Source : Perth Now news
A disability support worker who sexually abused a client later told police he’d fallen in love with her, a court has been told.
Adam Mason, 31, was jailed for nine months and placed on a two-year community corrections order in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday afternoon.
Outlining the case, Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis Mason kissed two women he was employed to care for, before commencing a “sexual relationship” with one of the women.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of sexually penetrating a person with a cognitive impairment or mental disorder and two counts of sexually assaulting a person with a cognitive impairment or mental disorder.
“These offences are inherently serious,” Judge Karapanagiotidis said.
“You breached the trust placed in you and offended against two vulnerable women.”
Mason, the court was told, began working as a support worker in 2022 and had his first meeting with the first victim in October that year.
By the third appointment, Mason confessed he “liked her a lot” and began to hug and purchase gifts for the woman, kissing her for the first time in December.
In January, Judge Karapanagiotidis said the pair had a sexual encounter before Mason said he needed to stop being her carer.
In his employer’s communications system, Mason wrote she’d told him she’d developed feelings for him.
Another support worker was enlisted but Mason continued to see the woman in secret, with the pair having two more sexual encounters.
She disclosed the relationship in March 2023, telling her support worker they’d had a fight and she was concerned he was seeing another one of his clients.
Mason was suspended and the second client disclosed he had kissed her the same month which “caused her to freak out”.
In a police interview the following year, Mason described kissing the second victim as a “weak moment” and said he knew he should not have started a relationship with the first woman but he’d fallen in love with her.
In a statement to the court, the first woman said she’d suffered feelings of mistrust and abandonment as a result of Mason’s offending.
“I cannot trust people with my body and I’m afraid of people connected to a system like Adam,” she said.
The second woman said the experience had resurfaced trauma and left her fearful and distrustful of male support workers.
Judge Karapanagiotidis told the court there was no allegations of force or threats in Mason’s crimes, but the laws he fell to be sentenced for were designed to protect people with disabilities from sexual abuse from care workers.
She said she accepted Mason was remorseful and his prospects of rehabilitation were favourable, especially given he retained the support of his family.
The court was told Mason had since been diagnosed with ADHD, borderline personality disorder and depression.
Mason will serve nine months in jail before being released on a community corrections order where he will have to undertake treatment and perform 80 hours of community service.
