Hannah Clarke inquest: Missed opportunities to deal with Rowan Baxter

Police missed crucial opportunities to hold Rowan Baxter to account before he went on to kill his ex-wife and children.

Police officers missed crucial opportunities to hold Rowan Baxter accountable for his violent and controlling behaviour in the months before he went on to kill his entire family, a coroner has found.

Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley said police had failed to take appropriate action against Baxter on a number of occasions, including downgrading an assault charge to a lesser offence after he attacked his estranged wife.

In inquest findings handed down in relation to the deaths of Hannah Clarke and her three children, Coroner Bentley said while overall she found Hannah was dealt with “appropriately” by the police she came into contact with, more action could have been taken against Baxter.

A report from the Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Unit including in the findings identified at least five missed opportunities, including that Baxter could have been charged with assault causing bodily harm and breaching a domestic violence order on February 2, 2020 and had his bail objected to.

Hannah Clarke with her son Trey.

However the police officers who dealt with him did not charge him and instead allowed him to obtain legal advice, but “there was no point in that because he had already refused an interview”.

The unit also found officers did not follow up with Baxter when he failed to attend the police station two days later on February 4 as he was ordered, and the issue was only raised with him days later on February 9 when an officer familiar with the case spotted him at a shopping centre.

Police bodycam image of Rowan Baxter after he was spoken to by polce over a breach of his domestic violence order.

That day, Baxter was only charged with breaching his domestic violence order, although the assault causing bodily harm offence was on the system.

The unit found that on that day, Baxter was only issued with a notice to appear in court instead of being processed through the watch-house and the decision as to his bail was made without a proper consideration of all the circumstances.

The officer responsible for charging him then downgraded the assault occasioning bodily harm offence to a lesser charge of common assault and issued a second notice to appear instead recharging him with the correct offence.

“…There was no reason to downgrade the charge,” the report said.