A proud woman said she was assaulted. And no one believed her – because she had dementia

Ada Brown was 83 years old when she was sexually assaulted and her Perth aged care home tried to sweep it under the rug. Now, shocking new national data shows her trauma was far from an isolated incident.

The proud farming wife, mother and grandmother had declined in health after the death of her husband in 2000 and her family reluctantly moved her into a much-vetted care home near family in Port Kennedy, a suburb about 45 minutes south of Perth city.

Tonia Brown’s mother-in-law was suffering with dementia when she was sexually assaulted in her Perth care home.Credit:Cameron Myles

Like many in their situation, the family felt terrible conflict over their decision but thought she would receive better care and safety at a professional facility.

Instead, in 2021, a year and a half after she moved into the home, Ada made three separate allegations of rape and sexual assault.

After staff told the family about the allegations, daughter-in-law Tonia Brown brought them up with the facility manager and was horrified with the response she received.

“It was an immediate denial,” Tonia said.

“It was so inappropriate. She said I was overreacting, that she knew her staff and that this could never happen.”

However, shocking national statistics show sexual assaults on the elderly are increasing.

“[In situations like these] the staff will say straight off the bat when it’s reported by a family member, ‘he wouldn’t do that. He’s a younger man, she’s an older woman. He’s a married man. He’s got children. He wouldn’t find her attractive’,” Celebrate Ageing founder Dr Catherine Barrett said.

“Well, we know that none of those things are true about sexual assault. A really significant part of the problem has been the belief that it doesn’t happen because old age is a protective factor against sexual assault.”

Latest figuresfrom the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission show 41 complaints of sexual assault were made a week across in Australian aged care in 2022.

And most of the victims, said Barrett, were women living with dementia.

She says there are two reasons: first, that they are intentionally targeted because their stories won’t be believed. Second, that they are less able to seek immediate help or call out for assistance.

This year alone, police charged 56-year-old aged care worker Armand Lutula Wema with allegedly sexually assaulting three aged care residents in Perth, aged 71, 84 and 93. He is currently being held on remand at Casuarina Prison in Perth’s south-east, and will appear in court in May.

Earlier this month, South Australian police charged a man after he allegedly raped a 79-year-old resident on three separate occasions.

Barrett said contributing factors to such crimes included the traditional failure to see older people as sexual beings, and the myth that sexual assault was about sexual attraction, when really it was about power. They also included “cognitive dissonance.”

“No one wants to hear that someone in residential aged care has been sexually assaulted, especially by a staff member, and so we turn off, it’s too hard to hear,” Barrett said.

Last year, Barrett worked with the Older Person’s Advocacy Network and Older Women’s Network New South Wales on a collaborative project called Ready to Listen, with the aim of building the skills and capacity to better respond to and prevent these assaults.

It is the first Australian government-funded resource of its kind in Australia, but she said providers, the community, police and sexual assault services – some of which refused to see people in aged care or living with dementia – all needed to do better.

“I wanted change in the system, I wanted someone to go in and fine-tooth-comb their policies and procedures, I wanted the management hauled over the coals.”

And this was the first year Australia had had a national plan to end violence against women and children that has taken a life stages approach, she said. Older women had previously not been on the radar.

“There are a whole heap of people who hold responsibility for this,” she said.

“But how do you stop it? You have conversations about it and you need to be ready to listen.”

Reporting of sexual assault complaints in the sector was only made mandatory after the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in April 2021.

A spokesperson for the Commission said that across Australia it was also undertaking “qualitative research” by analysing incidents of this type “to provide insights into strategies to reduce and prevent these incidents occurring in aged care, including identifying areas for improvement in provider practice”.

The Commission also took compliance action against Ada’s care home for multiple failures in care over the course of a few years. The facility manager who denied her claims is no longer employed at the centre.

“Incident notifications are reviewed and assessed by the Commission within 24 hours to ensure appropriate responses by providers including, where there are allegations of criminal conduct, reporting to the police,” he said.

“Any serious incident of this type has the potential to have a significant and sustained negative impact on a person and also their family.”

In Ada’s case, though local police were brought in to investigate the incident, no one was ever prosecuted or identified as the perpetrator.

Tonia said police told her they couldn’t do much if her mother-in-law couldn’t remember when it happened or where, or who did it, but Tonia could tell by the change in Ada’s demeanour and bodily functioning that something seriously frightening had happened to her.

She believed the assaults were real and with the help of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and Advocare WA, had her concerns taken seriously with the care home in question.

From the date of the incident until her passing at the end of last year, Ada was cared for exclusively by female carers only and two at a time, instead of the standard one.

Her family was happy with the support received from outside the company, but disappointed no one was held ultimately accountable.

“I wanted change in the system, I wanted someone to go in and fine-tooth-comb their policies and procedures, I wanted the management hauled over the coals,” Tonia Brown said.

“And some empathy from those people who ran the place would have been great, instead of the dismissal that we received.”

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