Chilling phone calls made by a father from prison before he killed himself and nine-month-old baby girl Kobi Shepherdson have been played in court.
South Australian Deputy Coroner Ian White opened a coronial inquest on Tuesday into the deaths of baby Kobi Anastasia and Henry David Shepherdson, 38, at the Barossa Reservoir’s Whispering Wall, northeast of Adelaide, on April 21, 2021.
Shepherdson was in prison for threatening to kill Kobi and and the baby’s mother, Jenna Hutchins, when he made 149 calls to Hutchins, all of them in breach of an intervention order, the inquest heard on Thursday.
Audio from the calls was also played in court.
The phone calls were aimed at intimidating Hutchins into dropping domestic violence charges against him, the court was reportedly told.
Shepherdson said he could not be the father he wanted to be while facing the charges, and if the case went to trial he would make her look like a liar.
He also told Hutchins to keep the conversations a secret, which she agreed to. None of the calls were known to police, prosecutors or the courts.
Earlier in the week the inquest heard that Shepherdson had a history of violence, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and mental health issues.
Baby Kobi (pictured) was just nine-months-old when her father Henry David Shepherdson strapped her to his chest and threw himself off a dam wall in 2021
Henry Shepherdson plunged him and his daughter from the Whispering Wall at Barossa Reservoir (pictured) in April, 2021
He met Defence Force member Jenna Hutchins 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 worsened and Shepherdson was arrested in December, 2020 and charged with false imprisonment and threats to kill.
He was remanded in custody and an intervention order banned any contact with Hutchins and their daughter Kobi.
In January 2021, Hutchins started receiving calls from Shepherdson in prison.
‘Mr Shepherdson called and spoke with Ms Hutchins 149 times,’ Counsel assisting Martin Kirby said.
‘Once Your Honour hears these calls, you will be asked to classify them as showing highly manipulative behaviour by Mr Shepherdson towards her, and ultimately that he was successful in his strategy of illegally contacting her and having her do what he wanted,’ Mr Kirby said.
In February 2021, Hutchins signed a form to have the charges withdrawn.
Kobi’s manipulative father had been granted access to the baby hours before they were both killed 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 breaching the intervention order.
Shepherdson was sentenced to six days in prison.
Hutchins told police she wanted the intervention order to remain. But weeks later, she signed another form to vary conditions so there could be contact.
On April 21, 2021, Shepherdson appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court wit his lawyer requesting that the intervention order be varied.
The prosecutor conducted checks on police systems and agreed to remove the non-contact conditions.
On the same day, Shepherdson arranged to spend time with Kobi.
That afternoon, he travelled to the 34metre Whispering Wall, and with Kobi strapped to his chest in a child carrier, climbed over the railing and jumped.
‘From the first report by Ms Hutchins in October 2020, both SA police and Department of Correctional Services were aware and had access to records demonstrating Mr Shepherdson’s past history, his history of violence, breaching court orders and his poor mental health,’ Mr Kirby said.
‘I want to emphasise Ms Hutchins was a caring and diligent mother suffering intense mental and sometimes physical abuse from Mr Shepherdson.’
The inquest would try to answer many questions, including how Shepherdson was accessing opioids from his GP, Mr Kirby said.
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