Valeria and Wesson

Valeria was murdered by her husband. He tried to make her death look like an accident, but was charged and convicted. Her son, Wesson, told the Royal Commission about the failure of guardianship and medical systems to safeguard against the abuse that led to her death about five years ago.

Valeria suffered a stroke in the 1990s leaving her with an acquired brain injury, speech impairment and mobility issues. Following the stroke, her husband’s verbal abuse, which had always been a feature of their marriage, increased.

In his late teens Wesson left home and settled overseas. Over time, it became increasingly difficult to contact his mother and he realised other family members were having the same problem.

Eventually, the family made an application to the civil and administrative tribunal. This, Wesson says, started a 14-year process that commenced in relation to access, but morphed to include other issues, including his mother’s personal care, health care and financial independence.

‘We were quite worried about Mum's welfare in terms of when we would meet her, she would be in dirty clothes, or clothes that were too small, shoes that were too small, she smelled quite bad, so obviously she wasn't – she wasn't being washed. She never had any money …’

Wesson lost count of how many times the family went to the guardianship board.

‘[It] was very much up and down in terms of their interest. My father is quite a difficult person, I think often it was just put in the too-hard-to-deal-with basket. So we would go to the guardianship board, and then he would make undertakings, and then it wouldn't happen. Then another year or two would pass where nothing had changed, we'd go back to the guardianship board, he would make new undertakings, nothing happens again and again and again, and I could basically say this process continued for 14 years.’

Valeria’s home was not accessible and, as her mobility declined she had lots of falls. Eventually, she moved into aged care but was put in a ward where there were few activities and no mental stimulation. Wesson wanted to move Valeria to a facility with more activities but his father refused.

Following the stroke, Valeria received a pension from her previous employer representing two-thirds of her salary. She had the means to make the house accessible, to buy nice clothes and many other things, but never seemed to have any money. The public trustee would not give Wesson any information about how Valeria’s husband was using her money. But he later learnt that Valeria had apparently bought farm machinery while in living in aged care and had paid for her husband’s legal representation for his guardianship applications.

‘Why is the public trustee not asking questions? “Why aren’t you paying for your own lawyer? Who is representing Mum’s interests? Why doesn’t she have a lawyer? What’s going on here?” These kind of basic questions … Who was protecting her interests?’

Fearing her husband was financially abusing Valeria, her family made an application to the tribunal to take away control of her finances from the husband, and for the public trustee to become her financial guardian. Wesson believes his father, who stood to inherit her pension upon her death, feared losing access to her money. ‘[He] was so dependent on her income that he was willing to kill her for it.’

He believes that ‘if any of these issues had been taken seriously’ earlier, his mother’s death may have been prevented.

‘This lack of any accountability and follow up. I mean, ultimately, it's cost her her life, and I think that's where she's just fallen through the cracks of the system. Because these cracks and this lack of follow up, it has consequences, and I think Mum just completely fell through them. This system that was meant to protect her, she just fell straight through it.’