Trial By Water
Robert Farquharson has been locked up for decades for an unthinkable crime: murdering his three sons in a dam on Father's Day, 2005. He's always insisted he's innocent. Now scientists and lawyers are raising serious doubts about his conviction, and asking whether in his case, the justice system has got it wrong.
Trial By Water is a five-part investigative podcast series into the case from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. It's hosted by award-winning journalist Michael Bachelard, who has been looking into this story for almost a decade. Subscribers get exclusive access to new episodes a week early.
Hosted and produced by
![Michael Bachelard](/web/20240704162052im_/https://www.smh.com.au/trial-by-water/Bachelard.png)
Senior writer and former deputy editor and investigations editor of The Age
![Ruby Schwartz](/web/20240704162052im_/https://www.smh.com.au/trial-by-water/Schwartz.png)
Head of investigative podcasts at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
Episodes
Episode 5: The Golden Thread
For Robert Farquharson’s appeal to succeed, he’ll have to change the minds of people within a system that’s already twice decided his guilt.
Episode 4: The Dad Test
In the story of Robert Farquharson, there’s one thing that’s the hardest to understand.
Episode 3: Bad Memories
Listen now to the third episode of the podcast investigation on the Robert Farquharson case – and why memory evidence can be unreliable.
Episode 2: Strands of the Rope
Listen now to the second episode of the podcast on the Robert Farquharson case – and the questions about the science used against him.
Episode 1: Father’s Day
In a new podcast investigation, we explore why a growing number of experts believe the case against convicted child killer Robert Farquharson is “fundamentally flawed”.
Credits
- Host
- Michael Bachelard
- Executive Producer
- Ruby Schwartz
- Mixing
- Martin Peralta
- Editor
- Mathew Dunckley
- Additional reporting
- Nick McKenzie, Ruby Schwartz
- Additional Editing
- Chris Paine, Patrick Elligett, Tom McKendrick
- Special thanks to
- David McMillan and Martine Chaussard
How to listen to podcasts
On your iPhone or iPad
- Open the ‘Podcasts’ app on your iOS device. If you don’t have it on your device you will need to download it from the App Store.
- Open the search page by tapping on the magnifying glass button in the bottom right corner. This will open up the search box.
- Search the name of the podcast you want to find (e.g. Please Explain) and tap the search button on the keyboard. You will then be shown a grid of search results.
- Tap on the podcast you want from the search results and this will take you to the homepage with a list of available episodes.
- Choose an episode to play by tapping on it or subscribe to the podcast to have it appear in your library and automatically download the latest episodes.
- For more information refer to Apple support.
On your Android device
- Download and install the Google Podcasts app from the Google Play Store.
- Open the ‘Google Podcasts’ app and use the search box to search the name of the podcast you want to find (e.g. Please Explain).
- Tap on the podcast you want from the search results and this will take you to the homepage with a list of available episodes.
- Choose an episode to play by tapping on it or subscribe to the podcast to have it appear at the top of the app. A new section of the app will then notify you of new podcast episodes when you are subscribed.
- For more information refer to Google support.