Southeast Queensland aged care home not told of killer’s past

AUTHORITIES have failed to alert residents and staff at a southeast Queensland aged care home that a new resident had stabbed his de facto wife to death just over two years earlier.

Riverview Gardens Aged Care.

AN AGED care home was not warned that a new resident had stabbed his de facto wife to death just over two years earlier.

Dennis Wakefield killed partner Beth Staveley and tried to take his own life at the couple’s Southport home in June 2014.

He was charged with murder but was found in the Mental Health Court to be of unsound mind.

The 75-year-old was confined to The Park Centre for Mental Health, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Brisbane’s west.

But in August he was accepted into the Riverview Gardens Aged Care Plus Centre in Ipswich, with the help of Queensland Health.

The Salvation Army facility only discovered Wakefield’s history just over a week ago and immediately relocated him.

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The case has raised questions about the adequacy of Queensland Health disclosures about the history of mental health patients.

Salvation Army Aged Care Plus chief executive Sharon Callister said the centre was “made aware of information concerning a resident … which was not disclosed upon their admission” last Thursday.

“The newly disclosed information led Aged Care Plus to act quickly and appropriately, relocating the resident to an alternate suitable location,” she said.

West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, which is handling the case, yesterday said it had to balance a patient’s treatment and privacy with community safety.

Wakefield and Ms Staveley, 69, were together for more than 20 years.

A clinical report obtained by The Sunday Mail states: “Mr Wakefield was charged with the murder of his wife on 6 June 2014 after he stabbed her several times before making a very serious suicide attempt.”

Two independent psychiatrists assessed Wakefield in 2015 for the Mental Health Court.

“Mr Wakefield attended court … and was found to be of unsound mind in relation to the charge,” the report states.

Wakefield, a retired taxi driver, was found to have been suffering “a major depressive episode”.

At first he visited Riverview during daylight hours. But since September, The Park has given him leave to stay overnight at the centre, where he has joined in games of bingo and lawn bowls.

Salvation Army managers sent letters to “residents and representatives” last week informing them an issue had arisen.

“Aged Care Plus wants all residents and representatives to know that the circumstances leading to the resident’s admission only first became known to The Salvation Army Aged Care Plus on 16 March 2017 and thereafter it took immediate and appropriate steps,” the letter states.