A father who murdered his three sons has had his name stripped from his children’s graves.
Robert Farquharson - who deliberately drove his car into a dam at Winchelsea, killing his three children Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and two-year-old Bailey on Father’s Day in 2005 - owned his sons’ gravesite.
In a first for Victoria, Department of Health secretary Euan Wallace on January 4 decided to force Farquharson to relinquish his rights of internment to the site.
“In situations where serious criminal offences have occurred, the Department of Health may vary or force the surrender of a right of interment,” a departmental spokesman told AAP.
“This protects people who have been impacted by the offence, when further significant distress could result from the right of interment being exercised by the current holder.”
The decision meant Farquharson could not be buried in a neighbouring grave to the children, and his name was also scratched off his children’s headstone, the ABC reported.
Farquharson’s name appeared next to that of the children’s mother, Cindy Gambino-Moules, on the boys’ headstone.
It read “much loved and cherished children of ...” the broadcaster reported.
Under state legislation, the department has the power to force people to surrender their right of interment after they receive an application from someone affected by a crime.
Victorian minister Harriet Shing said the family of the murdered children had achieved something important with the removal of Farquharson’s name.
“We made important reforms that enable families to continue a process of grieving and closure,” she told reporters on Jan. 12.
Ms. Gambino-Moules died in May 2022 after a medical episode at her home.
Her family remembered her as a “warrior for justice”.
Through unfathomable tragedy and suffering, Ms. Gambino-Moules found new hope as she went on to have two sons, Hezekiah and Isaiah, with her husband Stephen Moules, her family said at the time of her death.
Farquharson was found guilty of the boys’ murder in 2007 before his conviction was quashed on appeal in December 2009.
He was again found guilty in 2010 and sentenced to life with a minimum of 33 years. A further two appeals by Farquharson were later rejected.
