Emma-Jane and Catherine
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
‘[Emma-Jane] has an intellectual disability. For somebody to actually prey upon her, it's so bad. It's so disgusting.’
Catherine is the support coordinator for Emma-Jane who is in her mid-30s and lives independently with in-home supports.
Jackie had been Emma-Jane’s support worker for several years. She worked for a service provider that managed Emma-Jane’s NDIS plan. Catherine told the Royal Commission that a couple of years ago, Jackie ‘pretty much kidnapped’ Emma-Jane. She left the company and ‘poached’ Emma-Jane as a client.
After moving into Emma-Jane’s home, Jackie started claiming NDIS payments as her support worker and plan nominee, making decisions on her behalf. She then took Emma-Jane to live at a friend’s apartment, ‘disconnecting her from her whole family’.
During that time, Emma-Jane was raped while Jackie ‘was out shopping’, Catherine said.
‘[Jackie] had billed for [the time], but she wasn’t there.’
Emma-Jane’s family lost contact with her during this time, and Catherine had to go on ‘a bit of a mission’ to find her.
Catherine found out that Jackie had moved Emma-Jane from one service provider to another and ‘was utilising her and her NDIS plan to gain employment’. She was ‘using it as leverage’.
Jackie asked the latest provider to find accommodation for Emma-Jane, ‘and within days … was living there’.
‘The company tried to move her out … and she just refused to allow them entry into the property … They pretty much lost all access to that house and [Emma-Jane] from that point.’
Emma-Jane’s mother contacted Catherine, desperate.
‘Like the stories she's telling me are horrific … [Emma-Jane] is being locked inside the house every evening when the carer goes to another client. She takes all the keys.’
‘I can't get out,’ Emma-Jane told Catherine in a video chat. ‘The shutters are down and she takes the handles off the winder.’
Jackie had also taken control of Emma-Jane’s mobile phone and social media.
‘They were all being vetted. She had no contact with the outside world.’
Catherine said Jackie ‘siphoned off’ more than $90,000 from Emma-Jane’s NDIS funding while living with her. One of Jackie’s friends was ‘also trying to be a provider’, though completely ‘unqualified’.
‘When I tried to report this to the NDIA Safeguards Commission I was told that the clients had to report this matter themselves … I was horrified.’
Catherine eventually helped Emma-Jane escape while Jackie was on a night shift. She had Emma-Jane placed in emergency accommodation.
‘All her funds had been exhausted and I needed to keep her safe … She was absolutely, like, scared out of her wits of the carer, who would be calling her phone.’
Catherine believes there needs to be much better screening of NDIS providers, particularly unregistered ones.
‘It should have been picked up or flagged when the plan nominee was also claiming funding … That's against the law.’
Catherine is still trying to help Emma-Jane get back on her feet.
‘There's so much abuse there that it's really difficult to even comprehend how this young girl actually still believes in the human race today.’
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.