Queensland coroner will try to determine if anything could have been done to prevent Hannah Clarke and her three children being killed in a horrific act of domestic violence.

Hannah Clarke and her children - Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four, and Trey, three - were doused in petrol and burned alive by estranged husband, Rowan Baxter, in Brisbane on February, 19 2020.

Just before 8.30am, Ms Clarke left her parents’ home in Camp Hill with her three children when Baxter intercepted the car, climbing in the passenger’s seat armed with a knife and a can of petrol, a pre-inquest hearing in Brisbane was told on Tuesday.

“Hannah screamed at Baxter to get out of the car. Her screams were desperate and fearful - we know this because a worried neighbour recorded them,” Dr Jacoba Brasch QC told the coroner.

Baxter ordered Ms Clarke to drive as he poured petrol over her and through the vehicle’s cabin

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              Hannah Clarke with her children Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey

She made it 200m before she pulled into a driveway where a man was washing his car, begging him to call the police.

Then the car exploded.

“The explosion was so loud, it rattled windows across the street and some thought they heard a gas explosion.”

Ms Clarke freed herself from the car but was completely engulfed by flames. She died that afternoon from injuries so severe they couldn’t be treated.

                        Hannah Clarke and her children.

Baxter was badly burnt but still able to grab his knife from the burning car and impale himself on the blade, puncturing his heart.  Rowan Baxter stabbed himself to death.

The murders were meticulously planned - Baxter was driving a borrowed car and brought the fuel with him that day.

“The evidence indicates that Baxter’s actions that morning were not a sudden nor snap decision,” Dr Brasch said. 

 

“Two days earlier, on the morning of 17 February 2020, Baxter went to a Bunnings store and bought black cable ties and a plastic jerry can.”

The court will also hear evidence from Baxter’s previous partners of his “controlling and dominating influence”.

“Baxter used a highly manipulative combination of threat, intimidation, guilt, shame and raw anger to influence Hannah’s actions, her choices and her other personal and professional relationships.