Chilling phone calls made by a father from prison before killing himself and his nine-month-old baby, Kobi Shepherdson, have been played out in court.
South Australia Deputy Coroner Ian White opened a coronial inquest on Tuesday into the deaths of baby Kobi Anastasia and Henry David Shepherdson, 38, at the Whispering Wall of the Barossa Reservoir, northeast of Adelaide, on April 21 of 2021.
Shepherdson was in prison for threatening to kill Kobi and the baby’s mother, Jenna Hutchins, when he made 149 calls to Hutchins, all in breach of an intervention order, the inquest heard on Thursday.
Audio of the calls was also played in court.
The court was told the phone calls were intended to intimidate Hutchins into dropping the domestic violence charges against him.
Shepherdson said he couldn’t be the father he wanted to be while facing the charges, and that if the case went to trial it would make her look like a liar.
He also told Hutchins to keep the conversations secret, to which she agreed. Police, prosecutors or the courts were not aware of any of the calls.
Earlier in the week, the inquest heard Shepherdson had a history of violence, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse and mental health problems.
Baby Kobi (pictured) was just nine months old when her father, Henry David Shepherdson, tied her to his chest and jumped off a dam wall in 2021.
Henry Shepherdson threw him and his daughter off the Whispering Wall into the Barossa Reservoir (pictured) in April 2021.
He met Jenna Hutchins, a member of the Defense Forces, on a dating app in late 2019, and she fell pregnant within a month.
After the couple moved in together, Shepherdson began verbally abusing her.
It got worse and Shepherdson was arrested in December 2020 and charged with false imprisonment and death threats.
He was taken into custody and an intervention order prohibited any contact with Hutchins and his daughter Kobi.
In January 2021, Hutchins began receiving calls from Shepherdson in prison.
“Mr Shepherdson called and spoke to Ms Hutchins 149 times,” said the lawyer who helped Martin Kirby.
“Once Your Honor hears these calls, you will be asked to classify them as showing highly manipulative behavior by Mr. Shepherdson towards her and, ultimately, that he was successful in his strategy of illegally contacting her and having her did what he wanted,” Mr. Kirby said. saying.
In February 2021, Hutchins signed a form to have the charges dropped.
Kobi’s manipulative father had been granted access to the baby hours before they both died in a murder-suicide that shocked Australia, the court heard.
Shepherdson was released from prison and in March 2021 police found him hiding in Hutchins’ bathroom.
He was returned to custody and a week later pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with the intervention order.
Shepherdson was sentenced to six days in jail.
Hutchins told police he wanted the intervention order to remain in place. But weeks later, he signed another form to vary the conditions so that there could be contact.
On 21 April 2021, Shepherdson appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court with his lawyer requesting that the intervention order be varied.
The prosecutor carried out checks on police systems and agreed to remove no-contact conditions.
The same day, Shepherdson arranged to spend time with Kobi.
That afternoon, she traveled to the 34-metre Whispering Wall and, with Kobi strapped to her chest in a baby carrier, climbed the railing and jumped.
“Since Ms Hutchins’ first report in October 2020, both South African Police and the Department of Correctional Services were aware of and had access to records demonstrating Mr Shepherdson’s past history, his history of violence, failure to comply with orders and poor mental health,” Kirby said. saying.
“I want to emphasize that Ms. Hutchins was a caring and diligent mother who suffered intense mental and, at times, physical abuse at the hands of Mr. Shepherdson.”
The investigation would attempt to answer many questions, including how Shepherdson accessed opioids from his primary care doctor, Kirby said.
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