Murdered Hannah Clarke blamed in Facebook posts by men’s rights activists

Hannah Clarke and her three children were brutally murdered by her husband but now a men’s rights activist group is under fire for blaming her — and Facebook has not taken any action against the offensive posts.

Facebook has been slammed for not only refusing to remove an “extremely offensive” post that attacked murdered mother Hannah Clarke but also stating it did not breach their policies.

Hannah Clarke and her three children were ambushed by estranged husband Rowan Baxter as she was taking them to school in February 2020. He doused them in petrol and set Hannah and their children on fire.

The crime shocked the nation and threw a spotlight on the coercive control Baxter had used on his family before his act of deadly violence.

Hannah Clarke with her children Laianah, Aaliyah and Trey who were all murdered by Rowan Baxter.

But the men’s rights activist Facebook page Don’t Believe All Women, run by Adam James, also known as Adam Benjamin Cocks, who has been convicted of stalking, has alleged Hannah Clarke used coercive control on Baxter.

“What is little known, as it’s been concealed by the family, is that Hannah was extorting Rowan in the days leading up to the deaths. What is known is that she had posted on his Facebook profile publicly that she was going to ‘take his kids and shut down his business’. Considering the bias in the court system she certainly would have easily succeeded at that,” he posted.

“The irony is that the coercive control laws are now only being used against men.

“Most disturbingly, her choice to extort him and what is an extreme example of coercive control by her, has now resulted in new laws that will further disempower men and give greater control to heterosexual women who use coercive control.

“We need to raise awareness of female perpetrators of coercive control like Hannah Clarke.”

Hannah Clarke and her three young children were murdered in Queensland.

Adam James, owner of the Don’t Believe All Women Facebook page, has accused Hannah Clarke of extorting her estranged husband Rowan Baxter.

He went on to defend allegations he was blaming Ms Clarke for Baxter’s actions.

“Being murdered doesn‘t excuse someone of their crimes though,” the post read.

A Brisbane-based domestic violence advocate Rachael, who has asked not to use her last name, said the claims were baseless.

“It is absolutely disgusting. There is not a shred of evidence to substantiate his claims,” she said.

Members of her group, Debunking MRAs Australia, have complained to Facebook but the social media giant said the post did not go against its rules.

“We have complained to Facebook, we have reported it as unsubstantiated rubbish, and we all did it and we all got the same message back from Facebook that it did not go against their community guidelines. We asked for a review and it still stood,” she said.

Adam James, also known as Adam Benjamin Cocks, has been called out for blaming Hannah Clarke for provoking her murder and that of her three children.

A spokeswoman for Facebook’s parent company Meta said Facebook did have community standards but the post did not breach them.

“We’ve reviewed this post and found it doesn’t breach our policies. We work hard to find the right balance between allowing people to debate current and topical social issues, while ensuring we protect our community and minimise harms on our platforms,” she said.

“We’ve shared this content with our third party fact checkers who review content that doesn‘t breach our policies but may be deemed false or misleading.”

Approached for comment, Mr James said: “Domestic violence is bidirectional. We know for sure that Rowan was a perpetrator. What has been concealed is that Hannah was also a perpetrator.

“The horrible irony is Hannah was guilty of coercive control.”

When asked to provide evidence for those claims, Mr James did not respond.

The post was “extremely offensive” according to eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who called on social media giants to be more proactive.

“Content like this also has the potential to trivialise the serious scourge of family and domestic violence,” she said.

“I would encourage online services to take all reasonable steps to ensure their platforms are not gateways for the promotion of such offensive, misogynistic views and victim-blaming statements, particularly if it violates their online hate policies and other terms of service.”

Adam James is also a convicted stalker.

Mark Woolley, chair of the Small Steps 4 Hannah Foundation, set up by Hannah Clarke’s family to halt the cycle of domestic violence said the posts were heartbreaking for her family.

“The brutal murder of Hannah and her children was the ultimate act in a long-running campaign against her that involved false claims and sexist, degrading, dehumanising language,” he said.

“It’s just heartbreaking that there are people who perpetuate falsehoods against a beautiful woman who can’t defend herself.

“This disgraceful online activity is an example of the kind of abusive, coercive and manipulative behaviour we are seeking to have made into a criminal offence in all states.

“We would also like to see online publishers such as Facebook take a stronger stand to stamp out the kinds of verbal abuse that are then used to normalise and justify escalating violence and even murder.”

Mr James was also convicted of ing on July 7, 2021 in Brisbane’s District Court after pleading guilty to posting the name, personal phone number and home address of a former female employee of his charity group in bogus advertisements for sexual services in 2019.

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Originally published as Murdered Hannah Clarke blamed in Facebook posts by men’s rights activists