Listening and Learning (July 2024)

This month I have been listening to some new podcasts on my commute to/from work each day. Here (hear!) are some of the podcasts I have been listening to lately.

Trial By Water

The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age have been reviewing the Robert Faraquharson case to see whether there is new evidence that would enable him to appeal.

On Father's Day in September 2005, Faraquharson was driving his three sons through rural Victoria when his car veered off the road, through a fence and into a deep dam. The man escaped, but Jai (8), Tyler (6) and Bailey (2) drowned in the murky dark waters. He claimed he had a coughing fit causing him to black out (cough syncope) and that this was a terrible accident. The jury disagreed and found him guilty of murder. He was sentenced to thirty-three years in jail. 

Twenty years later more is known about cough syncope and there is better ways to test his claims about how the car ended up in the dam. While Faraquharson's appeals have been exhausted, a change of law and new scientific evidence may allow him one more chance to have his version of events heard. 

I was keen to hear this podcast as I followed the case at the time. Helen Garner's book This House of Grief  (2014) explores the case in depth. Garner was in court each day, reviewing the evidence as the jury had done. 

I was also interested to learn if there had been a miscarriage of justice. There have been several cases in Australia where parents have been wrongly convicted of murdering their children - like Lindy Chamberlain and Kathleen Folbigg. Was Farquharson also wrongly convicted?

Over a five episode podcast, journalist Michael Bachelard seeks to review the case and ask if it is possible that Faraquharson might be innocent. I have listened to all episodes and can see that there may be some holes in the case which may raise questions in another jury, but I don't know that it would be sufficient to put the conviction in doubt. Interesting Bachelard released a bonus episode to respond to listeners' questions. I will continue to follow this case and see if and how the justice system responds to this new appeal.

The trailer is here:

Bronwyn

In 2018 I was obsessed with journalist Hedley Thomas' The Teacher's Pet podcast in which he investigated the 1982 disappearance of Lynette Simms, a young wife and mother. The podcast investigated Lyn's husband, Chris Dawson, a local school teacher who moved his teenage girlfriend into the home moments after his wife disappeared. The podcast was removed from download when Dawson was arrested, but reinstated after Dawson was convicted for Lyn's murder. Dawson is now incarcerated in Long Bay Correctional Centre on a 24 year sentence.

Bronwyn is Hedley Thomas' latest podcast series. It is an eerily similar cold case about a wife and mother disappearing without a trace. Bronwyn Whitfield lived in Lennox Head (near Byron Bay, NSW) with her husband Jon and two young girls. Jon was a possessive man, subjecting Bronwyn to coercive control.  Bronwyn was in the process of separating from her husband - had engaged lawyers and had moved out of the family home with the children. Jon had taken a job in Sydney and would be away for a while, so Brownyn and the girls moved back home, in part to argue for a share of the house during their divorce. 

In May 1993 Jon returned home, spoke with Bronwyn and then he claims she disappeared saying she was taking a break. Bronwyn has never been seen again and Jon has always denied wrongdoing, pointing to a family history of mental illness. But Bronwyn's family and the Whitfield's neighbours have their suspicions.

Bronwyn is an interesting story. It did not grip me in quite the same way as The Teacher's Pet, perhaps in part because there are so many parallels. Over ten episodes, Thomas pursues various lines of enquiry and witnesses come forward with evidence and theories that should have been investigated at the time. Indeed many of witnesses did go to police but their statements were not recorded or not followed up, pointing to a culture of misogyny and disregard for the realities of domestic and family violence. It is hard to fathom how there can be such disinterest by police in investigating violence against women.

Episode ten was to be the last, but momentum grew in episodes 7-10 and there is much more of the story to uncover. So there will be a second season later this year, and hopefully a renewed police interest which will see the case solved and justice prevail. Look forward to what Thomas uncovers next.

The trailer is here: