Candy
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.
Candy is in her 40s and is autistic.
‘I've had 16 or 17 different diagnoses throughout the years,’ Candy told the Royal Commission. ‘Now I personally think it's okay to give these diagnoses, but there was no support put in there to my parents [and] they didn't know what to do with it.’
Candy said her parents neglected and abused her at home, and students and teachers bullied her at school.
‘When I was 11 years old and things weren't great at home, I was sent to a youth group. And one of the people who I actually attended school with had taken me into a toilet and sexually assaulted me.’
Her mother threw her out of home and Candy became homeless until a charity found her and child protection put her in a foster home.
‘They were expecting me just to go to school and everything would be fine. But it wasn't fine because I'd just had a significant trauma and a disability and been thrown out of my family home.’
Candy said she moved ‘from place to place to place’ before the child protection department put her in a boarding house with ‘mainly older men who had drug and alcohol and mental health issues’.
‘Which wasn't really a suitable place to be putting a 17-year-old who's, you know, had a history of complex needs and disability … That's where I fell pregnant with my first child.’
Candy said the department promised to give her a place to live and to support her and the baby, but ‘this didn’t happen’.
‘They cut the cord, the police and child protection were at the birth, and then … the police came with their little blue piece of paper … I think they thought that it wasn't possible for me to parent my children.’
Candy said she had three children in an abusive relationship and child protection removed them all.
‘I never saw them again.’
Candy left the relationship, but several years ago a man assaulted her and she became pregnant again.
‘The doctor actually had said to me, “Look because you've got a disability and because there's no father involved, I think you should terminate the pregnancy.”’
Candy said she was determined to keep this baby and asked a hospital support team to help her stop child protection taking it away.
‘I saw a psychiatrist. My past diagnosis was borderline personality disorder and she said that she couldn't see any symptoms of borderline personality disorder.’
Instead, Candy was diagnosed with autism.
‘I gave birth in the morning and then [child protection] always turn up in the afternoon, you know, with their little check book. But all the professionals had all come together and they were all on my side,’ Candy told the Royal Commission.
‘I've successfully been parenting my child, what, for the last two-and-a-half years now … Some people think that it's not possible for someone with a disability to parent their child, which is completely incorrect. And I've proven it because I've done it.’
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.