Murders spur families into action

The sister of murdered woman Allison Baden-Clay has spoken of the shared traits she sees with Hannah Clarke and her three children.

Vanessa Fowler at Rainbow Beach, Queensland. Picture: Rainbow Beach Wedding Photography

Two Brisbane women, two sadly similar tales.

As family and friends of Hannah Clarke and her three children prepare for their funeral, the sister of murdered mother Allison Baden-Clay has spoken of the shared traits she sees in the two women.

Vanessa Fowler says both were “strong and determined and loving mothers” murdered by their husbands. Both were proof emotional abuse in a relationship can escalate to fatal violence.

“A lot of people, as we were, are looking for the physical signs,” Ms Fowler, Allison’s older sister, told The Australian.

“We didn’t see bruises on her body and broken arms and legs, and we thought ‘well it can’t be that bad’. But of course there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes.

“I think the same was with Hannah Clarke — there was this gradual power and control over her and the gradual lowering of her self-esteem and all that emotional abuse. That was very much what happened with Allison as well.”

It’s almost three weeks since Rowan Baxter murdered his ­estranged wife, Hannah, and the couple’s children, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, in an ambush.

Baxter, after pouring petrol on his family and setting them alight in their car, killed himself.

Hannah and her children will be farewelled at 10am on Monday in a Brisbane church service to be attended by guests including Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Allison Baden-Clay was murdered by her husband, real estate agent Gerard Baden-Clay, in the affluent suburb of Brookfield, where they lived with their three young children, in April 2012. Baden-Clay is halfway through his minimum 15-year sentence for his wife’s murder.

Ms Fowler said her family, like the community, was devastated by the attack on Hannah and her children.

“The first thing we thought of was that it very easily could have been Allison and her three children,” Ms Fowler said, ahead of a guest appearance at an International Women’s Day event at Rainbow Beach on Sunday. “We’re blessed in one way that we still have Allison’s three girls.’’

Ms Fowler said “something that we’ve learnt over the past eight years’’ was that violence did not discriminate.

“It can happen to anyone of all classes, income levels, education levels,” she said.

Hannah’s family has set up the Small Steps 4 Hannah foundation, aiming to take meaningful steps to stop domestic and family violence. It’s early days, but plans include helping fathers talk to their sons about attitudes towards women, strength and violence.

The Allison Baden-Clay Foundation, in partnership with ­Griffith University’s MATE Bystander Program, teaches people to recognise the red flags and to be effective bystanders.

“Our foundation is in the primary prevention space,” Ms Fowler said.

“We are asking people to be ­accountable, to call out their mates and to actually find the courage, overcome the fear, to step in to a situation.”