, and after, separation must be examined. VicHealth has clearly identified the underlying causes of violence against women as including belief in rigid gender roles and a masculine sense of entitlement.
What we really need to challenge is the sense of entitlement that some men have over their families, an entitlement that leads them to believe that their partner has no right to leave them and no right to form a new relationship, and that punishing her is justified because of the suffering they themselves experience.
The current focus of commentary suggests that men are victims of the family law system. The mothers seem to be implicitly blamed for the distress their partners experienced when they left them.
Let's be clear: the first and foremost victims here are the children whose lives are taken. The mothers, whose children have died in perhaps the worst way imaginable, are also the victims, as are remaining siblings and other family members. Darcey Freeman's mother, Peta Barnes, had expressed concerns about the safety of her children prior to Darcey's death. She also expressed concerns about Arthur Freeman's ''anger management issues'' and mood swings. It is important that such concerns are heard and responded to appropriately by a broad range of professionals coming into contact with separating parents, as well as by family and friends.
The family law process must make children's safety it's absolute priority. Importantly, the federal government currently has a family law bill before Parliament which prioritises the safety of children in family law matters.
The Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria acknowledges that separation and family breakdown can be incredibly difficult for parents. Parents should be assisted to deal with separation and encouraged to take responsibility for their behaviour. As a community, we need to focus on building positive and respectful relationships.
We support the call for greater services and support. We ask that these services be equipped to identify and respond to risks to the safety and wellbeing of children and their parents. We need to ensure there is accurate and reliable screening and risk assessment for all forms of family violence. These cases demonstrate that the risk of harm to children is closely linked to risks of harm to the mother.
Cases such as Freeman's have a profound impact on the community and we are right to search for answers. Unfortunately, there has been very little research on parents who kill their children in the past decade in Australia. If we are to find ways to prevent these deaths, we need a far better understanding of why and how they occur.
Dr Debbie Kirkwood is a researcher at the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria and is currently writing a paper on filicide in the context of parental separation.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/mens-murderous-revenge-20110330-1cg80.html
Men's murderous revenge
Debbie Kirkwood
March 31, 2011
It's not angst over custody: fathers kill their children to punish their ex-partners.
SINCE Arthur Freeman was found guilty of murdering his four-year-old daughter, Darcey, much of the media focus has been on the distress of fathers going through separation and custody disputes. There has been a call for more support for fathers.
However, we must ask ourselves whether we are losing sight of the victims and, more importantly, whether this is the best approach to preventing these deaths from occurring in the future.
While the community understandably struggles to comprehend a parent killing a child, our research shows that these are not inexplicable tragedies. There is a particular type of filicide (the killing of children by parents) that occurs in the context of the separation of the parents.
In these ''spousal revenge'' cases - as recognised by the Freeman jury - fathers kill their children to punish their ex-partners. There is usually no prior violence against the children. In fact, they appear to love their children. The act of killing is directed towards harming the child's mother. The motive is revenge.
In the case of Freeman and Robert Farquharson (found guilty of three counts of murder of his sons Bailey, Tyler and Jai, aged two to 10, who drowned in a dam near Winchelsea), both fathers indicated that they wished to punish their ex-partner. Shortly before killing Darcey, Freeman told his ex-wife to say goodbye to her children and that she would never see them again - clearly to make her suffer. Farquharson told a friend that he would make his ex-wife suffer by taking what mattered to her most - her children.
Contrary to some claims, these cases are not about fathers losing access to their children. The reality is that in both cases, the fathers had access to their children and, in both cases, killed them during it.
There is no logic to the thinking that if a person is distressed about not spending enough time with their kids they would decide to kill them.
If, however, they are consumed with anger and hatred towards their ex-partner and wish to hurt them, then it is, tragically, a very effective means to do so.
The killing of the children in such cases should be recognised as a form of violence against the mother. We need to explore the relationship between the parents in order to understand the killing of children. In particular, the father's attitudes and behaviour towards the mother prior to, and after, separation must be examined. VicHealth has clearly identified the underlying causes of violence against women as including belief in rigid gender roles and a masculine sense of entitlement.
What we really need to challenge is the sense of entitlement that some men have over their families, an entitlement that leads them to believe that their partner has no right to leave them and no right to form a new relationship, and that punishing her is justified because of the suffering they themselves experience.
The current focus of commentary suggests that men are victims of the family law system. The mothers seem to be implicitly blamed for the distress their partners experienced when they left them.
Let's be clear: the first and foremost victims here are the children whose lives are taken. The mothers, whose children have died in perhaps the worst way imaginable, are also the victims, as are remaining siblings and other family members. Darcey Freeman's mother, Peta Barnes, had expressed concerns about the safety of her children prior to Darcey's death. She also expressed concerns about Arthur Freeman's ''anger management issues'' and mood swings. It is important that such concerns are heard and responded to appropriately by a broad range of professionals coming into contact with separating parents, as well as by family and friends.
The family law process must make children's safety it's absolute priority. Importantly, the federal government currently has a family law bill before Parliament which prioritises the safety of children in family law matters.
The Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria acknowledges that separation and family breakdown can be incredibly difficult for parents. Parents should be assisted to deal with separation and encouraged to take responsibility for their behaviour. As a community, we need to focus on building positive and respectful relationships.
We support the call for greater services and support. We ask that these services be equipped to identify and respond to risks to the safety and wellbeing of children and their parents. We need to ensure there is accurate and reliable screening and risk assessment for all forms of family violence. These cases demonstrate that the risk of harm to children is closely linked to risks of harm to the mother.
Cases such as Freeman's have a profound impact on the community and we are right to search for answers. Unfortunately, there has been very little research on parents who kill their children in the past decade in Australia. If we are to find ways to prevent these deaths, we need a far better understanding of why and how they occur.
Dr Debbie Kirkwood is a researcher at the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria and is currently writing a paper on filicide in the context of parental separation.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
The kids are not all right (Australia)
It is more than clear now that mandatory shared parenting--as demonstrated by Australia's experiment with the same--has been a disaster for mothers and children. Abusive fathers simply exploit the situation to continue their reign of terror and violence.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/the-kids-are-not-all-right-20110816-1iw7l.html
The kids are not all right
Andrea Petrie and Michelle Griffin
August 17, 2011
Too often, children are the victims of warring parents. Now the federal government wants to expand the definition of child abuse to give them more protection.
A LITTLE boy is forced to visit a doctor and endure an anal examination for signs of sexual abuse. The humiliating ritual continues for months. He is just five years old, and is caught in the middle of his parents' bitter custody battle over him.
His father insists the boy's mother is abusing him, although there appears to be no basis for the accusation. A police report even suggests the claim is most likely fabricated to help the father's bid for full custody.
In another family, two boys aged three and four are placed in their father's care, despite the fact they try to masturbate, anally penetrate and have oral sex with one another, which they explain to their mother is a ''game we play with daddy''. A court later rules that she is discouraging their father from having a relationship with them, so they are placed in his custody.Elsewhere, a desperate father exhausts most of his options to keep custody of his three young children from their mother, even though she is in jail for trying to kill him.
These are snapshots of the thousands of cases dealt with by family law courts in Australia. When a relationship breaks down, children can become the victims of warring parents preoccupied with their own welfare and desire to win custody. Cases like these have prompted widespread concerns that the safety of children is not always assured.
Now, Federal Parliament is considering a controversial proposal to make major changes to family law legislation that aim to create a fairer system and give priority to the safety of children.
If passed, the Family Law Legislation (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2011 will expand the definition of family violence beyond violent behaviour. It will also take in threatening or other behaviour that ''coerces or controls'' and causes children - or former partners - to be fearful. The new definition will include physical and sexual assault, stalking, repeated derogatory taunts, intentionally damaging property, deliberately causing death or injury to an animal, and unreasonably denying the family member the financial autonomy he or she would otherwise have.
The definition of child abuse will also be changed to include psychological damage caused by exposure to family violence. This includes a child seeing or hearing violence, or being present when police or paramedics attend an incident involving the assault of one family member by another.
The Senate standing committee on legal and constitutional affairs has conducted an inquiry into the proposed changes, and will present its report to the Senate tomorrow. The inquiry has received hundreds of submissions, many questioning whether the reforms go far enough.
Significantly, the difficulties created by the nation's intersecting state and federal legal systems that deal with family violence have also been raised.
Child protection concerns, such as abuse and neglect, are dealt with by state and territory systems authorised to intervene when children are at risk of harm in their family's care. But it is the federal family law system that determines which parent has custody.
The Gillard government introduced the amendment bill, believing sweeping changes were necessary to strengthen the current laws, and to rectify some of the deficiencies of the 2006 Howard government family law reforms of which the centrepiece was, where possible, shared parental responsibility.
The Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006 specifies shared care as a minimum of 35 per cent of overnight time with each parent, or five nights or more per fortnight, or equivalent. Yet research by clinical child psychologist Dr Jennifer McIntosh and other experts now suggests that constant disruption and lack of stability for children younger than four - regardless of socio-economic background, parenting or inter-parental co-operation - may be causing them psychological harm.
Charles Pragnell, from the National Council for Children Post-Separation, describes the 2006 Howard reforms as ''seriously flawed''. He believes they are solely concerned with parents' rights and give no consideration to the needs, wishes and rights of the children caught in the middle.
Pragnell says it is ''virtually impossible'' to prove family violence and child abuse. ''Firstly, because domestic violence is given a very narrow definition within the family law compared to what research has now shown to involve a variety of forms of abuse, such as emotional abuse, financial abuse, psychological abuse,'' he says.
Second, federal family courts do not have the powers, expertise and resources to investigate allegations of domestic violence and child abuse, nor do they have the power to order state and territory child protection authorities to carry out such investigations.
''Even so, there are a small number of occasions where the state child protection authorities have intervened and have found the allegations substantiated, but such substantiations have frequently been disregarded by Family Court judges, who see the right to shared care as the principle overriding consideration.''
Pragnell says in allegations of child sexual abuse, the federal courts that deal with family matters use what is termed the Briginshaw principle to determine the standard of proof. The principle dates back to a case in England in 1938 in which the allegation of sexual abuse of an adult was viewed as being of such gravity that the usual standard of proof of a ''balance of probabilities'' should be at the extreme end of the scale.
''This means Family Court judges are giving contact with and even custody of children to convicted paedophiles, child sex abusers, and violent offenders,'' he says.
This also means that often parents who raised allegations against another have been viewed by the Family Court as being ''implacably hostile'' towards the other parent or alienating them. In many circumstances, children have been removed from the parent trying to protect them, and placed in the sole care of the alleged but unproven abuser.
''Often the protective parent is given no contact. When protective parents raise allegations of abuse, the counter-claim is that they are deluded and certain psychiatrists or psychologists are prepared to support such counter-allegations in the courts. So the whole scenario turns against the parent making the allegations, which they have no hope of proving.''
Pragnell, who has almost 40 years' experience working as a social worker with children and young people, says one only has to consider the highly publicised murders of children involved in custody disputes in Victoria in recent years to know that more far-reaching reforms are urgently needed to protect those caught in the middle.
Jai, Tyler and Bailey Farquharson - aged 10, 7 and 2 - were murdered by their father Robert on Father's Day in 2005 when he drove his car into a seven-metre-deep dam near Winchelsea to get back at their mother, who had formed a relationship with another man. Robert Farquharson is serving a life sentence with a minimum of 33 years.
In another tragic case, Darcey Freeman was four when her father Arthur Phillip Freeman threw her 58 metres to her death from Melbourne's West Gate Bridge in 2009. It was supposed to be her first day of school. He was sentenced to life with a 32-year minimum for a crime the sentencing judge said was aimed at hurting his former wife ''as profoundly as possible''.
And last November, Ramazan Acar fatally stabbed his two-year-old daughter, Yazmina Micheline Acar, after an intervention order was put in place to protect her mother, which prevented him from seeing Yazmina for several months. He is serving life with a 33-year minimum.
But Caroline Counsel, a family law expert and president of the Law Institute of Victoria, says ''you can't legislate lunacy out of the picture''.
''If people are going to act badly, impulsively and out of anger, no legislation is going to stop them. We as a society raise people and educate people about what we find acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, so I think it's ill-conceived to think you can come up with legislation that will stop all bad behaviours forever,'' she says.
''It's cradle-to-grave training, it's cradle-to-grave behaviours that need to be looked at and reviewed and scrutinised by us all. But having said that, any piece of legislation and any thought process that is going to make parents think about what their children need and what their children can be exposed to, and any sort of caution that is taken by the courts to minimise harm to children, has to be a good thing.''
Dr Lesley Laing, author of No Way To Live, a 2010 report on family violence victims in the Family Court, says the proposed changes would remove some of the barriers that have stopped parents from raising concerns about their children's safety.
''But there is still an urgent need for better resources in the family law system so that allegations of violence and abuse can be thoroughly assessed,'' she says.
Laing says expanding the definition of family violence and removing the so-called ''friendly parent provision'' - which requires a court to look at the willingness of each parent to encourage a close and continuing relationship between the child and the other parent after separation - will allow the extent of family violence to come to light in court proceedings.
But she says the amendment bill fails to address other key concerns with the Family Law Act, such as the contentious presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, or the requirement that courts must consider making orders for children to spend equal or substantial time with both parents.
''This means that where violence has led to the separation, and the allegations are not believed or acted upon by the Family Court, there is still a risk of ongoing exposure to domestic violence. A further amendment which would significantly reduce risks to children would be to elevate as the single primary and paramount consideration 'the child being protected from physical or psychological harm from or being subjected to, or exposed to abuse, neglect or family violence'.''
Child protection campaigner Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs says even with the proposed reforms, judges will still take advice from lawyers about what is in a child's best interests. ''They're not experts in anything to do with childhood,'' she says. ''It can never be in a child's best interest to be handed over to a convicted child sex offender, but we've seen this happen a number of times.''
Tears stain the cheeks of a distraught mother involved in a current custody dispute, as she details the years of torment and emotional abuse she has endured at the hands of her former partner, with whom she has a child.
He has made repeated threats that she will ''regret'' walking out on him and taking their child. She fears, as do those around her, that his behaviour is getting worse.
''No one can understand what it's like to wonder whether the next time you drop off your child will be the last time you see them alive,'' she says. ''I left the relationship for very good reasons but he is determined to take this as far as he can to get what he wants. If he doesn't succeed, he will take his revenge.''
If the reforms can save another innocent life from being lost, she says they must be passed urgently.
''The nation was outraged at the way our live [cattle] exports were being treated, yet our own children are dying and being put at risk. Something more needs to be done as soon as possible.''
National domestic violence hotline: 1800 200 526
Submissions to the committee can be found at: http://www.aph.gov.au/
http://reachout.com/
http://stopviolence.com.au/
Home sweet home
How many Australian children are subjected to domestic violence?
Available data shows more than 1 million Australian children affected since 2005. Of people who had experienced violence by a former partner:
■ 822,500 had children in their care during the relationship.
■ 239,800 women reported violence by their former partner during their pregnancy.
Of people who reported experiences of violence by a current partner:
■ 111,700 had children in their care during the relationship.
■ 18,300 women reported violence by their current partner during their pregnancy (2006).
How common is shared care in families with high parental conflict and domestic violence?
Between 2006 and 2008, 16 per cent of children in Australia were in shared care among separating parents.
■ A significant number of children in shared care have a family history of violence, a parent concerned about the child's safety, and are exposed to high-conflict parental relationships.
■ Research shows 26 per cent of mothers and 18 per cent of fathers say the other parent hurt them physically prior to separation and of those, most indicated the children had seen or heard some of the violence.
■ During the separation process, more than half of family court files contained an allegation of family violence on the written file and nearly 20 per cent had a highly conflicted or fearful relationship.
■ One in five parents reported safety concerns for their children related to ongoing contact with the other parent and 90 per cent of these had experienced either physical or emotional violence.
■ A follow-up study indicated that the same level of safety concerns and relationship to parents' experience of violence persisted after a year.
Sources: Institute of Family Studies, Family Matters Journal, Australian Bureau of Statistics.)
http://www.theage.com.au/national/the-kids-are-not-all-right-20110816-1iw7l.html
The kids are not all right
Andrea Petrie and Michelle Griffin
August 17, 2011
Too often, children are the victims of warring parents. Now the federal government wants to expand the definition of child abuse to give them more protection.
A LITTLE boy is forced to visit a doctor and endure an anal examination for signs of sexual abuse. The humiliating ritual continues for months. He is just five years old, and is caught in the middle of his parents' bitter custody battle over him.
His father insists the boy's mother is abusing him, although there appears to be no basis for the accusation. A police report even suggests the claim is most likely fabricated to help the father's bid for full custody.
In another family, two boys aged three and four are placed in their father's care, despite the fact they try to masturbate, anally penetrate and have oral sex with one another, which they explain to their mother is a ''game we play with daddy''. A court later rules that she is discouraging their father from having a relationship with them, so they are placed in his custody.Elsewhere, a desperate father exhausts most of his options to keep custody of his three young children from their mother, even though she is in jail for trying to kill him.
These are snapshots of the thousands of cases dealt with by family law courts in Australia. When a relationship breaks down, children can become the victims of warring parents preoccupied with their own welfare and desire to win custody. Cases like these have prompted widespread concerns that the safety of children is not always assured.
Now, Federal Parliament is considering a controversial proposal to make major changes to family law legislation that aim to create a fairer system and give priority to the safety of children.
If passed, the Family Law Legislation (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill 2011 will expand the definition of family violence beyond violent behaviour. It will also take in threatening or other behaviour that ''coerces or controls'' and causes children - or former partners - to be fearful. The new definition will include physical and sexual assault, stalking, repeated derogatory taunts, intentionally damaging property, deliberately causing death or injury to an animal, and unreasonably denying the family member the financial autonomy he or she would otherwise have.
The definition of child abuse will also be changed to include psychological damage caused by exposure to family violence. This includes a child seeing or hearing violence, or being present when police or paramedics attend an incident involving the assault of one family member by another.
The Senate standing committee on legal and constitutional affairs has conducted an inquiry into the proposed changes, and will present its report to the Senate tomorrow. The inquiry has received hundreds of submissions, many questioning whether the reforms go far enough.
Significantly, the difficulties created by the nation's intersecting state and federal legal systems that deal with family violence have also been raised.
Child protection concerns, such as abuse and neglect, are dealt with by state and territory systems authorised to intervene when children are at risk of harm in their family's care. But it is the federal family law system that determines which parent has custody.
The Gillard government introduced the amendment bill, believing sweeping changes were necessary to strengthen the current laws, and to rectify some of the deficiencies of the 2006 Howard government family law reforms of which the centrepiece was, where possible, shared parental responsibility.
The Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006 specifies shared care as a minimum of 35 per cent of overnight time with each parent, or five nights or more per fortnight, or equivalent. Yet research by clinical child psychologist Dr Jennifer McIntosh and other experts now suggests that constant disruption and lack of stability for children younger than four - regardless of socio-economic background, parenting or inter-parental co-operation - may be causing them psychological harm.
Charles Pragnell, from the National Council for Children Post-Separation, describes the 2006 Howard reforms as ''seriously flawed''. He believes they are solely concerned with parents' rights and give no consideration to the needs, wishes and rights of the children caught in the middle.
Pragnell says it is ''virtually impossible'' to prove family violence and child abuse. ''Firstly, because domestic violence is given a very narrow definition within the family law compared to what research has now shown to involve a variety of forms of abuse, such as emotional abuse, financial abuse, psychological abuse,'' he says.
Second, federal family courts do not have the powers, expertise and resources to investigate allegations of domestic violence and child abuse, nor do they have the power to order state and territory child protection authorities to carry out such investigations.
''Even so, there are a small number of occasions where the state child protection authorities have intervened and have found the allegations substantiated, but such substantiations have frequently been disregarded by Family Court judges, who see the right to shared care as the principle overriding consideration.''
Pragnell says in allegations of child sexual abuse, the federal courts that deal with family matters use what is termed the Briginshaw principle to determine the standard of proof. The principle dates back to a case in England in 1938 in which the allegation of sexual abuse of an adult was viewed as being of such gravity that the usual standard of proof of a ''balance of probabilities'' should be at the extreme end of the scale.
''This means Family Court judges are giving contact with and even custody of children to convicted paedophiles, child sex abusers, and violent offenders,'' he says.
This also means that often parents who raised allegations against another have been viewed by the Family Court as being ''implacably hostile'' towards the other parent or alienating them. In many circumstances, children have been removed from the parent trying to protect them, and placed in the sole care of the alleged but unproven abuser.
''Often the protective parent is given no contact. When protective parents raise allegations of abuse, the counter-claim is that they are deluded and certain psychiatrists or psychologists are prepared to support such counter-allegations in the courts. So the whole scenario turns against the parent making the allegations, which they have no hope of proving.''
Pragnell, who has almost 40 years' experience working as a social worker with children and young people, says one only has to consider the highly publicised murders of children involved in custody disputes in Victoria in recent years to know that more far-reaching reforms are urgently needed to protect those caught in the middle.
Jai, Tyler and Bailey Farquharson - aged 10, 7 and 2 - were murdered by their father Robert on Father's Day in 2005 when he drove his car into a seven-metre-deep dam near Winchelsea to get back at their mother, who had formed a relationship with another man. Robert Farquharson is serving a life sentence with a minimum of 33 years.
In another tragic case, Darcey Freeman was four when her father Arthur Phillip Freeman threw her 58 metres to her death from Melbourne's West Gate Bridge in 2009. It was supposed to be her first day of school. He was sentenced to life with a 32-year minimum for a crime the sentencing judge said was aimed at hurting his former wife ''as profoundly as possible''.
And last November, Ramazan Acar fatally stabbed his two-year-old daughter, Yazmina Micheline Acar, after an intervention order was put in place to protect her mother, which prevented him from seeing Yazmina for several months. He is serving life with a 33-year minimum.
But Caroline Counsel, a family law expert and president of the Law Institute of Victoria, says ''you can't legislate lunacy out of the picture''.
''If people are going to act badly, impulsively and out of anger, no legislation is going to stop them. We as a society raise people and educate people about what we find acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, so I think it's ill-conceived to think you can come up with legislation that will stop all bad behaviours forever,'' she says.
''It's cradle-to-grave training, it's cradle-to-grave behaviours that need to be looked at and reviewed and scrutinised by us all. But having said that, any piece of legislation and any thought process that is going to make parents think about what their children need and what their children can be exposed to, and any sort of caution that is taken by the courts to minimise harm to children, has to be a good thing.''
Dr Lesley Laing, author of No Way To Live, a 2010 report on family violence victims in the Family Court, says the proposed changes would remove some of the barriers that have stopped parents from raising concerns about their children's safety.
''But there is still an urgent need for better resources in the family law system so that allegations of violence and abuse can be thoroughly assessed,'' she says.
Laing says expanding the definition of family violence and removing the so-called ''friendly parent provision'' - which requires a court to look at the willingness of each parent to encourage a close and continuing relationship between the child and the other parent after separation - will allow the extent of family violence to come to light in court proceedings.
But she says the amendment bill fails to address other key concerns with the Family Law Act, such as the contentious presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, or the requirement that courts must consider making orders for children to spend equal or substantial time with both parents.
''This means that where violence has led to the separation, and the allegations are not believed or acted upon by the Family Court, there is still a risk of ongoing exposure to domestic violence. A further amendment which would significantly reduce risks to children would be to elevate as the single primary and paramount consideration 'the child being protected from physical or psychological harm from or being subjected to, or exposed to abuse, neglect or family violence'.''
Child protection campaigner Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs says even with the proposed reforms, judges will still take advice from lawyers about what is in a child's best interests. ''They're not experts in anything to do with childhood,'' she says. ''It can never be in a child's best interest to be handed over to a convicted child sex offender, but we've seen this happen a number of times.''
Tears stain the cheeks of a distraught mother involved in a current custody dispute, as she details the years of torment and emotional abuse she has endured at the hands of her former partner, with whom she has a child.
He has made repeated threats that she will ''regret'' walking out on him and taking their child. She fears, as do those around her, that his behaviour is getting worse.
''No one can understand what it's like to wonder whether the next time you drop off your child will be the last time you see them alive,'' she says. ''I left the relationship for very good reasons but he is determined to take this as far as he can to get what he wants. If he doesn't succeed, he will take his revenge.''
If the reforms can save another innocent life from being lost, she says they must be passed urgently.
''The nation was outraged at the way our live [cattle] exports were being treated, yet our own children are dying and being put at risk. Something more needs to be done as soon as possible.''
National domestic violence hotline: 1800 200 526
Submissions to the committee can be found at: http://www.aph.gov.au/
http://reachout.com/
http://stopviolence.com.au/
Home sweet home
How many Australian children are subjected to domestic violence?
Available data shows more than 1 million Australian children affected since 2005. Of people who had experienced violence by a former partner:
■ 822,500 had children in their care during the relationship.
■ 239,800 women reported violence by their former partner during their pregnancy.
Of people who reported experiences of violence by a current partner:
■ 111,700 had children in their care during the relationship.
■ 18,300 women reported violence by their current partner during their pregnancy (2006).
How common is shared care in families with high parental conflict and domestic violence?
Between 2006 and 2008, 16 per cent of children in Australia were in shared care among separating parents.
■ A significant number of children in shared care have a family history of violence, a parent concerned about the child's safety, and are exposed to high-conflict parental relationships.
■ Research shows 26 per cent of mothers and 18 per cent of fathers say the other parent hurt them physically prior to separation and of those, most indicated the children had seen or heard some of the violence.
■ During the separation process, more than half of family court files contained an allegation of family violence on the written file and nearly 20 per cent had a highly conflicted or fearful relationship.
■ One in five parents reported safety concerns for their children related to ongoing contact with the other parent and 90 per cent of these had experienced either physical or emotional violence.
■ A follow-up study indicated that the same level of safety concerns and relationship to parents' experience of violence persisted after a year.
Sources: Institute of Family Studies, Family Matters Journal, Australian Bureau of Statistics.)
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Dad threatened to bomb law office near "family court building;" held 12-year-old daughter hostage over "custody battle" (Sydney, Australia)
We reported on this case earlier today, and I predicted that this very likely had something to do with Australia's fathers rights people. Notice that my suspicions are starting to get confirmed: the police standoff (with 12-year-old daughter hostage), complete with bomb threat, took place "near a family court building." And that it was related to a "custody battle" over the girl.
Because of incidents like this, Australia is now looking at overhauling its family law, the same law that gave near automatic access to dangerous dads like this one back in 2006. In response, the fathers rights groups of Australia have launched a barrage of attack articles in the last week or so making ridiculous claims like "Women's rights push dads aside" or that "Children suffer under political correctness." Or this one with it's (veiled) threat: "Family bill could raise murder rates - Men's lobby group says." Of course, these articles ignore all the violent fathers that have, in fact, murdered their children because they were able to secure access to their victims--dads like ARTHUR FREEMAN, ROBERT FARQUHARSON, PAUL ROGERS, RAMAZAN ACAR, and others.
So what we see here, is probably a "political statement" as to what the militant abuser daddy lobby has in mind if they don't get their way. Why aren't these tactics being denounced as terrorism?
And this is evidence that Australia should continue it's kid-glove treatment of violent fathers? If anything, dads like this are proving WHY WE NEED TO REFORM THE LAW.
http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/cops-nab-man-who-held-daughter-hostage-1.1132410
Cops nab man who held daughter hostage
September 6 2011 at 08:15pm
SYDNEY: Australian police today rescued a 12-year-old girl from her father who had held her captive with a suspected backpack bomb for almost 12 hours, police and local media said.
The 52-year-old man had earlier walked into a legal office in Sydney, accompanied by his daughter, and started a standoff with police that media linked to a custody battle for the girl.
“Negotiations broke down and we reached a stage where we had to do something,” Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said at the scene after police broke into the office.
Police said the man had been arrested and the girl taken to a waiting ambulance, adding that explosives experts were still studying the backpack. No one else was in the office during the siege, which took place near a Family Court building in outer Sydney.
“We have always operated on the assumption that there was an explosive device in that backpack,” Clifford said. “The girl is very upset and appears distressed, which is understandable, but she is otherwise unharmed,” he added.
Police would not say whether the girl was the man’s daughter, as local media have maintained, but a Sky TV reporter said the girl was heard screaming “That's my dad!” as she was led away from the scene.
Because of incidents like this, Australia is now looking at overhauling its family law, the same law that gave near automatic access to dangerous dads like this one back in 2006. In response, the fathers rights groups of Australia have launched a barrage of attack articles in the last week or so making ridiculous claims like "Women's rights push dads aside" or that "Children suffer under political correctness." Or this one with it's (veiled) threat: "Family bill could raise murder rates - Men's lobby group says." Of course, these articles ignore all the violent fathers that have, in fact, murdered their children because they were able to secure access to their victims--dads like ARTHUR FREEMAN, ROBERT FARQUHARSON, PAUL ROGERS, RAMAZAN ACAR, and others.
So what we see here, is probably a "political statement" as to what the militant abuser daddy lobby has in mind if they don't get their way. Why aren't these tactics being denounced as terrorism?
And this is evidence that Australia should continue it's kid-glove treatment of violent fathers? If anything, dads like this are proving WHY WE NEED TO REFORM THE LAW.
http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/cops-nab-man-who-held-daughter-hostage-1.1132410
Cops nab man who held daughter hostage
September 6 2011 at 08:15pm
SYDNEY: Australian police today rescued a 12-year-old girl from her father who had held her captive with a suspected backpack bomb for almost 12 hours, police and local media said.
The 52-year-old man had earlier walked into a legal office in Sydney, accompanied by his daughter, and started a standoff with police that media linked to a custody battle for the girl.
“Negotiations broke down and we reached a stage where we had to do something,” Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said at the scene after police broke into the office.
Police said the man had been arrested and the girl taken to a waiting ambulance, adding that explosives experts were still studying the backpack. No one else was in the office during the siege, which took place near a Family Court building in outer Sydney.
“We have always operated on the assumption that there was an explosive device in that backpack,” Clifford said. “The girl is very upset and appears distressed, which is understandable, but she is otherwise unharmed,” he added.
Police would not say whether the girl was the man’s daughter, as local media have maintained, but a Sky TV reporter said the girl was heard screaming “That's my dad!” as she was led away from the scene.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Dad in "custody battle" kills 4-year-old daughter in murder-suicide (Australia)
The write up here is so bad. It's as if the Australian media has learned nothing about fathers and custody-related murder since ARTHUR FREEMAN and ROBERT FARQUHARSON.
First, this is not some inexplicable "tragedy" where a father killed the child he "so adored" for some equally mysterious reason. So stop all the woo-woo, ain't-it-a-mystical-paradox rubbish.
There were plenty of red flags here, but of course the media doesn't identify them as such, or at least not very clearly.
Let's look at the father, GREG HUTCHINGS, without the blinders and phony sentimentality.
1) Even his own family (and presumably his enabler mother in denial) admits that he was "depressed" and on (unidentified) "anti-anxiety drugs."
2) He was 35, unemployed, and living at his mother's house in a "musty" room he shared with his daughter during his access time. So the guy is so dysfunctional that he can't even clean?
And even as a true portrait of this guy is coming together, the idiotic reporter characterizes the custody battle as a "tug-of-love" between the parents.
NO IT'S NOT! We have a mentally ill, barely functioning deadbeat father who, nevertheless, denigrates the mother of his child by claiming that he "feared" her. Which is crap, because who was it who murdered this girl? It wasn't Mom! Classic projection, a common move out the playbook of narcissistic control freaks and abusers.
Also note this:
1) The only smears against the Mom that are listed here, are a penchant for "electronic music." Nothing but a nebulous "lifestyle" choice--that the father also shared! This kind of random, arbitrary attack against the mother is also a common tactic among narcissistic abusers.
2) Daddy had his panties in a bunch about Mom taking the child to Finland without his authorization, and this deadbeat whack job was able to keep the courts from letting her.
Here we see the power of the fathers rights movement in Australia. Because if Mom had been able to leave Australia, this child would still be alive, wouldn't she? This is also classic projection, because it was because DADDY WAS PROVIDED ACCESS that he was able to take off with this child and kill her. This is also one of the grand achievements of the fathers rights movement, that any criminal sperm donor is granted his "rights" with no questions asked and no regard for the safety of any other human being.
3) But wait. Daddy also "feared" the mother taking the daughter to Peru? Once again, it wasn't the mother who killed the girl! The actual outcome shows that the father's "fears" were nothing but manufactured bullsh** meant to muddy the waters. Unfortunately, he succeeded admirably.
4) It's lazy and inaccurate, therefore, to conclude that this "tragic double-death was the result of a desperate father who cracked."
In fact, once again we have a protective mother WHOSE REAL AND JUSTIFIABLE CONCERNS WERE IGNORED BY THE COURTS. We know they were real, because the real-life outcomes PROVED they were real, and not tit-for-tat he said/she said.
"In applications to the Federal Circuit Court last year, Dorendahl expressed fears Hutchings was "delaying return to disappear with child," and 'it will be hard to locate father as he is unemployed, has no assets, lives with his father and is behaving erratically.'"
And that turned out to be the crux of the matter, not some nonsense about a mysterious tragedy arising from a "tug-of-love."
This was a WHOLLY PREVENTABLE MURDER that was set up and enabled by Australia's family courts, which once again assumed that the mother was lying or exaggerating so they ignored her. And therefore once again, they provided a killer father with unfettered ACCESS to his murder victim.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/inside-the-life-of-a-child-killed-so-tragically-what-led-greg-hutchings-to-destroy-the-child-he-so-adored/story-fni0cx12-1226813453165
Inside the life of a child killed so tragically: What led Greg Hutchings to destroy the child he so adored?
Taylor Auerbach • The Daily Telegraph • January 30, 2014 12:00AM
A tragic end to the two and a half week search for a father and his little girl who vanished just over the New South Wales border as two bodies were uncovered in sand dunes near Pottsville. ...
•Eeva may have been killed through drowning or poisoning
•No 'weapons' were found at crime scene
•Post-mortem conducted today - but decomposition may make cause of death hard to determine
POLICE are investigating today whether drowning or poisoning could have been the cause of death of four-year-old Eeva.
No weapons have been found at Pottsville Beach, where the bodies of Eeva and her father Greg Hutchings were found on Tuesday, but determining the cause of death may be difficult as the bodies - which may have sat under a pandanus tree for two weeks - are badly-decomposed.
Investigators are yet to determine how Hutchings and his bubbly blonde daughter Eeva Anna-Leena Dorendahl-Hutchings died, but what is certain is that tumult and heartache dominated four-year-old Eeva's short life.
Police have confirmed they are investigating an apparent murder-suicide but the cause of death will be determined by the NSW Coroner.
Eeva's grief-stricken mother Michelle Dorendahl spent several hours with detectives yesterday but is yet to speak publicly.
At Pottsville Beach, a single bunch of flowers was placed at the beach sits on the beach. A handwritten note alongside reads: 'BIG, big cuddles you precious innocent angel xxx'.
Eeva had been at the centre of a custody battle and Mr Hutchings was due to hand her over to her mother at Pottsville when they disappeared on January 11.
Before Hutchings disappeared with Eeva on January 11 he said in signed affidavits that he feared his estranged wife Michelle Dorendahl. ==================================================
Sadness at the heart of tragedy:
A GLIMPSE into the room which 35-year-old Greg Hutchings shared with his four-year-old daughter Eeva in his mother's Pottsville home reveals a normal suburban scene.
However, past the colourful hanging children's jackets and card which Eeva made for her dad, sits a container of anti-anxiety drugs.
They are a grim hint of the darkness behind the discovery of the bodies of the father and daughter - just a short walk from the front door of 55-year-old Diana Hutchings' first-storey flat.
They are a clue to the effect the tug-of-love over the custody of the four-year-old had on Hutchings.
The packet of Escitalopram was on a table when Ms Hutchings opened her doors to The Daily Telegraph while the search for the missing father and daughter was still under way last week.
She smiled throughout the meeting and said repeatedly: "I'm sleep-deprived. I just want them found.
"The room shared by Eeva and her father was unremarkable, if not a little musky.
- colourful children's jackets hung on a rack, a tiny pink fishing hat sat on the toddler's pillow.
And a card she had made for her Dad sat opened next to the double bed.
His family admitted Hutchings suffered depression.
Courts banned either parent from taking Eeva to "electronic music 'lifestyle' festivals" or to countries not party to The Hague convention on child abduction.
Both parents were also ordered not to "denigrate" the other in front of their daughter Eeva. ==================================================
He expressed fears his ex-partner planned to take Eeva to Finland and a Finnish passport was issued in Eeva's name in 2011 - but courts had imposed restrictions on both parents.
Mr Hutchings mother Diana yesterday said she did not believe her son had killed his daughter.
"I don't believe it was a murder-suicide, no," she said yesterday.
"Nobody could ever imagine Greg doing anything to harm his child.''
"Two people have passed away and I think they deserve the truth. I know the community wants answers - we want answers.
"It's unfair to jump to conclusions until we know. We have two beautiful people here (Eeva and Mr Hutchings) and we have to find a way to say goodbye and to honour their lives.
"The best thing we can do is to show some respect."
Detectives yesterday visited the Pottsville unit Mr Hutchings, 35, shared with his mother Diana, to take DNA samples.
Meanwhile friends of Ms Dorendahl took to Facebook to voice their heartbreak.
"Your community family loves you, we honour your mother, so sorry we failed to protect you. Fly free beautiful girl," one friend posted.
Many who knew the family believe the tragic double-death was the result of a desperate father who cracked.
The owner of the White Jade restaurant, and Mr Hutchings' former boss, told The Daily Telegraph: "He never turned up because of the custody fight ... we had to let him go (after two months)."
On the day he went missing with Eeva, Dorendahl went to the White Jade. She called police from the restaurant.
The court orders only hinted at the bitter fight over Eeva's company.
In applications to the Federal Circuit Court last year, Dorendahl expressed fears Hutchings was "delaying return to disappear with child," and "it will be hard to locate father as he is unemployed, has no assets, lives with his father and is behaving erratically."
Her fears proved prophetic.
After Eeva returned from a trip to Peru with her mother last year, Hutchings said: "I had grave concerns about my child travelling to South America … I do not see any justifiable reason to put my four-year-old child at risk when there is a safe alternative of Eeva being at home."
Police yesterday said formal identification of the bodies would take "considerable time" and they are treating the deaths as suspicious.
First, this is not some inexplicable "tragedy" where a father killed the child he "so adored" for some equally mysterious reason. So stop all the woo-woo, ain't-it-a-mystical-paradox rubbish.
There were plenty of red flags here, but of course the media doesn't identify them as such, or at least not very clearly.
Let's look at the father, GREG HUTCHINGS, without the blinders and phony sentimentality.
1) Even his own family (and presumably his enabler mother in denial) admits that he was "depressed" and on (unidentified) "anti-anxiety drugs."
2) He was 35, unemployed, and living at his mother's house in a "musty" room he shared with his daughter during his access time. So the guy is so dysfunctional that he can't even clean?
And even as a true portrait of this guy is coming together, the idiotic reporter characterizes the custody battle as a "tug-of-love" between the parents.
NO IT'S NOT! We have a mentally ill, barely functioning deadbeat father who, nevertheless, denigrates the mother of his child by claiming that he "feared" her. Which is crap, because who was it who murdered this girl? It wasn't Mom! Classic projection, a common move out the playbook of narcissistic control freaks and abusers.
Also note this:
1) The only smears against the Mom that are listed here, are a penchant for "electronic music." Nothing but a nebulous "lifestyle" choice--that the father also shared! This kind of random, arbitrary attack against the mother is also a common tactic among narcissistic abusers.
2) Daddy had his panties in a bunch about Mom taking the child to Finland without his authorization, and this deadbeat whack job was able to keep the courts from letting her.
Here we see the power of the fathers rights movement in Australia. Because if Mom had been able to leave Australia, this child would still be alive, wouldn't she? This is also classic projection, because it was because DADDY WAS PROVIDED ACCESS that he was able to take off with this child and kill her. This is also one of the grand achievements of the fathers rights movement, that any criminal sperm donor is granted his "rights" with no questions asked and no regard for the safety of any other human being.
3) But wait. Daddy also "feared" the mother taking the daughter to Peru? Once again, it wasn't the mother who killed the girl! The actual outcome shows that the father's "fears" were nothing but manufactured bullsh** meant to muddy the waters. Unfortunately, he succeeded admirably.
4) It's lazy and inaccurate, therefore, to conclude that this "tragic double-death was the result of a desperate father who cracked."
In fact, once again we have a protective mother WHOSE REAL AND JUSTIFIABLE CONCERNS WERE IGNORED BY THE COURTS. We know they were real, because the real-life outcomes PROVED they were real, and not tit-for-tat he said/she said.
"In applications to the Federal Circuit Court last year, Dorendahl expressed fears Hutchings was "delaying return to disappear with child," and 'it will be hard to locate father as he is unemployed, has no assets, lives with his father and is behaving erratically.'"
And that turned out to be the crux of the matter, not some nonsense about a mysterious tragedy arising from a "tug-of-love."
This was a WHOLLY PREVENTABLE MURDER that was set up and enabled by Australia's family courts, which once again assumed that the mother was lying or exaggerating so they ignored her. And therefore once again, they provided a killer father with unfettered ACCESS to his murder victim.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/inside-the-life-of-a-child-killed-so-tragically-what-led-greg-hutchings-to-destroy-the-child-he-so-adored/story-fni0cx12-1226813453165
Inside the life of a child killed so tragically: What led Greg Hutchings to destroy the child he so adored?
Taylor Auerbach • The Daily Telegraph • January 30, 2014 12:00AM
A tragic end to the two and a half week search for a father and his little girl who vanished just over the New South Wales border as two bodies were uncovered in sand dunes near Pottsville. ...
•Eeva may have been killed through drowning or poisoning
•No 'weapons' were found at crime scene
•Post-mortem conducted today - but decomposition may make cause of death hard to determine
POLICE are investigating today whether drowning or poisoning could have been the cause of death of four-year-old Eeva.
No weapons have been found at Pottsville Beach, where the bodies of Eeva and her father Greg Hutchings were found on Tuesday, but determining the cause of death may be difficult as the bodies - which may have sat under a pandanus tree for two weeks - are badly-decomposed.
Investigators are yet to determine how Hutchings and his bubbly blonde daughter Eeva Anna-Leena Dorendahl-Hutchings died, but what is certain is that tumult and heartache dominated four-year-old Eeva's short life.
Police have confirmed they are investigating an apparent murder-suicide but the cause of death will be determined by the NSW Coroner.
Eeva's grief-stricken mother Michelle Dorendahl spent several hours with detectives yesterday but is yet to speak publicly.
At Pottsville Beach, a single bunch of flowers was placed at the beach sits on the beach. A handwritten note alongside reads: 'BIG, big cuddles you precious innocent angel xxx'.
Eeva had been at the centre of a custody battle and Mr Hutchings was due to hand her over to her mother at Pottsville when they disappeared on January 11.
Before Hutchings disappeared with Eeva on January 11 he said in signed affidavits that he feared his estranged wife Michelle Dorendahl. ==================================================
Sadness at the heart of tragedy:
A GLIMPSE into the room which 35-year-old Greg Hutchings shared with his four-year-old daughter Eeva in his mother's Pottsville home reveals a normal suburban scene.
However, past the colourful hanging children's jackets and card which Eeva made for her dad, sits a container of anti-anxiety drugs.
They are a grim hint of the darkness behind the discovery of the bodies of the father and daughter - just a short walk from the front door of 55-year-old Diana Hutchings' first-storey flat.
They are a clue to the effect the tug-of-love over the custody of the four-year-old had on Hutchings.
The packet of Escitalopram was on a table when Ms Hutchings opened her doors to The Daily Telegraph while the search for the missing father and daughter was still under way last week.
She smiled throughout the meeting and said repeatedly: "I'm sleep-deprived. I just want them found.
"The room shared by Eeva and her father was unremarkable, if not a little musky.
- colourful children's jackets hung on a rack, a tiny pink fishing hat sat on the toddler's pillow.
And a card she had made for her Dad sat opened next to the double bed.
His family admitted Hutchings suffered depression.
Courts banned either parent from taking Eeva to "electronic music 'lifestyle' festivals" or to countries not party to The Hague convention on child abduction.
Both parents were also ordered not to "denigrate" the other in front of their daughter Eeva. ==================================================
He expressed fears his ex-partner planned to take Eeva to Finland and a Finnish passport was issued in Eeva's name in 2011 - but courts had imposed restrictions on both parents.
Mr Hutchings mother Diana yesterday said she did not believe her son had killed his daughter.
"I don't believe it was a murder-suicide, no," she said yesterday.
"Nobody could ever imagine Greg doing anything to harm his child.''
"Two people have passed away and I think they deserve the truth. I know the community wants answers - we want answers.
"It's unfair to jump to conclusions until we know. We have two beautiful people here (Eeva and Mr Hutchings) and we have to find a way to say goodbye and to honour their lives.
"The best thing we can do is to show some respect."
Detectives yesterday visited the Pottsville unit Mr Hutchings, 35, shared with his mother Diana, to take DNA samples.
Meanwhile friends of Ms Dorendahl took to Facebook to voice their heartbreak.
"Your community family loves you, we honour your mother, so sorry we failed to protect you. Fly free beautiful girl," one friend posted.
Many who knew the family believe the tragic double-death was the result of a desperate father who cracked.
The owner of the White Jade restaurant, and Mr Hutchings' former boss, told The Daily Telegraph: "He never turned up because of the custody fight ... we had to let him go (after two months)."
On the day he went missing with Eeva, Dorendahl went to the White Jade. She called police from the restaurant.
The court orders only hinted at the bitter fight over Eeva's company.
In applications to the Federal Circuit Court last year, Dorendahl expressed fears Hutchings was "delaying return to disappear with child," and "it will be hard to locate father as he is unemployed, has no assets, lives with his father and is behaving erratically."
Her fears proved prophetic.
After Eeva returned from a trip to Peru with her mother last year, Hutchings said: "I had grave concerns about my child travelling to South America … I do not see any justifiable reason to put my four-year-old child at risk when there is a safe alternative of Eeva being at home."
Police yesterday said formal identification of the bodies would take "considerable time" and they are treating the deaths as suspicious.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Killer dad had threatened family for years, threatened to kill mom (Australia)
Thank you Herald Sun for saying what all the handwringers are afraid to say. Dad GREG ANDERSON (previously misidentified here as GREG BATTY) should have been behind bars. The police FAILED to do their jobs.
READ THIS. Daddy was a disaster. From child porn to death threats against the mother (and others), to assaults, to "child custody" battles after ignoring the kid for years....
HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAD CHILD ACCESS AT ALL. Thank you Herald Sun for having the guts to say so.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/killer-dad-greg-anderson-tormented-family-for-years-faced-arrest-warrants-and-threatened-to-kill-lukes-mother/story-fni0ffnk-1226826516956
Killer dad Greg Anderson tormented family for years, faced arrest warrants and threatened to kill Luke’s mother
David Hurley, Anthony Dowsley and James Dowling • Herald Sun • February 13, 2014 11:00PM
THE Herald Sun can reveal that Greg Anderson should have been behind bars when he murdered his son.
Police failed to execute arrest warrants in the weeks leading up to Wednesday night’s horrific incident.
Anderson was a violent drifter who had tormented his estranged family for years.
The warrants were issued after he repeatedly failed to turn up at court on charges of assaulting Luke’s mum and threatening to kill her.
It is understood four separate warrants for his arrest were issued throughout January but police failed to apprehend him.
Victoria Police said that its investigations would look into “not only the events on the night, but also all relevant circumstances which preceded them”.
The force said it would not be commenting further.
On May 16, 2012, Anderson assaulted Rosie Batty by grabbing her by the hair, pushing her to the ground and kicking her before threatening her with a glass vase.
Ms Batty told police she feared her former partner suffered from some form of mental disorder.
Anderson was also arrested and charged after making threats to kill her on January 3 last year.
During the incident Anderson allegedly said to Ms Batty: “Right now I really want to kill you. I want to cut off your foot. I hope you have made a will.”
Anderson was arrested again by police on May 27 last year after attending his son’s football training.
Sources say Anderson, who was living in his unregistered car, had little to do with his son for years before re-entering his life and taking his mother through a long court battle.
Although known to Hastings and Frankston police, who felt sorry for Ms Batty, Anderson’s legal matters were ongoing so he didn’t have prior convictions at the time of his death.
Despite the incidents of domestic violence in the past two years, Anderson and Ms Batty had tried to work out access visits for Luke. In addition to the threats to kill and assault charges, Anderson was also facing a charge relating to accessing child porn.
He was arrested after viewing the porn at Emerald Hill Library on November 17, 2012.
Library staff noticed what he was looking at and raised the alarm. When Anderson was arrested he was found with a USB stick containing the child porn images.
Sources say Anderson had psychological issues but refused to be assessed or treated.
It is believed family had wanted Anderson to get counselling but he had refused.
Considering there were warrants out for Anderson’s arrest, questions have been raised as to whether he should have been allowed to have an access visit.
A man who shared a house with Anderson said he had to ask him to leave after being threatened with death.
The man, who did not want to be named, had lived with Anderson in Chelsea Heights since late last year but decided three weeks ago he had to go.
“We knew he had psychological problems but we found out recently how crazy he was,” the man said yesterday.
“He threatened to kill me. I had to take out an intervention order against him. I was meant to go
LUKE Batty was seen with his father after 6pm, when training finished, doing extra batting practice.
The Herald Sun understands about 20 minutes later, the father was spotted bending over the motionless boy.
Police believe the child had been struck to the head with a cricket bat and attacked with a knife as he lay prone on the field. It was initially thought Luke may have suffered a sporting injury so ambulance officers were called. They were confronted by a bloodied, knife-wielding Mr Anderson.
Four police arrived soon after and were menaced by Mr Anderson, who reportedly asked to be shot as he advanced on them. Capsicum spray had no impact and, as he then closed on one policeman, that officer fired one shot to the chest, felling Mr Anderson.
Police then moved in and cleared the weapon away but Mr Anderson continued to struggle as paramedics tried to get him into an ambulance and off to hospital.
No car connected to the armed dad was found at the scene, leading police to believe he may have caught the train from Chelsea Heights to Tyabb. A premeditated suicide-by-cop scenario is one element of the probe into the tragedy.
The father made no attempt to leave the scene after the attack on his son and continued to advance on police as the risk of being shot escalated.
Police Association secretary Greg Davies said there was then no option but to fire.
“There’s every likelihood this is suicide-by-cop. You’ve got a knife and they’ve all got firearms,” Sen-Sgt Davies said.
“It’s a police officer’s worst nightmare to see a young tacker apparently murdered by a man who turns out to be his father, who then advances on you with a knife. They (police) appear to have done everything possible to avoid this outcome.”
Veteran police were shocked at the brutality, one comparing it with the actions of child-killers Robert Farquharson and Arthur Freeman. “This is horrific and it’s in front of other kids,” one officer said.
- with Mark Buttler
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
May 2012: Anderson unlawfully assaults Rosemary Batty at her home in Tyabb by grabbing her hair, pushing her to the ground and kicking her before threatening her with a glass vase. Later charged.
November 2012: Caught by staff at Emerald Hill library viewing child porn on a public computer. Charged by police with viewing child porn and two months later possessing child porn when officers find him with a USB stick containing the images.
January 2013: Anderson again attends Ms Batty’s home and allegedly threatens to kill her. Arrested later that day and charged.
April 2013: Fails to appear in accordance with his bail conditions at Frankston Magistrates’ Court.
January 2014: Warrants are issued for Anderson’s arrest after repeated failures to attend his court dates.
READ THIS. Daddy was a disaster. From child porn to death threats against the mother (and others), to assaults, to "child custody" battles after ignoring the kid for years....
HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAD CHILD ACCESS AT ALL. Thank you Herald Sun for having the guts to say so.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/killer-dad-greg-anderson-tormented-family-for-years-faced-arrest-warrants-and-threatened-to-kill-lukes-mother/story-fni0ffnk-1226826516956
Killer dad Greg Anderson tormented family for years, faced arrest warrants and threatened to kill Luke’s mother
David Hurley, Anthony Dowsley and James Dowling • Herald Sun • February 13, 2014 11:00PM
THE Herald Sun can reveal that Greg Anderson should have been behind bars when he murdered his son.
Police failed to execute arrest warrants in the weeks leading up to Wednesday night’s horrific incident.
Anderson was a violent drifter who had tormented his estranged family for years.
The warrants were issued after he repeatedly failed to turn up at court on charges of assaulting Luke’s mum and threatening to kill her.
It is understood four separate warrants for his arrest were issued throughout January but police failed to apprehend him.
Victoria Police said that its investigations would look into “not only the events on the night, but also all relevant circumstances which preceded them”.
The force said it would not be commenting further.
On May 16, 2012, Anderson assaulted Rosie Batty by grabbing her by the hair, pushing her to the ground and kicking her before threatening her with a glass vase.
Ms Batty told police she feared her former partner suffered from some form of mental disorder.
Anderson was also arrested and charged after making threats to kill her on January 3 last year.
During the incident Anderson allegedly said to Ms Batty: “Right now I really want to kill you. I want to cut off your foot. I hope you have made a will.”
Anderson was arrested again by police on May 27 last year after attending his son’s football training.
Sources say Anderson, who was living in his unregistered car, had little to do with his son for years before re-entering his life and taking his mother through a long court battle.
Although known to Hastings and Frankston police, who felt sorry for Ms Batty, Anderson’s legal matters were ongoing so he didn’t have prior convictions at the time of his death.
Despite the incidents of domestic violence in the past two years, Anderson and Ms Batty had tried to work out access visits for Luke. In addition to the threats to kill and assault charges, Anderson was also facing a charge relating to accessing child porn.
He was arrested after viewing the porn at Emerald Hill Library on November 17, 2012.
Library staff noticed what he was looking at and raised the alarm. When Anderson was arrested he was found with a USB stick containing the child porn images.
Sources say Anderson had psychological issues but refused to be assessed or treated.
It is believed family had wanted Anderson to get counselling but he had refused.
Considering there were warrants out for Anderson’s arrest, questions have been raised as to whether he should have been allowed to have an access visit.
A man who shared a house with Anderson said he had to ask him to leave after being threatened with death.
The man, who did not want to be named, had lived with Anderson in Chelsea Heights since late last year but decided three weeks ago he had to go.
“We knew he had psychological problems but we found out recently how crazy he was,” the man said yesterday.
“He threatened to kill me. I had to take out an intervention order against him. I was meant to go
LUKE Batty was seen with his father after 6pm, when training finished, doing extra batting practice.
The Herald Sun understands about 20 minutes later, the father was spotted bending over the motionless boy.
Police believe the child had been struck to the head with a cricket bat and attacked with a knife as he lay prone on the field. It was initially thought Luke may have suffered a sporting injury so ambulance officers were called. They were confronted by a bloodied, knife-wielding Mr Anderson.
Four police arrived soon after and were menaced by Mr Anderson, who reportedly asked to be shot as he advanced on them. Capsicum spray had no impact and, as he then closed on one policeman, that officer fired one shot to the chest, felling Mr Anderson.
Police then moved in and cleared the weapon away but Mr Anderson continued to struggle as paramedics tried to get him into an ambulance and off to hospital.
No car connected to the armed dad was found at the scene, leading police to believe he may have caught the train from Chelsea Heights to Tyabb. A premeditated suicide-by-cop scenario is one element of the probe into the tragedy.
The father made no attempt to leave the scene after the attack on his son and continued to advance on police as the risk of being shot escalated.
Police Association secretary Greg Davies said there was then no option but to fire.
“There’s every likelihood this is suicide-by-cop. You’ve got a knife and they’ve all got firearms,” Sen-Sgt Davies said.
“It’s a police officer’s worst nightmare to see a young tacker apparently murdered by a man who turns out to be his father, who then advances on you with a knife. They (police) appear to have done everything possible to avoid this outcome.”
Veteran police were shocked at the brutality, one comparing it with the actions of child-killers Robert Farquharson and Arthur Freeman. “This is horrific and it’s in front of other kids,” one officer said.
- with Mark Buttler
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
May 2012: Anderson unlawfully assaults Rosemary Batty at her home in Tyabb by grabbing her hair, pushing her to the ground and kicking her before threatening her with a glass vase. Later charged.
November 2012: Caught by staff at Emerald Hill library viewing child porn on a public computer. Charged by police with viewing child porn and two months later possessing child porn when officers find him with a USB stick containing the images.
January 2013: Anderson again attends Ms Batty’s home and allegedly threatens to kill her. Arrested later that day and charged.
April 2013: Fails to appear in accordance with his bail conditions at Frankston Magistrates’ Court.
January 2014: Warrants are issued for Anderson’s arrest after repeated failures to attend his court dates.
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