Royal Commission into Disability hears from mother of abused man

A mother has shared the horrifying ordeal of finding out about her autistic son’s abuse at the hands of a disability care worker.

One of Australia’s oldest service providers is under the spotlight at the disability royal commission.

Concerns have been raised over a western Sydney site run by Afford, where a number of participants were abused.

The abuse included having their photographs taken in intimate situations and shared with other people.

The royal commission is also looking at evidence about the finances at Afford, which has seen a rapid increase in its revenues in recent years.

The spike in revenues coincides with the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

A woman called Sally, which is a pseudonym, spoke about her son Jason, which is also a pseudonym.

Jason, 24, lives with autism. His mother described him as a “happy young man” before the abuse began.

Counsel assisting Peter Griffin opened the hearing with an outline of three men who received care from AFFORD and whose parents testified about the service’s mismanagement. Picture: Royal Commission into Disability

“Our world revolves around him and he is now coming back to what he used to be, it has taken a long while,” Sally told the royal commission on Monday.

Care worker David Nuumaalii was arrested and charged by police in May 2020 when explicit images and videos were found on his phone depicting multiple participants of the program.

The media was recorded over several months in late 2019 and depicted his clients naked in the shower, using the toilet or having their incontinence aids changed.

In one video, Nuumaalii taunts Jason as they drive past McDonald’s, telling him that he can’t go inside. The video shows Jason growing increasingly distressed.

Nuumaalii was sentenced to 3½ years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 months.

Sally said she was at a friend’s birthday party when a stranger approached her and told her that a carer had fallen asleep while driving Jason to an activity on the weekend.

“I approached the team leader to find out what happened and he said, ‘Yes that happened and we’ve moved that worker on now’,” she told the commission.

She only found out about Jason’s abuse when she received a phone call from Surry Hills police officers.

When the charity’s chief executive called her after the incident, Sally said he apologised and said that he went through all the paperwork to make sure Nuumaalii had passed all the employment checks.

“That really stuck in my mind because I‘m thinking I’ve just found out that my child’s been abused at the hand of one of your workers and it’s more important for you to tell me that you’ve employed him properly,” she said.

To this day, neither Jason nor his family have received a formal apology or offer of compensation from Afford.

Royal commission chair Ronald Sackville QC spoke of a ‘familiar pattern’ with AFFORD. Picture: Royal Commission into Disability

“I felt the day he was arrested, Afford went, ‘Wash my hands of him, he‘s been arrested, that’s it. We don’t need to deal with anything else’,” Sally said.

The parents of two other men who received care from Afford will answer questions from the commission on Monday afternoon.

One of the oldest disability service providers in the country, Afford has grown exponentially in the wake of the NDIS.

According to its latest financial report, Afford reported an annual revenue of $145.6m – with almost half of this derived from the NDIS.

During the opening statements, Mr Sackville also made note of the death of 20-year-old Merna Aprem at a group home also run by Afford in Woodbine, NSW in 2019.

Her mother, Tanya Petrus, was present at Monday’s hearing.

Despite instructions she should be supervised while bathing, Ms Aprem, who was diagnosed with autism and epilepsy, drowned while left alone in a bathroom that locked from the inside.

An inquiry into the cause of Ms Aprem’s death and a Federal Court case brought forward by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission for alleged breaches of the NDIS Act are ongoing.

The commissioner’s documents noted that Afford opened at least 19 new group homes and recorded a 35 per cent growth in revenue the year Ms Aprem died.

Originally published as Royal Commission into Disability hears from mother of abused man