‘Just Say Goodbye’ (January 2013 online edition)

‘Just Say Goodbye’‘Kill them’. I said, ‘Bullshit, that’s your own flesh and blood, Robbie’. He said,‘So I hate them’. I said, ‘You would go to gaol’. He said, ‘No, I won’t, I will killmyself before it gets to that’. Then I asked him how, he said ‘It would be close by’.I said, ‘What’? He said, ‘Accident involving a dam where I survive and thekids don’t’. He then said it would be on a special day. I asked him what day, hesaid, ‘Something like Fathers’ Day so everybody would remember it when itwas father’s day and I was the last one to have them for the last time, not her.Then every Fathers’ Day she would suffer for the rest of her life’. 79Robert Farquharson had been separated from his wife for almost a year andkilled his children on an access visit (Tyson 2009). There was no evidence ofprevious violence towards the children. In sentencing Robert at his first trial,Justice Cummins said ‘You had love for your children; but it was displaced byvindictiveness towards your estranged wife, which led you to these crimes …you contemplated it over months … on the road back to Winchelsea on Father’sDay you finally decided to fulfil your contemplation.’ 80 There was no mentionof violence towards the mother prior to separation, but there is evidence ofjealousy, resentment, anger and hatred towards her after separation.The following case, also extensively covered in the media during the writingof this discussion paper, is strikingly similar. In this case, the father was alsoangry with his ex-partner about their separation. He was found at trial to havekilled his child to punish his ex-partner.Arthur FreemanOn 29 January 2009 in Melbourne, Victoria, Arthur Freeman (36 years) stopped his caron the West Gate Bridge, Melbourne and threw his four-year old daughter Darcey fromthe bridge. She died later in hospital. That day Arthur Freeman, who lived in Hawthorn,was driving his three children, aged seven, four and two, to school from his parents’place in Aireys Inlet. It was to be Darcey’s first day of school. He asked Darcey to climbinto the front seat of the car. 81 He pulled her from the car and led her over to the edge ofthe bridge and threw her over. He then returned to his car.Shortly before the incident Arthur Freeman spoke to his ex-wife, Peta, on the phoneand said ‘just say goodbye … you will never see them again’ (Anderson 2011a). Afterthe incident he drove with the two remaining boys to the Commonwealth Law Courtsbuilding in the city. Over the previous two days, he had been at the courts to attendproceedings relating to the residence and access arrangements for his children. Hebroke down in a distressed state in the court foyer and was subsequently arrested inrelation to Darcey’s death. Arthur Freeman pleaded not guilty on the basis of mentalimpairment. In April 2011 he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. 8279 R v Farquharson [2009] VSCA 307 (para 44).80 DPP v Farquharson [2007] VSC 469 (para 16).81 R v Freeman [2011] VSC 139 (para 8).82 Arthur Freeman was sentenced to a non-parole period of 32 years.53