NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has vowed he will try to place life bans on a trio of women who bullied and assaulted a disabled client in their care from working with vulnerable people under the scheme.
A 60 Minutes investigation has obtained footage of vile treatment meted out at a Scope residential home to client Lee-Anne Mackey, who has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair, is non-verbal and has osteoporosis.
Lee-Anne, who is not cognitively impaired, complained to her parents, Rob and Lorraine Mackey, of rough treatment by Scope staff in early 2019 by communicating with her eyes.
The Mackeys' complaints to Scope only worsened the behaviour of her carers, Lisa Wilson, Monika Paniczko and Anastasia Moutsos.
The mistreatment of Lee-Anne, now 53, was initially dismissed by Scope after they ordered an investigation into the complaint in 2019.
In frustration, Lee-Anne's father, Rob, decided to install a hidden camera in his daughter's room, despite not knowing if it was illegal.
The footage, captured over 18 months, revealed Wilson - then aged 25 - sticking her finger and then a cylinder into Lee-Anne's mouth for her own amusement and yelling, "aw, she hasn't got a gag reflex."
In another video, Paniczko, who had worked with Lee-Anne for 17 years, can be seen listening to a broadcast about health workers dying of coronavirus.
Paniczko says; "Maybe I have corona… if I have it, I want you to have it too."
She then leans over Lee-Anne's face and appears to breathe and spit into her mouth.
"There you go, we both have it," she tells Lee-Anne.
Minister for the NDIS, Bill Shorten, who was provided the footage by 60 Minutes to view, said the actions of her carers were "dehumanising" and made him "angry".
He said Scope, a large not-for-profit provider of disability services in Victoria and New South Wales, would be watched.
"I thought it was just evil," Shorten said.
"I don't want to believe that there are people who will treat other people in the manner in which I saw in that video."
"These people acting with such callous indifference to Lee-Anne, it's just shocking. It's cruel."
"It's a betrayal of Lee-Anne and it's actually a betrayal of the good people who work in disability. It was shocking."
"I've reached out to Robert and Lorraine, Lee-Anne's parents."
In October, 2020, Scope management reported the abuse to Victoria Police after being handed the CCTV files by the Mackeys.
Wilson was immediately sacked.
But Scope chose to move two of the carers, Paniczko, then 49, and Anastasia Moutsos, then 21, to work at another residential house.
They were both dismissed six months later when charges were laid by police.
All three women pleaded guilty at the Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court in Victoria in June 2022 to assault.
Wilson's defence was that her actions were intended as a "joke".
After convictions were initially recorded against the women, all three disgraced former disability support workers launched appeals in Victoria's County Court.
In separate appeals, Moutsos and Wilson pleaded guilty to assault but argued successfully for convictions not to be recorded.
Paniczko convinced an appeal court to withdraw her guilty plea and drop one of the charges against her.
In respect of the remaining charge, she entered a diversion program, meaning if she acknowledges responsibility and completes certain conditions, no finding of guilt will be made against her.
Paniczko's conditions included giving a verbal and written apology to Lee-Anne and donating $500 to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital.
Wilson, considered the ring leader, was ordered to perform 175 hours of unpaid community work.
Moutsos was ordered to perform 80 hours of unpaid community work.
Wilson was banned by the NDIS for five years, while Paniczko and Moutsos were both prohibited for three years.
The cases, however, changed the operation of the law.
A county court judge ruled that the secretly recorded video evidence recorded by the Mackeys was admissible.
Watch the full episode of 60 Minutes on 9Now.
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2024-04-14 11:16:16Z
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