‘Perpetrator of violence’: Man who pledged to love wife killed her and three kids after they fled

Hannah Clarke had sent messages to family saying she was ready for a fresh start in the weeks before she and her three children were killed Rowan Baxter.

Beautiful mother-of-three Hannah Clarke fled her controlling husband with her young kids in tow only months ago but continued to face an escalating scourge of violence at his hands.

Text messages obtained by The Courier-Mail show Ms Clarke recently told a relative of her husband that she was “so glad I got out when I did”.

She said she had a domestic violence order in place and was “struggling” but felt “safe” with her parents.

“The only reason he had that business was to control her, to know where she would be at all times – at the gym,” the relative said.

The 31-year-old and her children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3, were horrifically set upon by Rowan Baxter, 42, on a quiet Brisbane street in broad daylight yesterday morning when he torched the family car before taking his own life.

The pain Ms Clarke and her babies must have suffered in their final moments is unimaginable, but her suffering began long before.

As the country joins their loved ones in mourning, their deaths also serve as a reminder of the patterns of abusive behaviour or control that can take different forms in different relationships.

“Violence and abuse can happen in any kind of relationship. They are never OK,” the national domestic and family violence confidential counselling service, 1800 RESPECT, states.

“Abuse doesn’t have to involve hurt to your body, or physical violence, to be domestic or family violence.”

As recently as September, he promoted the image of a happy family to friends and family on Facebook, publicly praising his wife for doing “a brilliant job with the kiddies”.

But Baxter’s abusive behaviour in the months preceding the abhorrent killings, as revealed by his wife’s family, made him what the counselling service considers a “perpetrator of violence”.

Hannah Clarke and her children. Picture: Facebook

Queensland Police on Thursday confirmed it had previously engaged with Ms Clarke and her estranged husband “in relation to domestic violence issues” and “paperwork and applications were put to court”.

“Every situation is unique and needs to be approached that way,” Detective Inspector Mark Thompson said.

“There is no excuse for perpetration of violence in our community.

“There is certainly no excuse for perpetration of violence amongst families behind closed doors.”

He said police had worked with the Brisbane Domestic Violence Service to support Ms Clarke and Baxter had also been referred to support services.

Mr Baxter was reportedly due to face court on April 8 after breaching a domestic violence order.

This family photo was uploaded to social media on December 30. Picture: Instagram

HANNAH CLARKE’S LIFE WITH ROWAN BAXTER

Hannah Clarke was 19 when she met Baxter, 11 years her senior, from New Zealand.

The former rugby league player proposed on a beach in 2011 and they married in Kingscliff in 2012, going on to have three children.

On their third wedding anniversary in 2015, he reiterated his pledge to love her “always and eternally”.

That same day, she posted on her social media accounts about her “soulmate” and “baby daddy”.

Ms Clarke was fiercely fit and ran daily classes at the gym the couple owned together in Capalaba, a 20-minute drive from the crime scene.

She represented Queensland in trampolining for four consecutive years, trained through all three of her pregnancies – on at least one occasion until she was 36 weeks’ pregnant – and was an advocate of fitness for “Mums n Bubs”.

In February 2019, she competed in the Fittest Mum finals for Crossfit in New Zealand.

Ms Clarke regularly took her three children to work, describing her two daughters as “little weapons” and her son as her “main man”.

On December 3, Trey, 3, was pictured on a rower machine at the gym next to his “grandpa”, Hannah’s dad Lloyd Clarke.

“The old dog with the young bull,” the post was captioned.

Baxter posted workout videos up until September on the gym’s YouTube page and the last post on the Integr8 Facebook page was made one week before Christmas.

But the Integr8 gym closed in December weeks after the pair are believed to have separated.

A neighbour told The Courier-Mail the family had lived at a brick rental property in Carindale for the last two years before Ms Clarke moved out.

At the time of her death, Ms Clarke and her kids were living in Camp Hill with her parents.

RELATED: Killer dad’s Facebook page flooded with comments

The couple married in 2012. Picture: Facebook

Rowan Baxter and Hannah Clarke. Picture: Facebook

Lloyd and Suzanne Clarke told the Daily Mail their daughter’s estranged husband was a “control freak”.

“She had to get the kids and just go without saying anything, because he was such a control freak and would get into her headspace and she would give in,” Mr Clarke said.

They said his “downward spiral” began when their daughter left the marriage in early November.

It is understood police had been called to a family violence incident in January, and the couple were working on custody arrangements.

Mr and Mrs Clarke said Baxter had kidnapped one of his small daughters on Boxing Day last year and taken her interstate for four days until police returned the child to the Clarke house.

On Instagram, her mother Suzanne Clarke posted about a “much-needed family day” with her daughter and three grandchildren on December 30.

The doting grandma also took them to the Queensland Museum in Brisbane on January 19.

Ms Clarke’s most recent photo was shared last Saturday, February 15, of her grandchildren.

“Nothing makes me happier than having my family all together,” she said in the caption of a photo taken at SeaWorld, with the hashtags #familyiseverything and #grandkidsarethebest.

The Queensland fitness community today mourned the death of the mother and her “angels”.

Friend Manja Whaley, on Facebook on Thursday, said she recently trained with Ms Clarke.

“We did whilst out kids played, I’m heartbroken, so sad,” she said.

“We’re devastated by the tragic loss of one of our Queensland trampoline gymnastics coaches, Hannah Baxter, and her beautiful children,” Skybound Gymnastics on the Gold Coast wrote.

“We hope to support their family as much as we can. RIP angels.”

Another online tribute read: “Gymnastics Queensland sends their condolences to the family and friends of trampoline coach, Hannah Baxter, who tragically passed away with her children due to horrible circumstances.

Hannah Clarke and her son Trey. Picture: Instagram

Hannah Clarke and Rowan Baxter when their two daughters were younger.

‘ROTS IN HELL’

As Hannah Clarke clung to life yesterday, her father told a neighbour they didn’t think she’d pull though.

“I couldn’t figure out how come Hannah was in the car with him (Rowan Baxter)?” Brian Cavanagh told Nine.

On social media on Thursday, Lloyd Clarke wrote: “The scum rots in hell”.

“If he truly loved them he would not have killed his children in such a horrible way.”

Mr Clarke said the man was a “monster” who only cared about himself.

“He might have said he cared and loved his children but I know it was always about him coming first,” he said.

A relative of Rowan Baxter said he had the gym business as a way of controlling his wife.

Hannah Clarke’s brother, Nat Clarke, on Thursday also shared his thoughts on the “monster” who took his sister, nephew and two nieces away “in the worst way possible”.

“Everyone who has been lucky enough to be apart of there lives would know just how sweet and loving these kids and my sister really were.

“The last thing my sister said to my wife was ‘I’m so excited, this year will be great’.”

He said he was trying to help raise awareness about violence against women while also raising money for his parents “who have given every little thing they own to help my sister try and get away”.

“I will forever love you all,” he wrote.

Friend of the family, Korri Loader, cried as she lay flowers on the Camp Hill street today.

“(She) would do anything for those kids, even if it meant for herself not to be here, she would’ve done everything,” Ms Loader told reporters at the scene.

Family friend Korri Loader at the scene. Picture: Peter Wallis

Detective Inspector Mark Thompson today said police were trying “to understand the family dynamics and understand the history of that family” and made an “impassioned” public plea.

“If you had any knowledge of the Baxter family, come forward and speak to police,” he said.

“We need to look at every piece of information and to put it bluntly, there are probably people out there in the community that are deciding which side, so to speak, to take in this investigation.”

Insp Thompson said the information at hand has led police to believe the three young children and their mother “were killed” and he doesn’t believe “there’s any suspicious circumstances” around the death of Rowan Baxter.

“We believe at this point in time, he succumbed to injuries from the fire and a self-inflicted injury as well.”

He said police were “committed to fighting the fight on eradicating family domestic violence”.

White Ribbon Australia says, on average, one woman is murdered by a current or former partner every week.

According to the last Personal Safety report issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, approximately one in four women experienced violence from a partner from the age of 15.