Horrific murder by 'master manipulator' could have been prevented

Queensland police need urgent training to deal with domestic violence matters, an inquest has heard.

Queensland police need urgent training to deal with domestic violence matters, an inquest has heard.

Police “missed opportunities” to punish “master manipulator” Rowan Baxter before he brutally murdered his estranged wife Hannah Clarke and her three children by burning them in a car fire as they made their way to school.

Queensland deputy state coroner Jane Bentley became emotional as she handed down her findings from a long-awaited inquest into the death of Clarke and her children, saying the police needed urgent training on how to effectively deal with domestic violence.

While Bentley said there were missed opportunities for police to hold Baxter accountable, she concluded that no one could have saved Clarke and her children. 

Hannah Clarke and her three children

She said many agencies failed to identify the extreme risk that a highly-controlling and coercive Baxter would murder Clarke after she separated from him.

Baxter killed his estranged wife and their children, Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, on February 19, 2020, after realising he could no longer control her.

Clarke was leaving her parents’ home in Brisbane’s Camp Hill to drive her children to school, when Baxter, holding a knife, got into the vehicle, covered the family in fuel and set the car ablaze.

In her findings, published on Wednesday, Bentley found the three children, strapped in the car’s back seat “died almost immediately from the inhalation of fumes and burns.” 

Clarke died in hospital just hours later.

Baxter did not try to save his children but instead tried to stop bystanders in their attempts to extinguish the fire.

Eventually, he reached into the alight car, grabbed a knife and stabbed himself in the car.

Bentley described this as his “final act of cowardice” as he was unable to live with the "public denunciation" and inevitable punishment.

Urgent changes have been recommended by Bentley to avoid another Australian woman suffering the same fate as Clarke, including a 12-month trial of a specialist domestic violence police station in either Logan, or Kirwan in Townsville, where the rates of domestic violence are the highest in Queensland.

Specialist DV officers would be posted to the station, including a detective, a support worker, a child safety officer to assess the risk of harm to children, a Department of Housing employee to provide assistance to rehouse victims, a Queensland Health employee to assess mental health, drug and alcohol issues, and the wellbeing of children, and a lawyer to provide legal advice to police and victims.

Five-day, face-to-face training should be provided for all specialist domestic violence police officers, Bentley said, and also funding for men’s behaviour change programs in prisons and in the community.

In a statement shared on social media, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Shannon Fentiman, wrote there's still a lot of work to do, but a lot of work has already begun."

Clarke's parents, Sue and Lloyd Clarke, watched Bentley deliver her findings from a Brisbane courthouse, via video-link from the Gold Coast.

Afterwards, while standing outside the court, Sue said Baxter had made a mistake by underestimating her daughter's courage: Clarke had, despite suffering horrific burns, attempted to save her children by telling witnesses about Baxter’s actions.

During the inquest audio from the body cam of first responder Senior Constable Angus Skaines was played.

Despite being fatally wounded Clarke managed to give police detailed evidence before dying en route to the hospital.

"My ex-husband, he got, he got in the …" she said.

"What's your ex-husband's name?" Sen Const Skaines asked.

"Rowan Baxter...There's a protection order against him.," she said. "We got in the car to go to school, and he jumped in the front seat with me, and had a jerry can. And then just, he poured petrol everywhere and just lit the car. And my three kids."

Following the death of their daughter and grandkids the Clarke family established the anti-domestic violence charity Small Steps 4 Hannah and are Queensland's 2022 Australians of the Year. 

“I think he underestimated how much a mother would fight,” Sue said outside court on Wednesday. “And how strong a mother is. He didn’t love the children like she did. He had no idea what a mother would do.”

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