Oct 13, 2005, 5:22 GMT
Sydney - Australian Rob Farquaharson was driving his three boys back to the home of his estranged wife when his car left the road, ran across a field and plunged into a pond.
He survived, the three boys drowned, and Melbourne murder squad detectives were soon on hand to question him about the catastrophic end to a Father's Day access visit.
Farquharson wasn't charged and the three deaths were written up as a tragic accident. But the fear that it might not have been so was informed by statistics showing a high incidence of children dying at the hands of a parent after separation and a custody battle.
In Australia, an average of 25 children per year are murdered by a parent, with fathers or stepfathers responsible for 60 per cent of deaths.
Carolyn Harris Johnson has written a book on this most chilling and painful of subjects called 'Come With Daddy', in which she concludes that the prime motive for men killing their children is to get back at their wives for leaving them.
'Familicide doesn't have anything to do custody disputes,' Harris Johnson said. 'It happens after a couple separates, but it has much more to do with the attitude of the male towards the wife and children and his inability to accept his loss of control over them.'
She found that most of those killed by a parent were under the age of eight when they died. The killings were most likely to occur in the first few weeks after a couple separated or about a year later.
'In almost all cases there was a clear history of domestic violence and threats to kill,' Harris Johnson said.
Farquarson had however been a loving father to Jai, 9, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2, and there was no history of domestic violence or threats.
A spokesman for the Victorian police said Farquharson may have inadvertently contributed to the deaths when he escaped from the vehicle. 'We think the car sat for a short time on the surface, then the driver's door has been opened and the car sunk straight down,' the spokesman told reporters.
After he swam out of the pond, Farquharson flagged down a car and was driven to his wife's home eight kilometres away. It was then that police were called.
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