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True Crime · The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

Trial by Water

by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

Trial by Water is an investigative podcast series about Robert Farquharson, who has been locked up for decades for an unthinkable crime: murdering his three sons in a dam on Father’s Day, 2005. Now scientists and lawyers are asking the question: did we get it wrong? And is this man in prison for a crime he didn’t commit?

Latest episodes

Showing 15 · updated from the feed

Introducing Virginia

Virginia Giuffre was fearless in taking down some of the world’s most powerful people. As Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent victim, she helped expose his crimes and hold h

Jul 29
1 min

Diagnosing Murder | Ep 4: The List

Kabir and Dipika's case reaches its dramatic conclusion. And, while officials say they're not keeping track of how many shaken baby cases there are in Australia, an unlik

Oct 31 2025
1 h 00 min

Diagnosing Murder | Ep 3: The Engine Room

Once forensic physicians believe a child might have been shaken, their next step is to look for a perpetrator. When they call in police and child protection, the investig

Oct 24 2025
56 min

Diagnosing Murder | Ep 2: The Science

Doctors and lawyers can't come to a consensus on the science of shaken baby syndrome 50 years after it was first proposed as a theory. Does shaking a baby actually lead t

Oct 17 2025
1 h 00 min

Diagnosing Murder | Ep 1: The Theory

One evening Kabir's baby stops breathing. When he and his wife Dipika rush to hospital, they expect their daughter will receive the best treatment possible. Instead, the

Oct 10 2025
46 min

Introducing: Diagnosing Murder

For decades, families in Australia and overseas, have been accused of one of the worst crimes imaginable. Diagnosing Murder is an investigative podcast about parents who'

Sep 25 2025
4 min

Bonus Episode: Farquharson Inside

Robert Farquharson has now spent nearly two decades in prison for murdering his three sons. We've made multiple requests to Corrections Victoria to interview Farquharson,

Apr 6 2025
26 min

Bonus Episode: The Psych Report

When we first released this podcast, we found a gaping hole in the evidence against Robert Farquharson. It seemed like nobody had done a psychological evaluation of a man

Dec 19 2024
24 min

Bonus Episode: Your questions answered

Since releasing the Trial by Water podcast, we’ve been contacted by a lot of people. Some have wanted to ask questions, some to give feedback – positive and negative – an

Jul 25 2024
40 min

Episode 5: The Golden Thread

As lawyer Luke McMahon prepares a new fight for Robert Farquharson’s release, we discover something new: that Farquharson and his ex-wife believed that police investigato

Jul 5 2024
56 min

Episode 4: The Dad Test

In the story of Robert Farquharson, there's one thing that’s hardest to understand: his behaviour in the minutes and hours after the crash. Because on that night, his a

Jun 28 2024
58 min

Episode 3: Bad Memories

There were two key witnesses in the Robert Farquharson case. The first was Greg King, an old friend of Farquharson, and the story he told provided police with something

Jun 21 2024
57 min

Episode 2: Strands of the Rope

A day after Robert Farquharson drove his car into the dam with his three sons, the homicide squad took over the investigation. Sceptical of his story and suspecting Farqu

Jun 14 2024
58 min

Trial By Water, Episode 1: Father's Day

On Father’s Day, 2005, Robert Farquharson crashed his car into a dam. He survived, but his three children who were in the car with him didn’t. At first it seemed like a t

May 31 2024
56 min

Introducing: Trial by Water

From The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Trial by Water is a new investigative podcast series about Robert Farquharson, who has been locked up for decades for an unthinkab

May 26 2024
4 min

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

Thank goodness for truth seekers like Michael and Ruby! Very well done podcast (music is great). The case they make to reexamine a case of supposed patricide - heartbreaking for the victims and devastating for this poor father. Based on what his friends and family share here, I would agree that this case has NONE of the hallmarks of a case where a father murders his children. The supposed “evidence” presented historically against RF is so weak and would never stand up in court with modern audiences and knowledge of examples where the legal system botches things. In a similar vein as HBO’s Yogurt Shop Murders and season 2 of the Bear Brook podcast. Recommended.

Jamaicanmecr4zy76 · Mar 2026

Careful investigation of this heartbreaking case. Utterly absorbing yet never sensationalistic. Top notch journalism. Makes me want to listen to and read more by the team who worked on this podcast. Keep up the good work, people!

Unica Sola · Feb 2025

I do much prefer a Podcast with a point of view and this has one based on scientific evidence. And so much better than some other “trial by podcast” that seek to try folks BEFORE they’ve been to trial (eg Teachers Pet). It seems so much more virtuous to use Podcasts to right the wrongs of justice gone awry than seek to convict in the court of public opinion! This Podcast was so well crafted and so easy to follow the strands — well done. I hope some good comes of this!

Doodle’s Dad · Jul 2024

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