Nikita, Moses, Ajax and Noor
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.
‘I think that something really needs to happen in the police force. They need specialised training to deal with individuals with autism, like myself and like my children, and give people the opportunity to speak in their own language in their own individual way.’
Nikita is in her early 30s. She and her children – Moses, Ajax and Noor – are autistic and have post-traumatic stress disorder. Ajax has a speech and language impairment and epilepsy. Noor has a heart condition. Different support workers worked with the children at home.
A few years ago, Nikita ‘started to see a change’ in Ajax’s behaviour. He had more ‘behavioural incidents’ at school and ‘suspension after suspension’.
At home, a fill-in support worker saw one of the regular support workers sexually and physically abuse Moses, Ajax and Noor. They reported the abuse to the provider. The provider notified police and suspended the offending support worker.
Nikita told the Royal Commission that her family has been ‘devastated’ not only by the abuse, but by the failings of police and legal systems that followed.
Moses refused, and continues to refuse, to talk about what happened. He spent time in a mental health facility and no longer lives at home. The support worker had groomed him, and Nikita says he now has ‘a hatred’ towards her for ‘taking away that particular support worker’.
Ajax, who was seven at the time, is non-verbal. Nikita said the police weren’t ‘willing to try’ to help Ajax give a statement. Instead, they had his three-year-old sister do it for him. Police interviewed Noor three times, without Nikita present. Using trauma dolls she had to ‘relive what was happening to her brothers’.
Police charged the support worker for sexually and physically abusing Noor, but took no action in regards to their abuse of Ajax.
Nikita felt she had no option but to pursue a civil claim. She recently agreed to a financial settlement believing it would give the family closure, ‘but it didn’t’.
‘Despite the abuse that happened to him and the things that he dealt with … we cannot prove that it would be very much of an economic loss, because [Ajax] is an autistic child who is non-verbal.’
Over time, people who said they had seen the support worker touch Ajax inappropriately ‘started to come out of the woodwork’. If they’d made reports at the time, Nikita said, the abuse ‘wouldn’t have gone on for so long’.
Nikita said the fill-in worker who had reported the abuse was ‘traumatised’ and no longer works as a support worker.
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.