Inside the mind of a monster: Read the menacing, victim-blaming letter written by Hannah Clarke's killer husband before he burned her alive along with their three children in horrific attack

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A sickening note written by Hannah Clarke's ex-husband before he set his family alight has been aloud to the coronial inquest into her death. 

In the letter, found on Rowan Baxter's phone following his grisly killing, the mass murderer said: 'I’m not going to take it anymore Hannah.'

Baxter set Ms Clarke and their three children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3 alight in her car at Camp Hill on February 19, 2020. 

Part of the note, written on January 26 but edited until weeks before the mass killing, appears to suggest what Baxter had planned for his estranged wife and children.

'I'm finishing your game. I don’t want to play anymore. This was never ever my intention,' Baxter wrote.

Hannah Clarke pictured with her three children Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey

'You can’t f*** with someone’s life like this and expect them to just take it. 

'I’m not going to take it anymore Hannah.

'Do you know how hard it is to go to bed every night without your children? I wish you had have just tried.

'I have told the kids that you loved them. They will miss you I’m sure.

'You destroyed my life and I cannot move on. I hope all this was worth it for you and your family.

'Now that you have no one to apparently control it, you’re a strong girl. You’ll be fine.'

Baxter signed the note from himself - and also, sickeningly, his children - as 'Ro, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey.' 

Hannah Clarke (pictured right) was murdered, along with her three children, by her ex-husband Rowan Baxter (pictured left)

The inquest also heard today from one of Hannah's closest friend, Nicole Brooks.

Ms Brooks recalled how she had visited Carina police station in Brisbane on February 13 and warned police that she believed Baxter was planning to kill her friend and the children. 

'I relayed that at the police station – [I said] he’s going to take them out,' Ms Brooks told the inquest.

Ms Brooks said police told they could not act 'until he does something' and she warned them they might not get a second chance.

Ms Clarke's mother Sue (pictured) also made an emotional statement to the inquest on Thursday, revealing that the night before the murders of his ex-wife and three children, Baxter cried while FaceTiming with the children

Hannah Clarke's best friend Nicole Brooks (right) told the inquest she had visited a Brisbane police station to warn about what Rowan Baxter might do to her friend and her children 

Hannah Clarke is pictured with her three children, Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four and Trey, three

Ms Clarke's mother Sue also made an emotional statement to the inquest on Thursday, revealing that the night before the murders of his ex-wife and three children, Baxter cried while FaceTiming with the children. 

Sue Clarke said Baxter had won the family over after she initially disliked him, but around the time Laianah was born he would belittle Mrs Clarke and called her names.

'He treated me terribly. He disliked me immensely,' she said.

Baxter once dropped Mrs Clarke on her face while training in the gym, cutting her lip.

He thought it was hilarious, telling her to 'harden up', Mrs Clarke said.

'He lacked empathy with everybody,' she said.

Baxter called his wife a 'fat pig', wouldn't let her wear shorts or pink clothing - 'because that's for children' - and had to win races with his young kids.

He punished Hannah for 'misbehaving' by not letting the children go to their grandparents because it would upset his wife.

'It was safer for Hannah to say nothing,' Mrs Clarke said.

Pastor Christopher Ensbey leaves the Brisbane Coroners Court after telling the inquest into the death of Hannah Clarke and her three children that her ex-husband Rowan Baxter was not genuinely remorseful for his controlling behaviour

Yesterday, the inquest heard Baxter described as a 'hothead' who trained people in the gym until they vomited and deep down felt no remorse for his controlling behaviour, witnesses have told the coroner's inquest into her death.

One witness, Pastor Christopher Ensbey, spoke with Rowan Baxter about his failed marriage to Ms Clarke a number of times in the lead-up to the horrific day in February 2020 when Baxter set fire to Ms Clarke and their three children.

Pastor Ensbey, who met Baxter through the Carindale gym the fitness fanatic had run with Hannah during their marriage, told the inquest that Baxter had contacted him in 2019 to meet and discuss the break-up of his relationship with Ms Clarke.

'He [Baxter] walked up and hugged me and cried on my shoulder, which was abnormal for him,' Mr Ensbey said of the meeting. 

'Looking back I would not say he was remorseful genuinely for his actions and control, I'd say he was remorseful for the fact he's lost his home life,' Mr Ensbey told the inquest. 

The pastor said Baxter always 'had to be the alpha male' and liked to train people at the gym until they vomited.

Pastor Ensbey told the inquest he had also been contacted by Hannah Clarke to discuss Baxter's behaviour.

He said in their conversation, Ms Clarke initially denied Baxter had perpetrated any physical abuse but that he 'expected her to have sex every day', as evidence of his controlling behaviour.  

Another witness, Brad Clark, who played rugby with Baxter, told the inquest the gym owner was a 'hot head'.

Mr Clark said he had witnessed Baxter be 'short tempered and quite aggressive' during matches, including getting into fights on the field.  

Ms Clarke, 31, and children Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four, and Trey, three, were killed at the hands of her ex-partner Rowan Baxter when he doused them in petrol and set them alight while they were in their family car in February, 2020 in Brisbane's south. 

Baxter died at the scene from self-inflicted knife wounds, and suffered burns to 80 per cent of his body.

A bodycam transcript obtained by The Courier-Mail, shows how Ms Clarke managed to detail crucial evidence as she lay in excruciating pain. 

'My ex-husband, he got, he got in the …' she told Senior Constable Angus Skaines.

'What's your ex-husband's name?' he asked.

'Rowan Baxter,' she said. 'There's a protection order against him.

'We got in the car to go to school, and he jumped in the front seat with me, and had a jerry can.' 

Ms Clarke told the officer she saw a man washing a car and asked him to call the police. 

'And then (Baxter) just, he poured petrol everywhere and just lit the car. And my three kids.'

Her children Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four and Trey, three, had been trapped in the car and died in the blaze.  

As Officer Skaines talked to Ms Clarke, who had been severely injured from the fire, her evil ex-husband was further down the street. 

Baxter, 42, had been burnt in the inferno he caused and died after stabbing himself.

Officer Skaines stayed with Ms Clarke and gently reassured as she struggled to answer questions about Baxter. 

'No, no, no. You're doing amazing, actually,' he told her. 

She was treated at the scene but died on the way to hospital. 

Hannah Clarke (left) is pictured with her three children, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey

Queensland's deputy state coroner Jane Bentley praised Officer Skaines for his courage and humanity.

'Officer Skaines, I've watched the body worn camera footage that was taken on that day and your professionalism and level headedness in the face of those horrific circumstances was commendable,' she said.

'Obviously if Baxter had lived, the evidence that you obtained from Hannah on that morning would have been indispensable in relation to the prosecution of him.' 

On Wednesday, an inquest into the murders heard that Baxter had considered abducting and killing a previous partner.   

He did not go through with that plan, but on February 19, 2020, he killed Ms Clarke and their children.

The inquest that started in the Coroners Court in Brisbane on Monday is set to consider what could have been done to prevent the murders.

Hannah Clarke's family bought season tickets to Sea World five days before she and her three children were murdered by her estranged husband - after Aaliyah (left) said she had 'the best day of her life' at the theme park

Two of Hannah Clarke's children, Laianah, four and Trey, three, are pictured

Baxter was self-absorbed and selfish, thinking everything revolved him and he was 'a victim every time', Martin Coll told the inquest on Wednesday.

Mr Coll, who knew the couple for about five years, said Baxter once confided that when another relationship was breaking down years before he contemplated an abduction at knifepoint.

'He had rope in his car, he was going to take them out somewhere and end it all, including himself,' Mr Coll told the inquest.

Mr Coll was also told about a road rage incident in which Baxter said he 'jumped' a cyclist and 'left him lying there'.

Baxter became increasingly suspicious and paranoid about his estranged wife in the months before the attack on Ms Clarke after she left her parent's Camp Hill home to take the children to school.

Hannah Clarke is pictured holding her daughter Aaliyah at Sea World in Queensland

Ms Clarke said if she didn't do what Baxter wanted after the separation the kids would pay for it the next day by not getting a treat or going to the beach, Mr Coll said.

He said Ms Clarke phoned him on Boxing Day saying Baxter had abducted Laianah off the street.

Baxter told Mr Coll his daughter was fine and he had gone to NSW.

'That was an escalation in what he was doing,' Mr Coll said.

The inquest was told Baxter admitted to a friend he left a recording device at Ms Clarke's house.

A tow truck operator removes a car from the scene of a deliberately lit car fire which claimed the lives of Hannah Clarke and her three children in Brisbane on Wednesday, February 19, 2020

'He then overheard Hannah talking to her mother, where they called him a narcissist and other derogatory names,' counsel assisting Jacoba Brasch QC said, referring to the friend's statement.

The inquest was also told Baxter was a hothead, squashed Ms Clarke's ideas, expected sex every day and enjoyed seeing people suffer - even vomit - when he trained them in gyms.

Lewis Bartlett, who knew Baxter from about 2008 and employed Ms Clarke at his sports shoe store, told the inquest she confided about intending to leave her husband late in 2019, and later said they had what was 'classed as a domestic violence relationship'.

Baxter had not hit her, but 'had done other things' that she did not elaborate on.

Hannah Clarke with her children Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four and Trey, three. They were all murdered by their father

In the weeks before the 31-year-old and her three children were set ablaze in a car, Ms Clarke asked Mr Bartlett how to write a will.

'She said if anything ever happened to her she wanted to make sure her children were well looked after and went to the right people,' Mr Bartlett told the inquest.

When he replied that nothing would happen to her, Ms Clarke said: 'No, he's going to try and kill me.'

Hannah Clarke's daughters Aaliyah and Laianah are pictured having fun in their kitchen

Ms Clarke said she had told the police her concerns and he thought things would be put in place to protect her.

Mr Bartlett said Ms Clarke had fears about what Baxter would do to her, but didn't think he would harm the children.

'But she did say that he would use the kids against her as almost like a bargaining chip,' he said. 

Ms Clarke died later the same day in hospital.

The inquest continues.

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