‘Just Say Goodbye’ (January 2013 online edition)

‘Just Say Goodbye’In the following three cases, there was no indication of direct physical violenceagainst the mother prior to the filicide, although in one case (Arthur Freeman)there was evidence of controlling behaviour and in another (Dean Williamson)there was indication of possessive and jealous behaviour towards the ex-partner.In each of the cases there is evidence that the father’s anger towards the motherin relation to their separation was a central factor in the filicide.Anger and revenge after separationResearch suggests that many men who have separated from their partners feelanger towards them, that this anger can last for years and that the blamingof ex-partners intensifies over time (Flood 2010). The following case wasextensively reported in the media during the period of writing this discussionpaper. The evidence at the trial indicated the father was extremely angry withhis ex-partner about their separation and that he killed the children to punishher. This case highlights the role of anger towards an ex-partner as a motive forkilling children.Robert FarquharsonOn 4 September 2005, near Winchelsea, Victoria, Jai (ten years), Tyler (seven years)and Bailey (two years) drowned after the car their father, Robert Farquharson (36 years),was driving went into a dam. Robert Farquharson freed himself from the car. The boyswere trapped inside, and the car sank seven metres to the bottom of the dam. RobertFarquharson was separated from the children’s mother. He had spent the day, Fathers’Day, with the children and was travelling on the highway towards their mother’s homewhere he was due to return. After the incident, Robert told police he did not recalldriving into the dam. He said he recalled coughing and then found himself underwater. 70 In 2007 Robert Farquharson was convicted of murder and sentenced to lifeimprisonment. 71At Robert Farquharson’s trials, his defence counsel argued that he had blackedout as a result of a medical condition known as cough syncope. 72 The prosecutionargued that the incident was not an accident but the result of a conscious,voluntary and deliberate act to punish the children’s mother, Cindy, for themarital break-up. They submitted that he was ‘determined to punish her by70 R v Farquharson [2010] VSC 462 (para 28), R v Farquharson [2009] VSCA 307 (para 9).71 Robert Farquharson appealed his conviction and sentence and was again found guilty at a retrial in 2010.He was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison. In September 2011 he was granted an appeal of hisconvictions on the basis that the jury at his trial should have been given the option of convicting him of thelesser crime of manslaughter by criminal negligence (ABC News 2011a). At the time of writing a date had notyet been set for the appeal.72 Cough syncope is a condition in which a person coughs to the extent that they lose consciousness.51