Claims NDIS worker defrauded, took sexual advantage of intellectually disabled client

A Cairns man has been suspended from disability support work after an intellectually disabled client claimed he defrauded, groomed and took sexual advantage her.

Rachel has multiple disabilities. She said the man started by isolating her from friends and family. Then the compliments came, then the proposals and then the sexual abuse.

A Cairns man has been suspended from disability support work after an intellectually disabled client claimed he defrauded, groomed and took sexual advantage her.

Rachel*, who has a mild intellectual disability, autism, and suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, told Cairns Post she used some of her NDIS funding to get counselling because she was struggling with grief over her dying grandmother.

She hired a man she had known through the child protection system who was advertising counselling services.

Intellectually disabled women are often targeted because ‘their stories will not be believed’ in court says a disability advocate. Picture: Richard Walker

The man said he was a counsellor for an organisation which called itself a spiritual/religious association online.

Rachel, in her 20s, claims the man began to cut key people from her life, including family members, friends, and other support workers.

She followed his advice.

“He told me these people weren’t good for me,” she said.

“I trusted him.”

After that, she said he built up her “counselling” time so that he was spending a full five days a week with her and billed it, hour by hour, to the NDIS as counselling services.

She claimed she later found out he was not a registered counsellor and had not completed counselling qualifications.

The man charged her $20,000 for “counselling services” over a 12-month period.

He also started giving her compliments, saying she was attractive and beautiful, and telling her how he wanted to leave his wife and start a relationship with her.

He even told her he loved her.

The man charged the NDIS $20,000 for counselling services.

Soon enough he started touching her, and she says a “sexual relationship began”.

Rachel says she feels the relationship was abusive.

She said she first met him when she was a teenager when he had been working with the child protection system, where she was temporarily placed.

“He knew all my traumas, and he knew what to prey on,” she said.

“With the high power he had being a therapist I felt useless and worthless,” Rachel said.

“(I) felt like I had no power most of the time.”

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability has detailed many cases of abuse of women with disabilities.

Speaking generally of the issue and not in relation to these claims, People with Disabilities Australia president, Nicole Lee, said the high rates of abuse of women with intellectual and psycho-social disabilities were “alarming”.

“Perpetrators believe they can get away with it because the women are positioned as vulnerable and in particular viewed as untrustworthy in court,” Ms Lee said.

Nicole Lee, President of People With Disabilities Australia, discussed the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Kelly Barnes

Ms Lee said she believed “predatory individuals” target women with disabilities and “spend a long time grooming and gaining trust with the victim”.

The 5000-page Royal Commission report recommends a new complaints mechanism, a new national disability commission, and the creation of a new disability rights act “as soon as possible” to help stop violence against people with disabilities.

It said it was often those entrusted with caring for people with disabilities who perpetuate the abuse.

They include disability support workers, prison guards, people working in schools, doctors, nurses, and police, the commission said.

Rachel said that now she is more focused on picking up the pieces from the events which she says have left “trauma after trauma”.

Rachel says she went to the man seeking help with her anxiety and depression, but ended up feeling suicidal.

She has since made multiple suicide attempts, which saw her hospitalised, and has difficulty “trusting any sort of professionals due to what happened”.

News Corp made a number of attempts to contact the man and outlined the allegations made about him, but he did not respond to the queries.

In a statement, a spokesperson from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission said it “is aware of the (Rachel’s) matter and is taking it very seriously”.

“(The alleged offender) is not permitted to work in risk-assessed roles,” the spokesperson said.

“This means (he) cannot be engaged by any registered NDIS provider in a role involving direct contact with people with disability.

“Further compliance action is currently under consideration by the delegate.

“Once the delegate decides, the action will be reflected on the NDIS Commission’s compliance and enforcement register.”

Rachel said she wants the man to apologise.

She also has some advice.

“If you do see someone doing the wrong thing, especially by their client, please report. Don’t be silenced,” she said.

“It could save a life and years of trauma. People who take advantage of vulnerable people need to be held accountable.”

NDIS Fraud Reporting and Scams Helpline on 1800 650 717

NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission 1800 035 544.

Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.

Statewide Sexual Assault Helpline 1800 010 120.

1800 Respect 1800 737 732,

Lifeline 13 11 14

* name changed to maintain anonymity.

Originally published as Claims NDIS worker defrauded, took sexual advantage of intellectually disabled client