Hannah Clarke’s parents provide heartbreaking victim impact statement
The inquest into Hannah Clarke’s death has heard nothing could have saved her from ‘evil’ Rowan Baxter, but there were ‘missed opportunities’ in the lead-up to her murder. It comes as Hannah’s parents reveal their surprise at some of the evidence that was shared.
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The inquest into the deaths of Hannah Clarke and her three young children has concluded after an emotional final day in which her parents shared their devastation, and several recommendations were put forward to the coroner.
After Hannah’s parents Sue and Lloyd Clarke shared their victim impact statements, the counsel assisting the coroner Jacoba Brasch QC told the inquest in her final submissions there was nothing that could have been done to save Hannah from an “evil” Rowan Baxter, but the court heard that there was a series of missed opportunities that may have prevented murder of her three children.
Dr Brasch said Baxter had exhibited “single-minded murderous intent”, referring to his purchase of fuel, and of chocolate, which she said may have been designed to appease his children after he murdered their mum.
“Mr and Mrs Clarke asked just before the single most important question in this horrible tragedy – why?,” Dr Brasch said.
“Having heard eight days of evidence and having sifted through thousands of pages of exhibits …. it’s my submission it is irreducibly simple yet irreducibly complex. Why? Because Baxter was evil.”
Dr Brasch said in her submission, from the moment Baxter “committed his murderous ramblings to paper on January 26”, there was nothing that could have been done to save Hannah.
Dr Brasch put to the court that even if the right questions had been asked, even if he had been charged with criminal offences and even if there was a better understanding of coercive control, he was so determined to “exact his revenge” that he would have killed at least Hannah.
She said Baxter’s actions were “calculated premeditated murder” and referred her to his actions including his shopping trip to Bunnings to buy murder tools, his purchase of fuel and chocolates.
Dr Brasch said on the evidence, it was possible to deduce that Baxter in fact meant to kidnap Hannah and the children, kill Hannah, give the children the Kinder Surprises and believe it “would all be happy families”.
“It was but a matter of time, such was his murderous intent,” she said.
She said despite any mistakes or lack of information sharing, such was Baxter’s “single mindedness” he would have in any event killed at least Hannah.
Dr Brasch said their murders were calculated and premeditated.
She said the chilling footage of Baxter shopping at Bunnings may appear to show a dad shopping for a day in the garden. But instead, it was a man planning to murder his wife.
Dr Brasch said Baxter purchased a jerry can, zip ties and surface cleaner, then filled the can with fuel the following morning.
She questioned why Baxter then went on to fill up his car on the morning of the murders – given he only had a short distance to drive.
She said perhaps his plan A was to take them somewhere, use the zip ties, use the fuel to murder Hannah and give the children kinder surprises he’d purchased along with the fuel.
“And we’d be a happy family,” she said.
Dr Brasch said Hannah may have ruined his plan when she refused to “just drive” as he’d told her that morning.
Instead, she’d pulled over to ask for help and then died trying to protect her children.
Dr Brasch said Baxter’s call to a men’s helpline the afternoon before the murders was “far from a cry for help”.
Instead, she said it was “one last ditch effort of laying down his version of events”.
She said there was no introspection or regret – only an exercise in image management.
“Indeed to the very last moment, he was blaming Hannah, (saying) I am not the one who has the problem.
“Hannah really was the walking dead the moment she asserted her own independence and left Baxter.
“I return to the why question: he was evil.”
Dr Brasch said friends described Baxter as a man who was obsessed with himself and who became “somewhat dishevelled and gaunt” before the murders, not exercising, sleeping or eating.
She said all those were cues missed by his psychologist Vivian Jarrett.
“Many had concerns he would do something tragic,” Dr Brasch said.
Dr Brasch commended a number of witnesses who gave evidence during the inquest, including police officer Angus Skaines who stayed with Hannah on the day of the attack, and Hannah’s mother Sue.
“She wanted to give Hannah a voice,” Dr Brasch said.
“She certainly did that, not only for Hannah but for the children.”
Dr Brasch also commended Senior Constable Kirsten Kent, saying she provided Hannah “a level of support we just don’t often see”.
“Sen Const Kent was a valiant fighter for Hannah,” Dr Brasch said.
“If only every Hannah Clarke in Queensland could have a Sen Const Kent.”
Dr Brasch submitted the coroner “might be concerned” about the evidence the inquest heard about utility of embedded a Brisbane Domestic Violence Service officer within the police Vulnerable Persons Unit.
She said evidence suggested that in relation to the VPU, BDVS and the High Risk Team within the VPU, “the right hand and the left hand don’t necessarily know what they’re doing”.
Dr Brasch said she was not critical of staff in those areas who were simply following protocol within the requirements of the system.
She also expressed concern about evidence given of two police officers and a BDVS worker going to Hannah’s home on January 8 in which they stood on the doorstep with the children in the background.
“Hardly one would think an avenue to elicit new info from Hannah,” she said.
Dr Brasch submitted in relation to Baxter’s psychologist Vivian Jarrett, the coroner “would not accept a word she had to say”.
She said the coroner would not accept that her notes had been compiled after each sessions as Ms Jarrett claimed and suggested the court would be “circumspect” about her scoring charts, given too many dates were wrong and even her own computer system expressed surprise at the results.
Dr Brasch said it was “simply unfathomable” that Ms Jarrett had tried to defend a letter in which she gave Baxter a glowing recommendation to a family court.
HANNAH’S PARENTS SHARE VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENTS
The final day of the inquest began with heartbreaking victim impact statements from Hannah’s parents Lloyd and Sue.
“On our way into the first day of the coronial inquest we told the media that our hope was that we could give a voice to our daughter Hannah and our grandchildren Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey,” Mr Clarke said.
“We hoped that we, along with so many others would be able to speak for them, on their behalf to demand justice and demand change so that other families may be steered away from the path we have walked the last few years.
“We write this statement on behalf of them as much as ourselves …”
Mr Clarke said the question he and his wife and that Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey would always ask is “why”.
He said the children would ask questions like “why would you hurt us daddy”, “why would you take away our futures with all the promise and possibility”, “why would you take away our laughter and our games and our reading and singing and playing”, “why didn’t you love us like a father was supposed to”.
Mr Clarke said Hannah would ask him “ why weren’t you a better man, a better father, a better husband”, “why did you have to be such a coward and a bully”, “why couldn’t you leave us alone to live our lives”, “ why did you always have to have the last manipulative vindictive word”.
Mrs Clarke sobbed as she told the court how Aaliyah and Laianah’s bedroom still stood frozen as it did the day they died.
“I can’t bring myself to pack up their toys,” she said.
Mrs Clarke said holidays like Christmas and Mother’s Day were “almost unbearable” and not a day went by where they didn’t cry for Hannah and her babies.
LLOYD CLARKE’S FULL VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT
On our way into the first day of the coronial inquest, we told the media that our hope was that we could give a voice to our daughter Hannah and our grandchildren Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey.
We’d hoped that we, along with so many others, would be able to speak for them on their behalf, demand justice, and demand change so that other families may be steered away from the path we have walked the last two years.
And we have tried to do that. So we write this statement on behalf of them as much as ourselves, and if they had a voice they would certainly say the same thing we say.
Just one word. Why?
Aaliyah, Laianah, Trey would say, why would you hurt us daddy? Why would you take away our futures?
With all the promise and possibility that we had, why would you take away our laughter, our games, our reading, our dancing, our singing and playing?
Why didn’t you love us, just like a father is supposed to do?
Hannah would say, why wouldn’t you be a better man?
A better father. A better husband. Why did you have to be such a coward and bully to us for so many years. And why couldn’t you leave us alone to just live our lives in peace?
Why did you always have to have the last manipulative, vindictive word?
Sue and I, we have spent two years asking why.
Why would a parent do that to his own children?
Why would a husband do that to his wife?
Why didn’t we see it coming, with everything we did to save them from that life?
Why was it just not enough?
As a society, we also need to ask ourselves why this can happen. Why did Hannah and the children receive no genuine protection. Why does it take the murder of four beautiful souls and dozens of others, every year, before governments respond?
Hannah was the most remarkable soul.
You’ve seen the photos of her. Beautiful smile. It was just infectious.
She made people happy, of course. She’d bring her personality to everyone she met.
She was kind, empathetic. And always put others before herself. Hannah was strong in her body and her mind. She loved her children fiercely and only ever wanted what was the best for them.
For a long time, Hannah didn’t believe she was a victim of domestic violence because she wasn’t physically harmed. But she was being mentally harmed by a magnitude of coercive behaviours used to control, belittle and manipulate her.
Her beautiful spirit was crushed. Her every move controlled and every interaction with family and friends vetted and resented.
She was a victim for so many years, long before bullying, control and abuse escalated to murder.
Aaliyah had a light shining from her. Determined and talented and mature beyond her years. She was strong, fit and very clever.
Even at a very young age, she was a caring mother figure for Laianah and Trey, reading to them just like her own mum.
Laianah Grace was our cheeky “Little Middle”. She was always full of beans. Very sensitive to other people.
She would have turned seven just over a week ago.
She had always told us that we could stop carrying her when she turned seven. We’ll never stop carrying her.
Trey was everything that was positive and wholesome about a little boy.
He loved to climb, run and play. He loved sports. He was always looking to please people.
Like Hannah, the children were victims for so long. They were pawns in his game. They were part of his controlling strategy. Other than that, they were nothing more than a nuisance to him.
The greatest tragedy is that they were all so full of love and life and had so much to give.
If only he had known how to love them in return.
SUE CLARKE’S FULL VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT
Just over two years ago, our lives changed forever.
We will never be the same people we were before Hannah, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey were taken from us.
There is not one part of our lives that has not been affected by their murders.
What we have suffered cost us so much in every sense of the word. Emotionally, physically, financially, our grief is still continuing.
We have trouble articulating the emotional and mental impacts of this crime. They are so overwhelming it seems impossible to find the words.
Not one day has passed without tears, there is no rest, no escape, every single day we spend in the shadow of that moment of what was done to our beautiful angels. We would give anything to be free of those memories and constant thoughts.
In an instant I had taken from me every single female blood relative.
While of course I love all my boys, a mother and a grandmother needs her daughters and granddaughters to be complete. We will never again be complete.
The father and daughter bond is different but equally special and Lloyd has lost his only daughter.
Both of us have struggled with serious health issues, physical and mental.
We have both spent innumerable hours with counsellors and psychologists.
We both have had to give up working. The bewildering and shocking nature of our loss meant we were not able to perform our jobs as we did before.
Our son Nat and his family have also suffered the loss of a sister, a sister in law and aunt as well as nieces, a nephew and cousins.
They have found themselves thrust into the media and public spotlight, just as we have, and this has been confronting and challenging for all of us.
Our house once filled with the noise and laughter and chaos of young children is now very quiet.
The girls’ room is as they left it that morning two years ago. I can’t bring myself to pack up their toys.
Holidays like Christmas and Mother’s Day are almost unbearable.
The hole in our family is gaping and will never be filled.
We will never get to see the people the children will become. Trey didn’t even get to go to school. We won’t ever get to see them graduate, or marry or have children of their own.
Our hearts break that they were never given the chance to grow, excel and be happy.
Hannah, our beautiful girl had so much potential. She was regaining her sense of self and growing stronger. She had dreams of becoming a police officer and had commenced the process to join weeks before.
She was a bright light in our lives and though she has been stolen from us, we will work every day to ensure that light never goes out.
We have tried to salvage something positive from the ruins of so many lives through the Small Steps 4 Hannah Foundation and we will forever be grateful for the way Hannah’s friends have rallied around us and the public has embraced the foundation.
This inquest has been unthinkably confronting. We’ve had to relive the worst day of our lives in excruciating detail and we have heard details that perhaps were kept from us up to this point. But it has been an important exercise.
We will always have to live with what happened that day but we will not live in it. We have hope and a future.
The love we have lost will never be forgotten.
Hannah and the children are with us every day and in their names we will use everything we have learned from this inquest to keep the pressure for law reform and to keep the conversation going.
We want everyone to be able to spot the danger signs in their relationships and their friendships and even in themselves.
A better understanding of coercive control won’t change what we have suffered. It won’t bring back the love that’s disappeared from our lives, it won’t allow us to watch Hannah blossom into the strong, compassionate, successful woman she was determined to be.
It won’t help us see our grandchildren fulfil their potential.
But we do hope that a community that stands up against coercive control will stop others suffering the same fate and we hope it will prevent other parents and families suffering as we have suffered and spending their lives pondering that bewildering, unanswerable question – why.
SPECIALISED TRAINING FOR POLICE
Dr Brasch said she would submit that more specialised training for police was crucial.
She expressed her concern that a victim could go through the entire process with police – including contact with the Vulnerable Persons Unit – without coming into contact with a single officer with specialised training.
She recommended annualised training for police.
Dr Brasch’s second submission was for the trialling of a multidisciplinary police station where victims can access police, housing, counselling, education and child safety services.
Thirdly, she said more needed to be done to “keep eyes on the respondent”.
She said the inquest had heard there was a real lack of services for men requiring behavioural and anger management education and help.
She said one service suggested they did not keep waiting lists because the list would be so long, while another had a 12-month list.
“There is an unmet need which must be addressed,” she said.
Dr Brasch said while Baxter would never have accepted accountability and was not capable of rehabilitation, others were.
She said the government needed to fund men’s behavioural change programs – both in prison and in the community – as a matter of urgency.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES TO PREVENT MURDERS
Barrister Kylie Hillard, who is representing the Clarke family in the inquest, said there had been many “circuit breaker points” and missed opportunities to prevent the murders.
“Deaths must be preventable,” Ms Hillard said.
“They are preventable.”
Ms Hillard said the inability of police to lay charges against Baxter when he abducted Laianah on Boxing Day 2019 was indicative of a need for a coercive control offence in Queensland.
Ms Hillard said it was Hannah who “stepped up” to take action against Baxter.
“She made a complaint of stalking to the court,” she said, arguing it would have been easy for police to gather evidence on Baxter for that charge.
“She stepped up and she made a complaint about his conduct. Sadly there seems to have been a lack of appreciation for consideration for a stalking charge.”
Ms Hillard said Hannah had told police about Baxter showing up repeatedly at the coffee shop she visited and repeatedly walking by the Athlete’s Foot store where she worked.
She said if police had accessed CCTV from the shopping centre and obtained a warrant for the data on his phone, they may have discovered the “death letter” he was penning in his notes.
“It may well have revealed his intention to hide his web history and browser history,” she said. “Once again is it unfortunate there was a lack of training, a lack of refresher training (for police).”
Ms Hillard said victims should not be “disempowered” by the fear that police intervention could cause the perpetrator’s behaviour to escalate.
Ms Hillard submitted that Hannah had demonstrated a “clear willingness” to make police complaints about Baxter’s behaviour and the onus should not have been put on her to identify or pursue charges.
The inquest heard Hannah told a BDVS worker about instances in which Baxter had strangled her but they did not pass it on to police and the police never asked her about those instances, despite her referring to it in a text message to a police officer.
“This is a real significant failing in this particular case because strangulation is a significant factor against bail,” Ms Hillard said.
“Strangulation was a significant circuit breaker in this case to protect Hannah.”
“There was no reluctance by Hannah (to disclose what happened to her). She was asked and she told.”
Ms Hillard said the claim by police that domestic violence support workers should have passed on Hannah’s disclosure that Baxter had choked her during sex was not good enough.
She said police officers should have asked Hannah more questions.
“There is something police can do – if they ask for the information,” she said.
Ms Hillard said police should also be asking questions about the victim’s level of risk and fear.
She said a planned review of a risk assessment tool used by police will take too long and police should begin asking the right questions immediately.
She said police needed to ask victims if they fear being killed or hurt by their perpetrator.
Ms Hillard said Sue and Lloyd supported annual refresher training for police, including specific mention of the high risk of lethality where there has been nonlethal strangulation, and in cases where the aggrieved have expressed a fear of death at the hands of the perpetrator.
The barrister said systemic failings including failures in information sharing were “rife in this case”.
Ms Hillard said Hannah was entitled to believe that the things she was telling police would be shared and acted upon.
“It seems no one really shared anything at all,” Ms Hillard said.
She said police officers and domestic violence workers involved in Hannah’s case had been “good intentioned”.
“They clearly wanted to help her, they clearly wanted to protect her but they didn’t understand how, they weren’t trained to do so,” Ms Hillard said.
She submitted that it could be helpful to make it mandatory for service providers to have discussions with aggrieved persons about the potential for criminal charges to be laid.
Ms Hillard said Sue and Lloyd Clarke would support the creation of accommodation for families fleeing domestic violence, with apartments in a secure complex with CCTV footage, locked carparks and security on site.
She said the Clarkes wanted the government to fund such a complex.
She said the risk of Baxter hurting or killing Hannah and the children was “extreme” and required a “proactive response”.
“If Hannah was in fact the walking dead, it’s only because of the systemic failings that didn’t save her life,” she said.
“It can’t be the case that these kinds of things can’t be prevented.”
Ms Hillard said the Clarkes wanted magistrates to be able to impose mandatory counselling or participation in a behavioural change course as part of a temporary protection order or domestic violence order.
She said no other family should have to “ask that horrible question of why”.
THREE RECOMMENDATIONS IN RELATION TO POLICE RESPONSE
Barrister Ruth O’Gorman QC, who acts for the Queensland Police Union and a number of police officers in the inquest, asked the coroner to consider three recommendations in addition to the submissions made by other parties.
“Firstly, that the QPS give consideration to creating more permanent positions within the Vulnerable Persons Unit and provide specialist training for their staff members in that unit,” she said.
“Secondly, that the Queensland Government give consideration to streamlining processes for domestic violence applications, including providing for the electronic service of applications and orders upon respondents.
“Thirdly, that the Queensland Government consider measures to improve information sharing between both Queensland agencies and Australian jurisdictions including with respect to respondents’ criminal histories.”
Barrister Michael Nicolson, representing the Queensland Police Service, said there were training programs due to commence in the training calendar for 2022/2023.
He said as part of that, 100 members of domestic violence specialist groups would be undertaking five days of face-to-face training.
He said police should undergo sexual violence training included in domestic violence training because the two were often intertwined.
CORONER PAYS TRIBUTE TO HANNAH’S FAMILY
Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley concluded the inquest by paying tribute to the Clarke family.
“My condolences seem so inadequate in the face of your immense and unimaginable loss,” she said, acknowledging this was her final inquest before stepping down as Deputy State Coroner.
“Everyone in this court … has been amazed at your courage,” she said.
“As a woman and a mother, I am personally grateful for your ongoing efforts (in campaigning for victims of domestic violence).”
Outside court, Hannah’s parents said they were pleased with the submissions that had been made.
“It’s been a tough two weeks but we’re glad it’s over now and we’ll wait … for the coroner’s report,” Mr Clarke said.
The parents said they had been surprised by some of the evidence in the inquest, including the details of Baxter’s trip to Bunnings, his purchase of chocolates for the children at a service station and the contents of his “death note”.
“That was a surprise to us as well,” Mrs Clarke said.
Asked whether they thought anything could have been done to stop Baxter, they said no.
“Every now and then I think a true monster is born and you can’t stop them, Mrs Clarke said.
Mr Clarke added: “I think the QPS did as best they could under the circumstances“, describing Baxter as a “callous” man who “just used everyone as a pawn”.
The couple said they were “very humbled” by the coroner’s praise of their work.
Coroner Jane Bentley said she hoped to deliver her findings by late June.
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