Man faces jail time over the 'severe neglect’ of his elderly mother

LAWYERS say the case of a man who left his elderly mother to die in a filthy pit of squalor is unrivalled in Victorian legal history, prompting a judge to consider jailing the son over the ‘severe neglect’.

The man and his defacto wife have pleaded guilty in the County Court.

A JUDGE has flagged jailing a man who left his elderly mother to die in a filthy pit of squalor.

In a case lawyers say is unrivalled in Victorian legal history, the 52-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due to be sentenced this week over the death of his 83-year-old mum.

The man and his defacto wife — who also cannot be named — have pleaded guilty in the County Court to reckless conduct endangering life over the shocking case of neglect.

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The couple were collecting a carer’s pension to look after the 83-year-old woman but doing nothing to actually care for her. Picture: File image

Following the plea, prosecutors agreed with defence lawyers for the pair that they should avoid jail, arguing a Community Corrections Order would be appropriate.

But Judge John Carmody said he had reflected on the submissions and didn’t think he agreed.

He said while he was yet to determine a sentence, he wouldn’t rule out an immediate term of imprisonment.

While suspended sentences are no longer available to Victorian judges, they could apply in this case because a significant period of offending occurred before they were abolished.

The couple are expected to learn their fates on Friday.

They were collecting a carer’s pension to look after the 83-year-old woman but doing nothing to actually care for her.

Instead they neglected her, ignoring her screams for help and failing to seek medical attention as her health deteriorated between May 2012 and October 2013.

She had not eaten and was left to lay in the same soiled nappy for a week before she died on October 13.

Attending police were faced with horrific scenes and a severe stench as they entered the woman’s filthy bedroom, which contained a rotten mattress and flies buzzing around food scraps and general rubbish strewn on the floor.

She weighed about 34kg at the time of her death.

Judge Carmody, looking at pictures of the home and grandmother on the day she died, questioned how her only son could have turned a blind eye.

“This deterioration of the deceased took a while,” Judge Carmody remarked.

An autopsy determined her cause of death as bronchial pneumonia as a result of “severe neglect” or “elder abuse”.

The court has heard the family was struggling financially after losing their uninsured home — which the wife had paid for with $180,000 she inherited from her late father — in a fire in 2005.

They were claiming $100 fortnightly as a carer’s allowance.

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