{"id":757257,"date":"2026-06-24T13:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757257\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T13:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:33:17","slug":"baby-kobis-death-at-whispering-wall-preventable-as-coroner-highlights-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757257\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Kobi’s death at Whispering Wall ‘preventable’ as coroner highlights ‘errors’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A coroner has found the “upsetting” death of nine-month-old baby Kobi Shepherdson at the Whispering Wall in a public murder-suicide by her “manipulative, self-absorbed and dangerous” father could have been prevented.<\/p>\n

WARNING: This story contains details that readers may find distressing.<\/p>\n

Henry Shepherdson, 38, took his daughter, Kobi, to the tourist attraction in South Australia’s Barossa Valley<\/a> in April 2021, just hours after a court varied a non-contact order to allow him to have contact with her and her mother.<\/p>\n

In published findings handed down today, Judge Ian White, acting deputy state coroner, said a “series of fundamental errors” had led to Kobi’s death, including a police risk assessment that “never reflected the true danger” she and her mother faced.<\/p>\n

The inquest had heard Shepherdson had been abusive towards Kobi’s mother over several months, and was arrested for domestic violence offences in December 2020.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Whispering Wall at the Barossa Reservoir, north-east of Adelaide. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

‘Extremely manipulative behaviour’<\/p>\n

While he was in custody on remand, Shepherdson was “able to engage in extremely manipulative and coercive behaviour” during 149 recorded prison phone calls to Kobi’s mother.<\/p>\n

Judge White said Shepherdson’s behaviour during those “relentless” calls had continued “unchecked for months” and was “pivotal” to his ability to have criminal charges, including threatening to kill Kobi and her mother, dropped.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Henry Shepherdson had been banned from contacting Kobi’s mother or their child. (Supplied: Courts SA)<\/p>\n

“I was extremely disappointed by the submissions on behalf of the Commissioner of Police, both in writing and orally, that Kobi’s mother could have simply refused to answer calls from him,” Judge White said.<\/p>\n

“I challenged these submissions in court as being totally inappropriate considering what was heard in these samples of calls.”<\/p>\n

He said Shepherdson had a “very poor reaction” when his calls went unanswered and “always demanded an explanation”.<\/p>\n

“It should not be forgotten that he was a dangerous man with a bad criminal record who had a constant focus on Kobi’s mother doing everything for his own selfish benefit,” Judge White said.<\/p>\n

“The pressure on her must have been almost unbearable at times.<\/p>\n

“She was highly damaged by his treatment of her, whether in custody or not. He exploited her willingness to be generous to him despite all he had done to her, including threatening to kill her.”<\/p>\n

Family and domestic violence support services:<\/p>\n

If you need help immediately, call emergency services on Triple Zero.<\/p>\n

Judge White said the “significant errors” made by SA Police and the Department for Correctional Services “cannot be ignored”.<\/p>\n

He said that, if SA Police had deemed Kobi and her mother “high risk”, then a “myriad of opportunities would have opened up for her to consider, thereby enhancing the chances for her to more meaningfully engage” with a multi-agency protection service.<\/p>\n

“Had this been done, then many different procedures and protocols would have been enacted by SAPOL to include other government agencies so that his illegal and manipulative behaviour would have had a significantly higher chance of being detected and prosecuted successfully,” Judge White said.<\/p>\n

‘Insidious problem of domestic violence’<\/p>\n

In his findings, Judge White acknowledged that Kobi’s death was “an upsetting and terrible shortening of her life”, which “can and did evoke strong emotions”.<\/p>\n

He extended his condolences to Kobi’s mother and family, noting his findings might cause them distress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Judge Ian White directed some of his recommendations directly to politicians. (ABC News: Dean Faulkner)<\/p>\n

He said they were deliberately detailed to “give a clear insight to South Australians of the insidious problem of domestic violence and the often-silent suffering of domestic violence victims”.<\/p>\n

“This was a difficult, harrowing examination in detail of a mother and child being subject to domestic violence and coercion by a manipulative, self-absorbed and dangerous man that resulted in Kobi’s murder,” he said.<\/p>\n

Judge White directed his recommendations at the premier and attorney-general, as former State Coroner Mark Johns did in 2014 for the inquest into the death of domestic violence murder victim Zahra Abrahimzadeh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kobi Shepherson’s mother cannot be named for legal reasons. (Supplied: SA Police)<\/p>\n

Judge White recommended that the use of the prisoner telephone service for people remanded in custody be “reviewed to concentrate on strategies and methods to prevent protected persons and alleged or proven victims of domestic violence from being contacted illegally via that service”.<\/p>\n

Other recommendations included adopting several of those made in the recent Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It is sincerely hoped that the recommendations of the royal commission can cause substantial assistance to those in the position of Kobi and Kobi’s mother to ensure their safety and to prevent harm or another death to a domestic violence victim,” Judge White said.<\/p>\n

Judge White also made a recommendation to SA Water to “improve the safety aspects of the dam of the Whispering Wall” in order to further prevent similar deaths, but noted this had “been substantially addressed already”.<\/p>\n

Government to ‘take heed of any failings’<\/p>\n

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the coroner’s report made difficult and “horrific” reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is a wake-up call and a call to action which we will heed,” he said.<\/p>\n

“As the coroner\u2019s report lays bare, there were failings and what we should do as a government is take heed of any failings whether they\u2019re procedures and policies in departments or legislative changes and that\u2019s the best thing we can do to honour Kobi\u2019s memory, is to make those changes, to take coroner\u2019s report seriously and to look at what we do better.”<\/p>\n

When asked whether the family deserves an apology, Mr Maher said: “I don\u2019t think anyone would feel anything other than regret for what\u2019s happened and personally and I think as a government, we are very sorry that what\u2019s happened to Kobi\u2019s family has happened and we need to do things better.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, an SA Police spokesperson said it is assessing the recommendations made in the inquest findings.<\/p>\n

“SAPOL is working collaboratively with partner agencies to synchronise and effectively implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission,” they said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Charlotte Watson says the union’s thoughts are with Kobi Shepardson’s family. (ABC News: Will Hunter)<\/p>\n

Public Service Association general secretary Charlotte Watson said the findings raised serious questions about correctional services and its role in protecting the community.<\/p>\n

“The findings demonstrate the critical role remand centres and prisons play within the justice system in identifying risk, delivering intervention programs, reducing reoffending and protecting the broader community, and that these essential public services should remain in public hands,” Ms Watson said.<\/p>\n

“No mother should ever have to experience the loss of a child in these circumstances, and our sincere condolences remain with Kobi’s family as they continue to live with the consequences of this tragedy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coroner has found the “upsetting” death of nine-month-old baby Kobi Shepherdson at the Whispering Wall in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3443,64,63,164980,38880,144028,362245,37795,362244,44,8207,35712,362246],"class_list":["post-757257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adelaide","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barossa-valley","tag-coroners-court","tag-findings","tag-henry-shepherdson","tag-inquest","tag-kobi-shepherdson","tag-news","tag-report","tag-reservoir","tag-whispering-wall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}