Revealed: Police Media Strategy That 'Went Wrong' After Family Tragedy
Senior Queensland police officers have admitted that controversial comments made in the wake of Hannah Clarke's horrific murder were part of a deliberate media strategy that backfired catastrophically. Documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal that Detective Inspector Mark Thompson's widely condemned remarks following the February 2020 tragedy were intended to encourage supporters of Clarke's estranged husband to come forward.
The speaking notes from a police seminar show that Thompson's comments - which questioned whether Rowan Baxter had been "driven too far" - were planned with the regional crime coordinator as part of an effort to "draw the narrative out and negative it." The strategy aimed to target individuals who had previously supported Baxter and encourage them to provide information to investigators.
Controversial Comments and Community Backlash
At a press conference days after the murders, Thompson told journalists police were keeping an "open mind" about the case where Baxter was seen pouring petrol on and setting the family car alight, killing Clarke, their three children and himself. "Is this an issue of a woman suffering significant domestic violence and her and her children perishing at the hands of the husband? Or is this an instance of a husband being driven too far?" Thompson asked during the February 2020 briefing.
The comments sparked immediate outrage from domestic violence campaigners, who condemned them as blatant victim blaming. The backlash was so severe that former police commissioner Katarina Carroll removed Thompson from the investigation. However, internal documents show senior officers disagreed with this decision.
Assistant Commissioner Brian Swan's speaking notes from a subsequent seminar stated: "Mark should have remained. My gut feeling was that this was a wrong decision." Swan expressed regret that he wasn't "firm enough" with the commissioner, adding that the force "lost an opportunity and could have controlled the narrative."
Broken Trust and Systemic Failures
The revelations form part of Guardian Australia's extensive 'Broken Trust' investigation, which has uncovered multiple police failures in the Clarke case. The investigation revealed that two witnesses who had supported Baxter came forward following Thompson's comments and gave statements claiming Clarke had fabricated domestic violence allegations.
Disturbingly, detectives investigating her murder then questioned the "veracity and motive" of her disclosures in the months before she and her children were killed. The investigation also found that Queensland police failed to conduct a mandatory "contact audit" to examine all dealings between officers and the family violence victim.
Kate Pausina, a former senior detective with extensive domestic violence homicide review experience, described the idea that the case required a "media strategy" as "nonsensical." She emphasised that "a victim is never responsible for the violence they experience and also for their own death."
The Queensland Police Service declined to address specific questions about whether it had endorsed the presentation or approved its content, referring instead to previous responses about its handling of the Clarke case.
