{"id":323444,"date":"2025-12-01T03:39:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T03:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/323444\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T03:39:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T03:39:22","slug":"victim-blaming-comments-after-hannah-clarke-murders-were-part-of-botched-police-media-strategy-australian-police-and-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/323444\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Victim blaming\u2019 comments after Hannah Clarke murders were part of botched police media strategy | Australian police and policing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior Queensland police officers gave a presentation that explained controversial comments made by a detective in the wake of the Hannah Clarke murders<\/a> were part of a police \u201cmedia strategy\u201d that \u201cwent wrong\u201d, documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.<\/p>\n

Det Insp Mark Thompson told a press conference in the days after the murders in February 2020 that police were keeping an \u201copen mind\u201d about the case in which Clarke\u2019s estranged husband, Rowan Baxter, was seen pouring petrol on and setting the family car alight, killing Clarke, their three children and himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at every piece of information,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cAnd, to put it bluntly, there are probably people out there in the community that are deciding which side, so to speak, to take in this investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments were heavily criticised and condemned as \u201cvictim blaming\u201d<\/a> by domestic violence campaigners and Thompson was removed from the case by the former police commissioner Katarina Carroll.<\/p>\n

This year Thompson \u2013 since promoted to superintendent \u2013 and the assistant commissioner Brian Swan ran a seminar about the Clarke homicide investigation at the prestigious Management of Serious Crime program run by the Australian federal police.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia was not present at the seminar but a copy of slides and speaking notes for the presentation, released to the Guardian by the Queensland<\/a> police service, shows Swan disagreed with Carroll\u2019s decision to stand Thompson down.<\/p>\n

Swan\u2019s notes say Thompson\u2019s \u201cintent was right\u201d when he made the controversial comments: \u201cMark should have remained.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrokenBroken trust: how police failed Hannah Clarke and other women they were supposed to protect \u2013 video<\/p>\n

\u201cMy gut feeling was that this was a wrong decision,\u201d the notes say. \u201cWas I firm enough with the [commissioner]? Probably not \u2013 but it was too late \u2013 the decision was made without me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost an opportunity and could have controlled the narrative and kept control of the messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speaking notes suggest that Thompson\u2019s comments were part of a deliberate \u201cmedia strategy\u201d that had been planned with the regional crime coordinator. It was designed to encourage people who had previously supported or believed Baxter to come forward but according to the notes it \u201cwent wrong\u201d after widespread community backlash.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia\u2019s Broken trust investigation<\/a> has revealed what happened next.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Two witnesses who had supported Baxter came forward and gave statements that claimed Clarke had fabricated domestic violence allegations. Detectives investigating her brutal killing then questioned the \u201cveracity and motive\u201d of her disclosures in the months before she and her children were murdered.<\/p>\n

Broken trust revealed that police made potentially critical errors<\/a> in the months before Clarke\u2019s death, as well as raising concerns about the subsequent investigation.<\/p>\n

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The speaking notes say Baxter had recruited allies and employed false narratives and that police were \u201cseeking to draw the narrative out and negative it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kate Pausina, a former senior detective with significant experience reviewing domestic violence homicides, said the comments \u2013 regardless of intent \u2013 were \u201cproblematic and dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the idea that the case required a \u201cmedia strategy\u201d was \u201cnonsensical\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a coronial investigation, not a criminal one,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was no person of interest. It makes no sense that there was a need for a covert strategy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe initial comment was extremely problematic and dangerous, regardless of its intent. A victim is never responsible for the violence they experience and also for their own death.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a press conference announcing Thompson had been stood down, Carroll said police would investigate their own dealings with Clarke. \u201cWe will go back, as will all other agencies, and this will go to the coroner to look at exactly what happened [and when],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould interventions be done earlier? Could we have prevented this? What do we learn from this? This is the conversation that we need to always have, because we\u2019re always getting better at this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia revealed that Queensland police did not conduct a mandatory \u201ccontact audit\u201d to examine all dealings between officers and family violence victims. Nor did the force conduct an internal review of its own actions for the inquest.<\/p>\n

According to the speaking notes, Thompson felt he had been isolated from sporting and community groups amid public reaction to his comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe negative allegations about me had the positive effect of focussing on the need to ensure positive cultural change among men (and in the organisation),\u201d the notes say.<\/p>\n

The Queensland police service did not address questions sent by Guardian Australia, including whether it had endorsed the presentation or approved the content. <\/p>\n

The QPS referred to previous responses<\/a> in relation to its handling of the Clarke case.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Guardian for the Broken trust investigation, a then deputy commissioner, Cameron Harsley, was asked about Thompson\u2019s comments and said he believed attitudes towards domestic and family violence among police were beginning to change.<\/p>\n

Swan is the officer who led this year\u2019s 100-day review into police operations, which argued that domestic violence case management was not \u201ccore business\u201d<\/a>. It found that the \u201cperceived primacy\u201d of family violence meant it took up a large amount of police workload.<\/p>\n

Critics say the findings are evidence that police attitudes towards domestic and family violence remain problematic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior Queensland police officers gave a presentation that explained controversial comments made by a detective in the wake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-323444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}