Women swamp helpline fearing copycat Rowan Baxter murders

A helpline has been swamped with calls from terrified women in the wake of the Rowan Baxter murders.

Frightened women have swamped a helpline saying their partners have renewed threats against them in the wake of the brutal murders of Hannah Clarke and her three young children.

Women’s Legal Services Queensland CEO, Angela Lynch, said her service had been flooded with calls from fearful women whose partners had issued death threats against them since the Brisbane car fire murders.

Some callers told case workers their husbands or partners had threatened to kill them in the same manner as Ms Clarke and her children, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, who Baxter doused in petrol and set fire to a week ago.

Ms Lynch says it was crucial laws were enacted quickly to protect women and children fleeing domestic violence because current laws had put Hannah Clarke in danger.

“Over these last few days we can’t meet the demand, we are being swamped even further … by women referring back to the tragedy saying ‘he said he’ll do it to me’,” said Ms Lynch.

“Or ‘I just know I’m next’.”

She said current laws prevented Hannah Clarke, 31, from being able to adequately seek refuge. Had she “fled” with her three children to hide from her husband, the courts would have dragged them back “into danger”.

“It is absolutely and utterly what would have happened,” Ms Lynch told news.com.au. “It happens every day.

Angela Lynch with Michelle Dorendahl whose ex-partner murdered her daughter Eva, 4, says current laws prevented Hannah Clarke from finding safety. Picture: Rohan Thomson.

Current laws would have punished Hannah Clarke (above with children Laianah, Aaliyah and Trey) had she taken them into safe hiding. Picture: Supplied

“Rather than leading her to safety, they would have come down on her like a tonne of bricks had she tried to flee to safety.

“If she ran (the Family Court) would have brought her back into his sphere and she would have been named an absconding parent by the court for taking unilateral action.

“It happens every day because of the priority for fathers to have contact.

“It gives perpetrators power and takes power away from her and her protective stance.

“She’s trying to get to safety. She’s so scared.

“He presents well. He’s a white middle-class man in a suit.

“He says he loves his children. He gets contact. It’s a disaster.”

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Ms Lynch, who was awarded an Australia Day AM last year for service to domestic and family violence victims, is in Canberra trying to get emergency legislation passed.

She flew down yesterday to pressure politicians to act in the wake of the flood of calls to her service by terrified women.

WLS Queensland spoke daily with “women who feel their life is threatened”, but calls had been at an unprecedented level since Baxter murdered Ms Clarke and her three children in Brisbane.

She said federal politicians had talked a lot about the tragedy, but actually had done little.

Lloyd and Suzanne Clarke attend a vigil for their murdered daughter Hannah Clarke and her three children. Picture: Jono Searle.

“What action is being taken?” she said. “There’s lots of words, ‘oh let’s set up a forum’, but what are they doing? We have come down here to demand an emergency response.

“They can change the Family Law Act. They take out the presumption of contact and put in a presumption of safety and legislate that.

“I see there’s going to be a national summit. That just puts it off.

“I don’t want another talkfest.”

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Ms Lynch said the Federal Government had agreed to fund an idea put forward by WLS to have a “high risk domestic violence pathway” for women in emergency situations.

This would empower the Family Law Act to place at risk women and children under special protective orders.

Just last September Ms Lynch went to Canberra with Michelle Dorendahl whose daughter Eva, 4, died in a murder suicide at the hands of her former partner, Gregory Hutchings.

Domestic violence campaigner Angela Lynch urges politicians (above in a minute’s silence for the Clarke family) to ‘take action now’. Picture: Mick Tsikas.

But nothing had actually been enacted into legislation.

“(Hannah Clarke’s) lawyer negotiated out a shared care arrangement for (Rowan Baxter),” Ms Lynch said.

“If she had been identified as a high risk family she would get straight into this pathway.

“We have to stop contact, that puts her at risk.

“No contact with the kids, she can go into hiding and he has to stop tracking her.

“These guys (politicians) think they can’t do anything.

“They are the Federal Government and I’m saying to them their decision, or their lack of ability to make a decision, impacts on the lives and safety of women and children every day.”

Ms Lynch has appointments with Attorney-General, Josh Frydenberg, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and Linda Burney, shadow minister for Social Services and Preventing Family Violence.

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