Coroner unleashes on cops in a brutal courtroom takedown following the tragic deaths of a dad and his nine-month-old baby girl

A coroner has chastised police during a murder-suicide investigation, saying their submissions could be read as “victim blaming” by the young victim’s mother.

South Australian Deputy Coroner Ian White is conducting an investigation into the deaths of nine-month-old Kobi Anastasia Isobel Shepherdson and Henry David Shepherdson, 38, at a dam northeast of Adelaide on April 21, 2021.

The couple died hours after a magistrates court granted a variation to a restraining order to allow Shepherdson to care for Kobi while her mother was on an appointment.

The inquest previously found that Shepherdson called the baby’s mother 149 times from prison, in breach of an intervention order, and forced her to drop charges against him.

During closing submissions on Thursday, Mr White had a tense exchange with Lauren Gavranich, who represented government agencies including South Australia Police and the Department of Correctional Services.

“The (written) comments, especially on behalf of the police commissioner… commenting on Kobi’s mother caused me to have a very bad response,” Mr White said.

‘They don’t seem to recognize the coercive pressure she was under at all.

“You and everyone else here heard fifteen debilitating appeals played in open court.”

The coroner said he was concerned about a paragraph in the police report, which said: ‘Kobi’s mother did not need to answer any of the calls or speak to him, especially in circumstances where she was safe and he was in custody.’

“I believe these submissions on behalf of the commissioner can be read as victim blaming,” he said.

“Your Honor, I completely disagree with you and that is in no way the commissioner’s position,” Ms. Gavranich said.

“That’s how it will be recorded publicly,” Mr. White responded.

“It’s a misrepresentation to say she had no choice in answering those calls.”

He said it was “not melodramatic” to say Shepherdson was an unusual and dangerous man.

Counsel assisting Martin Kirby said Kobi’s mother was “completely blindsided” when she received the first phone call from Shepherdson from prison on January 31, 2021.

“She’s quiet, she’s unresponsive at first and she sounds scared… this would have been a very frightening and shocking moment,” he said.

Shepherdson was not allowed to contact her and for six weeks she had been safe and supported by her family in Victoria, he said.

The inquest has previously been told that Henry David Shepherdson called Kobi’s mother 149 times from prison in breach of an intervention order (photo baby Kobi)

“Not long after returning to Adelaide, where she was left without family support, she answers the phone and has Mr Shepherdson tell her, ‘It’s me, I’m back’,” he said.

Shepherdson called her thirteen times that day and immediately pressured her to drop the charges against him and allow him back into her life.

“He gassed her, he dominated her and he manipulated her,” Kirby said.

Questions about why Kobi’s mother answered the phone and did not tell police that Shepherdson was contacting her “limit and minimize the emotional and psychological distress that victims of domestic violence face.”

Shepherdson, he noted, was a big man.

‘She was a woman alone with a child. “It is not speculative to consider the additional level of physical threat his presence would have posed,” Kirby said.

Shepherdson had significant mental health and drug problems and a history of suicide threats.

And while his early life “might generate some sympathy”, he was also a domestic abuse perpetrator and a convicted armed robber, Mr Kirby said.

SA Police’s initial response to the case was appropriate: Shepherdson was arrested and Kobi’s mother was offered support, he told the court.

Baby Kobi (pictured) died hours after a magistrates court granted a variation to a restraining order to allow Shepherdson to care for the child while her mother was on an appointment

The coroner said a paragraph in police reports about the hundreds of phone calls Kobi’s mother received from Shepherdson could be interpreted as ‘victim blaming’ (baby Kobi photo)

“Your Honor can find that the domestic violence risk forms were completed inaccurately on every occasion and that the existing processes through which those scores could be assessed failed to detect the errors,” he said.

Mr Kirby said he was not seeking findings against individuals because the problems were systemic.

He made a series of recommendations regarding policies and procedures at various government agencies.

Mr White will announce his findings at a later date.