Read This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial for Free Online

not confident with Bailey, the toddler. At first he had the
boys to sleep over only rarely. But football was their shared obsession and, once
the season started, they stayed with him every second weekend.
    Farquharson had agreed, without need of Family Court involvement, to pay maintenance
at the monthly rate laid down by the Child Support Agency. Half of it he put straight
into the mortgage payments on the house, and the rest he gave to Gambino, who as
a supporting mother was receiving her own government cheque. He liked to buy his
children gifts of clothes and toys, but financially he was struggling. He could not
see how to get his life back on track. In the winter of 2005 his wages went up, and
his maintenance payments were about to be raised accordingly. The letter announcing
this increase did not arrive until after the boys had died, but he knew it was coming,
and he was very angry with the Child Support Agency. He thought they ‘didn’t give
the guy a fair go’. On what would turn out to be the last Wednesday of their children’s
lives, Gambino suggested to Farquharson that he should stop paying her the non-mortgage
part of the maintenance, and put that money towards a house of his own, so that when
the boys wanted to see their dad they could hop on their bikes and go. But he said
no, because it was not legal.
    And then there was the sore point of the two cars. At the time she ended the marriage,
Gambino had pressed Farquharson to take from their house whatever he liked. Many
a rejected spouse has heard that rush of guilty generosity at the door, ‘I’ll give
you everything!’—with its unspoken rider—‘except what you really want: my love’.
The only thing she asked for, because she would have the kids full-time, was the
newer of their two cars—a 2002 VX Commodore. The dejected Farquharson went along
with it, but he did not like it one bit.
    …
    Father’s Day 2005 did not fall on one of Farquharson’s scheduled access weekends,
but at Jai’s football presentation on the Friday evening, Gambino suggested to Farquharson
that she should bring the boys to him on Sunday afternoon for a special visit. They
arrived just as Farquharson got home from work. They brought gifts they had chosen
for him: a framed picture of themselves, and a set of saucepans. Jai, the eldest,
was upset because he had forgotten to bring a wooden back-scratcher that he had bought
especially. The boys asked if they could stay with their father for tea. He was not expecting them for a meal, and had no food in the house. The children saw the chance
for a rare treat: Kentucky Fried Chicken in Geelong. Farquharson agreed to have them
back at Gambino’s place by 7.30 p.m.
    ‘It was three o’clock,’ she told the court. ‘Bailey said, “Cuddle, Mum”. I gave them
a cuddle.’ Her voice rose to a register almost beyond audible. ‘That was the last
time I saw my children.’
    …
    Gambino and Stephen Moules spent the rest of the day in Geelong, where Moules had
to inspect the progress of a job. They got back to his house in Winchelsea by 6.30
p.m. and he started to cook the tea. Just before the appointed hand-over time, Gambino
drove to her own house, taking with her Moules’ younger son Zach, who was keen to
see her boys. Ten minutes later, while she was drawing the curtains against the dark,
she saw a white Commodore pull in. ‘Here they are now,’ she thought.
    But on her doorstep she found Farquharson with two men. He was saturated, delirious,
and he kept saying, ‘The kids are in the car. They’re in the water.’
    In the witness stand Gambino began to rock on her feet, a rhythmic swaying.
    She called Moules on her mobile, then jumped into her car, with Zach beside her and
Farquharson in the back seat, and headed out on to the Princes Highway. ‘Where? Where?’
    ‘Near the overpass!’ Farquharson shouted. ‘Keep going. Keep going!’
    The boy screamed, ‘Slow down! You’re frightening me!’
    She looked at the speedo.