Katrina Louise Harrington jailed for vile sexual acts against disabled man

A disability support worker molested a disabled man in her care in a ‘shameful’ and ‘despicable’ manner because she had a sick desire to fall pregnant to him. Read how police uncovered her vile acts.

Gladstone Court House. Courthouse.

A disability support worker who lured an intellectually disabled man in her care into having unprotected sex with her twice has been thrown in jail.

Katrina Louise Harrington, 39, manipulated the victim to visit her house while he was trialling living independently.

The Gladstone District Court’s public gallery was almost full during her sentencing on Wednesday, September 15.

Harrington pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a person with an impairment of the mind, part way through a trial.

She had initially pleaded not guilty but changed her plea after the prosecution presented its case.

Crown prosecutor Evan O’Hanlon-Rose said Harrington exchanged phone numbers and sent sexual messages to the victim who was quite a few years younger than her.

She arranged for them to meet up at a park and Harrington drove the victim to her house and had unprotected sex with him, the court heard.

Mr O’Hanlon-Rose said Harrington told the victim he didn’t need to wear a condom and that he should give her the ‘stuff from his penis’ so she could fall pregnant.

She did the same thing again the next day, the court heard. She also kissed and hugged him in private rooms in a care centre.

“There were strict rules and obligations that applied to the defendant during her employment, and those included prohibition to giving clients personal contact details, taking them to her personal home, contacting them outside of shift hours, and of course, prohibition against starting a sexual relationship with them,” Mr O’Hanlon-Rose told the court.

Another disability support worker noticed the texts and interactions on the victim’s phone and reported it to his mother, the prosecutor said.

Harrington was interviewed by police and Mr O’Hanlon-Rose said she made some ‘self-serving admissions’ to them.

Harrington changed her personal contact details on the victim’s phone to hide her contact with him and sent a message to delete her chat with him.

The victim was put through cross-examination by the court due to Harrington’s late plea of guilty. But Mr O’Hanlon-Rose said there was one positive aspect of the guilty plea - the victim’s parents could reassure him that it was not his fault because Harrington had admitted she had done the wrong thing.

“People employed in the disability sector or care for the disabled must be dissuaded from engaging in any behaviour of this kind,” Mr O’Hanlon-Rose said.

Harrington’s defence barrister, Maree Willey, said her client was seeing a psychologist for mental health conditions.

Ms Willey said Harrington wanted to return to her family and get employment after she was released from jail.

She said Harrington suffered a miscarriage in the past and had found it difficult to conceive.

The court heard she worked at Woolworths in her home town of Bundaberg for seven or eight years before working as a nanny.

She went before the court with no prior criminal history.

Judge Jeff Clarke said he noticed the victim became upset when telling a police officer that he wanted what everyone would want - for his first sexual experience to be with someone who they had a sense of attachment and she had ‘robbed him of that’.

“He appeared to me to be a patently honest witness,” Judge Clarke.

“I noticed his confusion when told that you had said that these things hadn’t happened and quite frankly, you should be ashamed that you caused him that further confusion and anxiety.”

“You had a duty to provide care for him, yours was the most gross and egregious breach of trust.

“He and his family relied upon you for support, guidance and direction and it seems to me that you instead chose to use the position in which you were employed to callously and selfishly breach that confidence that had been entrusted in you.”

He made a finding of fact that Harrington took advantage of the victim’s ‘kind’ and ‘considerate’ nature and seduced him hoping that he wouldn’t talk about it.

Judge Clarke said the victim’s mother’s trust in support workers had been shattered.

“In belatedly entering your guilty pleas, you’ve lost any vain hope in securing a merciful verdict,” the judge said.

“The case against you, in my view, was very strong; if not, insurmountable.”

Harrington was sentenced to four years imprisonment with 16 months of actual incarceration, with the rest suspended for five years.

“You conducted yourself in a shameful and quite despicable manner,” Judge Clarke said.