Praveen Yadav: Melbourne disability worker to admit to sexual assaults on disabled woman

A Werribee disability worker will admit to sexually assaulting a woman he was supposed to be looking after.

A disability worker who professional regulators say poses a “serious risk” to the community will plead guilty to sex offences committed against a disabled woman.

Praveen Yadav, 38, of Werribee, faced the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday where his defence lawyer, Anita Kousari, said her client would plead guilty next year following negotiations with prosecutors.

The precise details of the charges Yadav will plead guilty to were not detailed in court on Thursday, but Magistrate Pauline Spencer said they occurred “in the context” of his work.

Yadav was last year charged with three counts of sexually assaulting a person with a cognitive impairment or mental illness, and three counts of sexual assault.

Praveen Yadav, of Werribee, is facing sexual assault charges. He is accused of assaulting a disabled woman while working as a disability support worker. Picture: LinkedIn

Yadav was charged in April this year, and the charges stem from offending in Melbourne’s southeast on unspecified dates in late 2020 or early 2021.

Yadav has been banned from working in the disability sector since mid-2021, when Disability Worker Commissioner Dan Stubbs began issuing a series of rolling prohibition orders, declaring it was necessary to ban him from the sector to “avoid a serious risk to the life, health, safety or welfare of a person or the health, safety or welfare of the public”.

The orders were the first of their kind Mr Stubbs has issued under laws designed to protect people with disabilities from abuse committed by workers in the loosely regulated sector.

Yadav has previously declined to comment on the allegations, saying he was “not in (the) right mental state or condition to talk”.

According to Yadav’s resume, he most recently worked for Connections Home Care and Nursing, an NDIS provider based at Pascoe Vale South.

The company’s spokeswoman said she was unaware of the precise nature of the allegations against its former employee and that he was sacked as soon as the commissioner issued his first prohibition order.

The spokeswoman said the company knew little of the investigation into Yadav, and that he had also worked for other agencies.

Yadav’s case returns to court for sentencing in April.