Praveen Yadav: Melbourne disability worker to plead guilty to sexual assault charges

A disability support worker will plead guilty to sexual assault after regulators deemed him a ‘serious risk’.

A disability support worker who regulators say poses a “serious risk” to the community will plead guilty to committing sex offences against a disabled woman, a court has heard.

Praveen Yadav, 38, of Werribee, faced the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday where his defence lawyer, Anita Kousari, said her client would plead guilty to unspecified charges 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, and were committed against a woman who had a mental illness or cognitive impairment.

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

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

The offences took place on unspecified dates in Melbourne’s southeast.

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 Yadav 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 new laws designed to protect people with disabilities from abuse committed by disability 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 was also working for other agencies when he was charged.

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