24th November, 2014

When it comes to people with disabilities, caregivers are supposed to be exactly that - carers, protecting the most vulnerable in our community.

But what if managers in a major institution ignored warning signs that staff may have been abusing people in their care, effectively allowing the abuse, including sexual assault, to continue?

This week, in a joint Four Corners/Fairfax investigation, reporter Nick McKenzie lifts the lid on a major scandal involving one of the country's biggest disability providers. How did a respected provider fail in its duty to the people it has sworn to protect and nurture?

Despite their horrific experiences, a number of disabled people and former staff speak about their treatment. The allegations they make are deeply disturbing.

They detail shocking sexual assaults inflicted repeatedly upon numerous disabled clients… with the victims left to fend for themselves, scarred and terrified.

They tell how complaints were ignored and whistleblowers targeted, their warnings not acted upon. As a result, two men employed by the organisation - and now allegedly a third - went on to rape and sexually abuse disabled clients.

As one person employed by the organisation explains, there were two aspects to the abuse. One involved the assaults and harassment, the other was the failure to act on the warnings and complaints.

"There was a sort of bunkering down, we don't want any more bad publicity, as much as possible we want to sweep it under the carpet."

Using first-hand testimony from the abused, the whistleblowers and many documents, the program makes it clear the problems did not involve just one facility, but were across an organisation.

Those who know the disability sector now say the evidence presented demands a full inquiry by the Government to discover the extent of the problem and prevent it happening again in the future.

IN OUR CARE, reported by Nick McKenzie and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 24th November at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 25th November at 11.00am and 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

In Our Care - 24th November, 2014

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Welcome to Four Corners.

The people at the centre of tonight's story are amongst the most vulnerable in the nation. They've been preyed on in the most despicable way but this time they're striking back.

Yooralla is Victoria's oldest and largest disability provider and has been in existence since 1918.

Last year it provided a range of services including accommodation and training to 7,000 clients.

Currently it receives more than $80 million in State and Federal funding and from public donations.

Yooralla publicly states that "every effort is dedicated to ensuring the human rights of all people with disability."

Tonight's program makes a mockery of those claims. This is an institution that not only failed to heed warnings that staff were engaged in abusive or inappropriate behaviour but also sought to punish the whistleblowers.

Serious sexual assaults might have been prevented if the warnings had been taken seriously and here's the follow up question, is it only Yooralla?

This joint Four Corners / Fairfax investigation by Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker is reported by Nick McKenzie.

(Sound of telephone ringing)

NICK MCKENZIE, REPORTER: In March 2012, Victorian detective Debbie Cranage took a phone call that would eventually shake the nation's disability sector to its core.

DEBBIE CRANAGE, DETECTIVE SENIOR CONSTABLE, SEXUAL OFFENCES AND CHILD ABUSE TEAM, VICTORIA POLICE: I received a phone call from a manager at ah, Yooralla residence nearby and he told me that one of the woman there wanted to report to police that she had been sexually assaulted.

NICK MCKENZIE: Detective Cranage is a 17-year veteran investigator of rape and sexual assault.

But even for her this case was unusual.

The victim was profoundly disabled and the suspected offender a carer.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: The initial picture that I found was that the first person who reported was not the only person who had been sexually assaulted and it appeared there had been more than one and then more than two who had been abused.

NICK MCKENZIE: The crime scenes were group homes in Melbourne run by Yooralla, one of the nation's biggest disability services providers.

The victims were the most vulnerable people imaginable.

And they were scared.

Jules Anderson struggled to even say the name of the man who had been tormenting her for months.

JULES ANDERSON, SEXUAL ASSULT VICTIM: I call him the monster, why? Because that's what he is. That's what he is and will always be.

NICK MCKENZIE: To break the case, Detective Cranage needed to convince victims to overcome their fear and to trust her.

JULES ANDERSON: I couldn't speak to anyone because of fear of not being believed or the monster might take his threats... seriously, the threats he gave me.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: When he sexually assaulted Jules he called her names, put his hand over her mouth, he said things to her that were really degrading. Also at one stage he threatened her bird who's very precious to her, saying that he would throw him on the barbecue, which I think added to Jules' level of fear.

JULES ANDERSON: You know, a poor defenceless bird, who does that? People like the monster do that.

NICK MCKENZIE: Jules was wary of disclosing what she'd endured for another reason.

She'd lost faith in Yooralla after learning of how it had dealt with not only her case but those of other victims.

JULES ANDERSON: Now that I've found out that they've known for a long, long time about the monster and other people like him, it's just time for me to speak out.

MOREEN LYONS, EMPLOYEE RELATIONS SPECIALIST: I have no faith in Yooralla, absolutely none.

NICK MCKENZIE: Tonight, Jules Anderson and other Yooralla insiders break their silence to reveal how multiple monsters inside the disability sector operate. As well as the shocking failings that allowed them to act with impunity.

MOREEN LYONS: Senior people are putting their own position and reputation before the best interests of the people they're supposed to be caring about.

PETER CROSS, DISABILITY ADVOCATE: I honestly and genuinely believe that had they acted on the early warning signs that were given that the actual rape and sexual assault on at least the four clients could have been prevented.

JULES ANDERSON: I didn't do anything wrong, I didn't ask for it, I didn't want it and I hate it. And I hate him for what he's done, I'll never forgive him.

(Extract from police interview)

POLICE OFFICER: Can you state your full name please?

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR, SEX OFFENDER: Vinod Johnny Kumar.

NICK MCKENZIE: This is the man Jules calls the monster. The Yooralla carer who became the subject of a police inquiry into allegations he was abusing Yooralla residents.

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR: Accidently, you don't mean...

NICK MCKENZIE: His name is Vinod Johnny Kumar and he was cocky and confident.

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR: You don't even realise you touched it.

(End of extract)

DEBBIE CRANAGE: He was very arrogant and dismissive of the complaint right from the start.

(Extract from police interview)

DEBBIE CRANAGE: I intend to interview you in relation to sexual assaults.

NICK MCKENZIE: Kumar seemed certain his victims would be too scared or simply unable to take him on.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: And how did you get along with them, the clients?

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR: So far I can say according to the clients, they loved me.

(End of extract)

DEBBIE CRANAGE: They were in a position where it was hard for them to speak out and to... to find that even if they do speak out, he may well be there the very next shift and they are may then be in a vulnerable position again with him.

(Extract from Yooralla advertisement)

SINGER: She can't talk or sing like I sing for you...

NICK MCKENZIE: Yooralla is a household name in Victoria.

CHOIR: ...Yooralla showed him how to.

NICK MCKENZIE: Each year it receives around $80 million in state and federal funding and from public donations.

CHOIR: Yooralla's people helping people achieve.

(End of extract)

NICK MCKENZIE: Yooralla had employed Kumar since 2009.

Some staff liked him but others were suspicious.

GERARD BUTLER, FMR YOORALLA WORKER: He wouldn't let me access in to the room where he was hoisting out one of the female clients in the bed, so straight away I had my suspicions.

NICK MCKENZIE: What did you think?

GERARD BUTLER: Well I think he was abusing the female client in the room and he didn't want me to see that.

NICK MCKENZIE: Carer, Gerard Butler, who only worked with Kumar briefly in 2012, says within a few shifts, Kumar was telling him stories.

GERARD BUTLER: He put a pager that we use and that some of the clients have, so if they're in distress or in emergency they will they will click it and it'll activate a vibration buzzer and he had told me straight out that he'd put one of the pagers between the female client's legs.

NICK MCKENZIE: What was your response to that?

GERARD BUTLER: I couldn't believe it. I was stunned. I think, I was... I was re... I was shocked.

NICK MCKENZIE: Butler also discovered that other staff had previously reported concerns about Kumar's behaviour. The complaints were not properly acted upon.

GERARD BUTLER: I thought like in our industry any allegations whether it's failure of duty of care or abuse immediately there should be... you're stood down and fully investigated but yeah, I was surprised that um, Yooralla hadn't um... hadn't stood him down and actually probably dismissed him, as way back as 2010.

JACINTA POWELL, FMR YOORALLA MANAGER: I think the workload that people had at the time was so much workload that things were overlooked quite frequently.

NICK MCKENZIE: Jacinta Powell was a Yooralla house manager.

She'd heard concerns about Kumar dating back to 2010.

JACINTA POWELL: He wasn't working as a team member, he wanted to work individually. He was always disregarding any safety that we were putting in place and was making up his own procedures and policies and following what he wanted to do, not what the um, organisation and what the um... the clients needed.

NICK MCKENZIE: Looking back now what do you think Johnny Kumar was up to?

JACINTA POWELL: Grooming I think.

NICK MCKENZIE: In 2011, Jacinta Powell became so concerned about Kumar, she banned him from working in two of the houses she oversaw.

Because Kumar was working as a casual, supplied by an employment agency, he was able to sidestep her ban and continue to work at other Yooralla houses.

JACINTA POWELL: I wasn't surprised because I knew the organisation, I knew how it ran. Yes, I was concerned definitely... um definitely concerned, but not surprised. Um, I think Kumar knew the system too well and he ran with that.

NICK MCKENZIE: Kumar's belief he could operate with impunity around people like Jules - grew, as complaints about his misbehaviour did not impact on his ability to work unsupervised.

Before he began raping Jules, he'd verbally abused her in an incident she reported to a Yooralla carer and, later, to her friend, disability advocate Peter Cross.

PETER CROSS: He actually said to her 'If you're in a bad mood, then go back to Williamstown, get the sand out of your c*** and come back when you're in a better frame of mind'. Now if that's not a sackable offence I'll go he.

(Extract from wrestling show)

WRESTLER: You know I made you say I quit last week.

(End of extract)

NICK MCKENZIE: But Kumar wasn't sacked and continued to work unsupervised.

SANDY GUY, MOTHER: I don't think you should get so close to the TV.

NICK MCKENZIE: Sandy Guy's son Liam was cared for by Kumar.

As far back as 2009, she was worried about the dangers posed by unsupervised casual staff.

SANDY GUY: They're constantly confronted by strangers so you have these strangers coming in and I think... I often say to people 'try and imagine how you would feel if you had a complete stranger coming into your home and doing the most intimate things to you every single day like showering you'.

NICK MCKENZIE: Sandy Guy and another parent were so concerned that Guy wrote to the Yooralla board and CEO in June 2009 to spell out the dangers posed by unsupervised, casual staff.

Yooralla's chief executive was Sanjib Roy and its long time chairman Bruce Bonyhady, the man who is now the head of Australia's national disability scheme.

SANDY GUY: We just didn't know where to turn and we wrote the letter to the Yooralla Board describing the... ah, you know, the casual staff - our fears. And asking that immediate action be taken to, to, ah... make sure the permanent staff were, were re-employed. You know, employed at the house.

NICK MCKENZIE: Did the Yooralla Board take immediate action?

SANDY GUY: No.

NICK MCKENZIE: Detective Debbie Cranage found other warnings in Yooralla's files.

These related directly to Kumar and should have triggered major alarm bells

One was dated August 2011.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: We found an incident report in which it had been reported that Johnny Kumar had twisted the nipple of a male resident.

NICK MCKENZIE: Twisted the nipple?

DEBBIE CRANAGE: Yes, yes, grabbed his nipple and twisted it.

NICK MCKENZIE: Kumar returned to work after the nipple twisting incident.

Several months later there was a new complaint, this time of sexual assault.

This allegation too was not thoroughly followed up by Yooralla. Instead it was recorded by staff as a sexual harassment claim.

NANETTE ROGERS, CROWN PROSECUTOR, OFFICE OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS, VIC: To characterise sexual assault as being sexual harassment is perhaps indicative of a misunderstanding of the rights of people who are in these residential facilities.

GERARD BUTLER: In my opinion the training was poor, substandard and because of that we had no idea how to report abuse properly.

JACINTA POWELL: People weren't trained. People were put in positions without having training.

NICK MCKENZIE: Johnny Kumar had dodged complaints about serious misconduct and sexual assault, as well as attempts to have him banned and his confidence grew.

NANETTE ROGERS: He would taunt the complainants and say that they would never be able to tell what he'd done so he took advantage of their disabilities in that way. He treated them very poorly, called them, you know, 'You're a whore', 'You're a slag', 'You're a tart', 'You love it'.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: When they were at their most vulnerable, that is the time that he sexually abused them, took them to the toilet and rather than treating them with dignity, ah he, he... ah violated them.

NICK MCKENZIE: Johnny Kumar had been offending for months before he was suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Kumar's undoing was to believe yet again that someone under his care would not speak out about his behaviour.

CRAIG MCDONNELL, JULES' FRIEND: He told me he wanted to bend her over, and do all these things to her. And inside - I've never told anybody this, inside I was crying. I was crying for her, I was thinking how could you, like if I wasn't a gentleman, I would've killed you by now.

JULES ANDERSON: That's why you sell the Big Issue, because...

NICK MCKENZIE: Craig McDonnell lived with Jules.

JULES ANDERSON: ... he said never again, I swear to God.

NICK MCKENZIE: After Kumar made sexually inappropriate comments about a female staff member, Craig built up the courage to report him.

JULES ANDERSON: Not going to have a date with you again.

CRAIG MCDONNELL: When I told her, she turned me from a boy into a man and I thought I've got to protect these people, and I did.

NICK MCKENZIE: Kumar responded to Craig's allegations by resigning.

PETER CROSS: In my eyes, Craig's a hero, you know, if he hadn't have done what he did and reported what he heard to the member of staff that then reported it to Yooralla management, who knows what would have happened. He could have got away with it.

NICK MCKENZIE: In March 2012, with Kumar gone, more of his victims began to speak out.

Around this same time, police had a very disturbing finding. Kumar, it seemed, may not have been the only monster working for Yooralla.

Three hours north of Melbourne is the town of Benalla.

Here, Yooralla had - in July 2011 - taken over a business employing disabled workers.

In doing so, Yooralla had inherited a predator.

MOREEN LYONS: He was turning up at these women's home address, he was passing covert letters and telling the women to rip them up after they read them. He was taking one of the employees to a motel and making sure that she got home before her parents got home.

So it was all very covert, um which, typically says that he couldn't have thought it was okay.

NICK MCKENZIE: Yooralla's monster in Benalla was this man, disability workplace supervisor Colin Hoyle. He was preying on a disabled woman with the mental capacity of a child.

Tonight, this victim's mother breaks her silence. We have disguised her to keep her daughter's identity confidential.

VICTIM'S MOTHER: I believe he was grooming her and he's obviously had told her that if she didn't comply with his wishes that she would be in some sort of trouble. Even though she's an adult, she's got a child's mind and she's easily led.

NICK MCKENZIE: For at least 12 months, and possibly much longer, Hoyle had been sexually abusing the disabled woman under his care at a local motel and other locations.

The disabled victim's mother only discovered these shocking crimes after her daughter failed to return home from work one day.

Instead, she'd been driven by Hoyle from her workplace through town to this motel.

VICTIM'S MOTHER: She was fearful, she thought she was in trouble. She was crying and I had to constantly reassure her that she had done nothing wrong, that Colin Hoyle was the one that had done something wrong.

MOREEN LYONS: The person concerned was not able to give consent, so that constitutes quite serious rape at that point.

NICK MCKENZIE: The victim's mother also discovered her daughter had been sexually assaulted by Hoyle in her own bedroom while her parents were out.

The mother immediately called the police, who charged Hoyle with multiple counts of sexual assault.

VICTIM'S MOTHER: I was disgusted that someone who was in a position of authority would take advantage of a disabled person.

NICK MCKENZIE: What made Hoyle's offending so much worse is that it could have been prevented.

As in the case of Johnny Kumar, Hoyle had serious complaints about his behaviour dismissed, without thorough investigation.

His victim's mother believes the first complaint of Hoyle grooming her daughter was made as far back as 2008.

VICTIM'S MOTHER: They should have acted, they should have dismissed him at the time but they obviously didn't.

MOREEN LYONS: It had been reported repeatedly, it had been reported by support employees and it had been reported by employees, ah and nothing was done.

NICK MCKENZIE: In October 2011, Yooralla staff were warned again about Colin Hoyle.

This time he was seen cuddling a disabled female worker in a toilet.

Yet again, there was no thorough investigation.

MOREEN LYONS: His behaviour escalated when he basically had control of the people in his care to do with what he wished.

NICK MCKENZIE: Would you say that Yooralla's failure to act on the complaints about this man's conduct allowed him to keep offending?

MOREEN LYONS: Oh absolutely, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. And only that you know per chance it was found out, he would've continued to do so and subjected other females to that behaviour; there's no doubt about it.

NICK MCKENZIE: After Hoyle was charged by police for crimes that he would later plead guilty to, his victim's mother expected Yooralla's CEO Sanjib Roy to contact her family to offer them support and to acknowledge Yooralla's failings to protect her daughter.

But Mr Roy did not call, leaving a family feeling betrayed.

VICTIM'S MOTHER: Angry, deserted. As the CEO of an organisation like Yooralla I would have thought he would have the compassion and the common decency to make contact very early on in the process.

NICK MCKENZIE: Back in Melbourne, Detective Debbie Cranage was still building her case against Johnny Kumar.

In March 2012, she charged Kumar with offences relating to one victim in the hope that others would be found.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: We received information, we spoke to some people who we suspected had been offended against. Not all of those chose to make statements and some of those had such a severe cognitive impairment that they couldn't really be a witness in a court.

NICK MCKENZIE: Jules was one of four of Kumar's victims who later agreed to testify about the most intimate of details.

Because Johnny Kumar was still denying anything had occurred, Jules was worried she would endure a harrowing cross-examination process where her story would be tested and unpicked again and again.

NANETTE ROGERS: It's extremely difficult for people without a disability let alone people with a disability.

JULES ANDERSON: I can't tell you the amount of friends I lost because people just weren't believing me. Or I'd go out and all of a sudden I'd have a... flashback and be really quiet and wouldn't be able to say anything, because for fear that people didn't believe me and they didn't believe me.

NICK MCKENZIE: Jules fears of not being believed were compounded by the way she says Yooralla was handling the crisis.

As with the parents of Colin Hoyle's victim, Jules felt Yooralla was more concerned about protecting its reputation than acknowledging all that had gone wrong.

JULES ANDERSON: They swept it under the carpet like it just wasn't serious. They didn't come and there was no support for us as residents.

(Extract from police interview)

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR: Criminal charges, how you going to say he's a criminal?

NICK MCKENZIE: In pleading his innocence, Kumar also pointed out that Yooralla had kept employing him despite the previous complaints about his conduct.

(Police record of interview)

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR: That's my question, aspects like the Yooralla managers who are well-qualified to investigate that matter, and when they investigated that matter and they found me not guilty of those charges, and by law, if they are satisfied with that, it's not give you the authority to investigate that matter and override their decision and convict... say I'm guilty of those charges and I'm a criminal.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: So we are police officers as you know and what we do is completely separate to the management of Yooralla.

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR: Yes Miss I know.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: So it's an entirely separate thing.

VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR: Yes Miss.

(End of extract)

NICK MCKENZIE: Yooralla also delayed telling all the parents of those who Kumar cared for that he'd been charged with rape.

SANDY GUY: We've got some banana.

NICK MCKENZIE: Sandy Guy only found out that the man who had cared for her son was on remand two months after his arrest.

SANDY GUY: I had a telephone call one evening from a former Yooralla manager saying to me that police were going to Liam's house and I, you know, I was just completely shocked.

NICK MCKENZIE: Gerard Butler was so concerned about what he says was the ongoing lack of support for residents, staff and parents, he complained to senior management in writing.

(to Gerard) How did Yooralla act on your complaints?

GERARD BUTLER: They didn't. No replies, no correspondence.

NICK MCKENZIE: During a night shift, Gerard Butler discovered internal Yooralla emails and reports on a work computer.

What he read shocked him.

(to Gerard) What was your instant reaction?

GERARD BUTLER: It was anger cause I'm an Irishman and Yooralla was initially started by Irish nuns and um yeah, it was it was more like um... that these people that we care for it's duty of care and they were being failed. The system was failing 'em and um, words can't just.... words can't describe that.

NICK MCKENZIE: The internal files revealed how Yooralla staff had;

(Extract from internal files)

"spoken up many times about things that were going wrong, poor practices and staff behaviours of concern which were not acted upon", including those relating to Kumar".

There was "a litany of stories about lack of back-up, poor management" and "staff felt that attempts to support them were few and that those that were offered were thinly veiled attempts to silence them."

(End of extract)

GERARD BUTLER: After I read the report I needed to let this get out into the public forum. The public needed to know.

NICK MCKENZIE: Gerard Butler emailed the internal reports to Sandy Guy.

A short time after that, they appeared in The Age newspaper.

SANDY GUY: The emails were internal investigations conducted by Yooralla around the people who had been abused or at that point allegedly abused and my initial reaction was one of... I... I was actually physically sick.

NICK MCKENZIE: After the leaked reports hit the press, Yooralla moved swiftly… against Gerard Butler.

It reported him to the police for hacking.

GERARD BUTLER: If Yooralla had acted quickly, properly in the first place people like myself wouldn't have felt the need to reach out to the public. They had not done enough.

NICK MCKENZIE: What was the message that Yooralla was trying to send in reporting you to the police?

GERARD BUTLER: That if one member of... if one member goes out and tries to whistleblow, that we will silence you. We will shut you up.

NICK MCKENZIE: Gerard Butler was taken to court but avoided a criminal conviction.

For her suspected part in the leaking of the files, Sandy Guy was threatened by Yooralla with civil court action.

SANDY GUY: I'm just a mum who happens to speak out, who happens to write when I can about these issues, but it wasn't very nice being threatened by a very, very big legal company.

NICK MCKENZIE: Yooralla was now in damage control.

It ordered an agency-wide review of how it could better handle assault allegations.

Yooralla was also confident it had found a good news story in Milly Parker.

MILLY PARKER, DISABILITY ADVOCATE: After I was in a car accident when I was 21, one of the major injuries I had was an acquired brain injury.

NICK MCKENZIE: In the 15 years after Milly Parker acquired a serious brain injury, she worked to became one of the nation's highest profile disability advocates.

To help her recovery, Milly also started a gourmet dog biscuit business called Happy Yappers.

She wanted to work with Yooralla to employ other disabled Australians in her firm.

MILLY PARKER: I wanted them to have the same sense of success that I've had and offered proper training, award wages. Yeah same opportunities that I'd had. And I thought Yooralla was the perfect fit.

NICK MCKENZIE: Milly began working with a Yooralla manager to bring her dream to life.

This manager should have been sensitive to sexual abuse and harassment issues, as he'd been assigned by Yooralla to help investigate the Colin Hoyle case.

But instead of helping her, Milly Parker says this manager began to act strangely.

MILLY PARKER: Constant reference was made to you're just a woman. So sexist comments, comments with sexual innuendo. There was a comment about a wet T-shirt competition... um, that he was gonna put me over his knee and spank me.

SAM BURNS, NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST: Certainly there was many and varied inappropriate sexual comments made towards Milly.

(to Milly) If we map it out on month by month basis over the years, up on the wall that would be helpful for you.

NICK MCKENZIE: With her neuropsychologist's help, Milly launched a formal sexual harassment complaint against the Yooralla manager in April 2012.

MILLY PARKER: By the time it got to the complaint process I was pretty battered and bruised. The self esteem.... you know.... was low.

NICK MCKENZIE: Milly Parker also ditched Yooralla as her business partner.

Yooralla replied with an unexpected offer. While investigating Milly's sexual harassment complaint, they would pay her $20,000 a year to help publicly promote Yooralla.

At first, Milly did not see it as hush money. It was her first outside job offer since her brain injury and she accepted.

But months later she got a tip off that Yooralla hadn't told her it was dealing with the biggest scandal in its history.

MILLY PARKER: Someone I didn't even know came up to me and said "see who you're defending".

NICK MCKENZIE: Milly says the scandal was downplayed when she made inquiries at Yooralla.

So she began digging herself and discovered the scale of what had gone wrong.

SAM BURNS: Milly used her time off work to explore more fully what had actually gone on particularly in the Kumar case and was horrified and disgusted at what she discovered. Um, and that really was the tipping point for Milly in terms of her mental health. She became extremely unwell.

MILLY PARKER: I read... and actually dry-retched at what had actually happened (begins to get upset). Those poor souls. And to think that they weren't believed.

NICK MCKENZIE: Milly Parker says that Yooralla never told her the outcome of her own sexual harassment complaint.

Unable to find support within Yooralla, a shattered Milly went on stress leave.

SAM BURNS: It's become apparent to me that I think she was used by that organisation for their own purposes and that's extremely disappointing for an organisation that is - has been - up until recently a champion for the disability sector in this state.

MILLY PARKER: To think that my name, my image, my story was used to defuse negative media or stifle voices of the people who were abused just wrecks me. It's everything opposite to what I believe in.

NICK MCKENZIE: By 2013, Yooralla was facing fires on several fronts, including the multiple criminal charges against Johnny Kumar and Colin Hoyle.

Yooralla turned to employee relations specialist Moreen Lyons to help.

MOREEN LYONS: I think there was a sort of bunkering down, that we don't want any more bad publicity, and um, as much as possible we'll sweep it under the carpet.

NICK MCKENZIE: Lyons headed to Benalla to find out what had gone wrong.

But she only found more problems.

Another Yooralla employee was accused of sexual harassment and abuse in a case that, yet again, had not been immediately reported to police.

MOREEN LYONS: He admitted that he was asking supported employees if they were in the toilet having a wank, looking at pornography, using very profound language and abusive terms towards them. Um, and.... he admitted that he'd done that. He didn't seem to think it was a problem.

NICK MCKENZIE: In late 2013, Moreen Lyons made yet another startling discovery.

A Yooralla house manager was hosting some unauthorised guests - prostitutes.

MOREEN LYONS: He didn't know whether the prostitutes had come from legalised services and had engaged in safe sex. He didn't know whether the clients could give consent.

NICK MCKENZIE: Lyons discovered the manager had engaged in fraud when paying for the sex workers, by claiming they were providing a health service.

She also found that this manager had asked a female carer whether she would perform a sexual act on a disabled resident.

MOREEN LYONS: I interviewed the staff members and they were absolutely unequivocal that this had occurred. Um, that they um, had been discouraged from reporting, that all their incident reporting had been ignored in relation to issues out there.

NICK MCKENZIE: Moreen Lyons began urging senior Yooralla managers to refer the matters to police, but says she was ignored and then ostracised.

By the end of 2013, she had resolved to leave Yooralla, joining others with no faith in its CEO Sanjib Roy and its governance regime.

MOREEN LYONS: I had tried to raise really serious issues with Yooralla and they blocked that at a senior level, quite deliberately.

NICK MCKENZIE: What was the price for challenging Yooralla?

MOREEN LYONS: Fobbed off, repeatedly told they'll look at it or investigate it, and do nothing.

NICK MCKENZIE: Tonight, Four Corners can reveal yet another alleged series of sexual assaults that happened while Sanjib Roy and Bruce Bonyhady were leading Yooralla.

The scandal begins in eastern Victoria in 2005 and allegedly involves a veteran Yooralla manager who we can't name for legal reasons but who exercised significant control over several country facilities.

BELYNDA HOLST, FMR YOORALLA WORKER: You believed everything he said and you just went along with everything he said, he was your boss. You don't doubt anything. And he was so well respected in Yooralla that everything he says must be true.

NICK MCKENZIE: Belynda Holst worked under this manager as a Yooralla carer at a day centre in country Victoria.

The centre had some dark secrets.

For instance, Holst suspected it was getting government funding for disabled clients who never showed up.

BELYNDA HOLST: There was probably five or six clients we had funding for that didn't attend and never met.

NICK MCKENZIE: Holst's concerns about the manager dramatically increased at the start of this year when a colleague told her how she'd found him in his office with a disabled female.

BELYNDA HOLST: She said that she's just coming back to the office after hours and she saw the client and the boss adjusting their clothes as she walked in, to the office. And I asked her are you sure? And she said, 'Sure'.

NICK MCKENZIE: Holst says the alleged incident was reported to the local police, who said they couldn't act without more evidence.

Her concerns grew when the disabled female told her she'd had "special time" with the manager.

BELYNDA HOLST: If she did what he wanted, he would take her to the shops later to buy lollies or treats. We had to tell somebody and we asked the police what can be done, they said nothing unless you've got evidence. We asked if we could set up a camera and they said 'yes'.

NICK MCKENZIE: Holst sourced a hidden camera online.

She then set it up in her boss's office.

(to Belynda) And what was the feeling going through your body?

BELYNDA HOLST: Sick. Sick I may get caught, sick he may know what I'm up to and um.... just sick actually. And when I got home to watch the footage I'd hoped that there's nothing there.

NICK MCKENZIE: But before long, Holst's worst fears were realised.

We can't say what she saw for legal reasons, but she immediately called the police.

BELYNDA HOLST: Oh, I was gonna throw up everywhere, absolutely disgusted, shaking, sick, angry.

NICK MCKENZIE: Within weeks, the Yooralla senior manager was in court, charged with multiple offences relating to sexual acts with a person with a cognitive impairment.

After police began their inquiry, Belynda Holst says Yooralla isolated her, offering little support to her or other staff.

She was then told she was to be stood down for failing to properly report her boss to Yooralla's management.

BELYNDA HOLST: If you had of gone to management and expressed that you had these concerns, they would've questioned the boss, he would've denied it and they would've believed him.

NICK MCKENZIE: Belynda Holst then discovered the police were alleging her boss had been offending since 2005.

She resigned, another casualty of an organisation she says has lost its way.

BELYNDA HOLST: I think Yooralla just wants to be seen as the best organisation in the media eyes.

NICK MCKENZIE: It's all about reputation?

BELYNDA HOLST: Absolutely

NICK MCKENZIE: We have repeatedly asked Yooralla CEO Sanjib Roy to appear on camera to respond to serious issues raised by victims and whistleblowers.

After initially agreeing, Mr Roy pulled out of an on-camera interview two hours before it was to commence.

This means we can't ask him why so many people feel betrayed by Yooralla and believe the organisation has never taken responsibility for failing to protect those in its care.

Former Yooralla chairman Bruce Bonyhady also declined an interview request.

But those impacted by the run of scandals in Yooralla are united in their call for an independent inquiry that would help the entire sector deal with the sexual abuse of disabled Australians.

And they have some heavyweight backers.

GRAEME INNES, FMR DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION COMMISSIONER: I think there is a need for a national enquiry, even though they are expensive processes because this is a huge problem in the disability sector for Australians with disabilities which... and I think an enquiry such as that would, would address it.

ROD JOUNING, SEXUAL AND FAMILIY VIOLENCE DIVISION, VICTORIA POLICE: I think, you know, those with a disability are far more vulnerable than the general community, so the offending against them is going to be greater, their needs are far more complex, and the barriers they have to reporting are far more significant, so we have to work with them, you know, even more to try and get those reporting rates up.

PETER CROSS: And the side fence is going up at the moment, down this neighbourhood.

NICK MCKENZIE: Jules is one of the few victims who has finally seen justice.

DEBBIE CRANAGE: There was one point where the clerk of courts had tears streaming down her face and you could have heard a pin drop in the room. It was very emotionally difficult for everybody who was there and it was after that, there was an adjournment and we found that he had changed his plea to guilty.

And I really felt that his reasoning for that was that the evidence was so strong. He had come to a realisation that these people would speak out against him very clearly.

NICK MCKENZIE: Jules was in court as Johnny Kumar was jailed for 18 years.

NANETTE ROGERS: Out of the corner of my eye I could see that when the Judge, came to the part of sentencing Mr Kumar, she asked Mr Kumar to stand up and at that point, she gave a signal and her carers then turned her big wheelchair around and she faced him fair and square while he was sentenced and it was a very courageous thing for her to do.

JULES ANDERSON: All the sorries in the world aren't going to help me now, the damage has been done and it's still... and it's still um... happening to... other people and it shouldn't be.

MILLY PARKER: Surely our most vulnerable in the community deserve the right to be able to sleep soundly in their beds at night free from violence, abuse and neglect.

CRAIG MCDONNELL: We're here and we're here to stay and you or no-one is going to change that. Excuse me, just get off your backsides, do something about it.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Now that is a challenge that surely can't be ignored.

The Victorian election is next Saturday but whoever wins there'll be an inquiry both Liberal and Labor have promised one, how could they not.

But broader statistics suggest that such an inquiry should be national. One set of figures contends more than half of all Australian women with disabilities are abused at some point in their lives.

A Victorian Department of Health report puts the figure at closer to 90 percent. It's a statement of the obvious that there are many dedicated carers in the sector but this concern is clearly too big to ignore.

Statements from the CEO of Yooralla Sanjib Roy - who resigned today - and Bruce Bonyhady, former chairmen and now head of the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) are on our website.

That's the program for tonight.

Background Information

UPDATE
Australian Senate Votes on Disability Abuse Inquiry | Pro Bono Australia | 11 February, 2015

ADVOCACY AND SUPPORT

National Disability and Abuse Hotline | 1800 880 052 | www.disabilityhotline.net.au

1800RESPECT | National counselling helpline, information and support | 1800 737 732

Sexual Assault Crisis Line | 1800 806 292

Women With Disabilities Australia | wwda.org.au

National Disability Abuse Inquiry | People with disability and their families are petitioning the Australian Government to urgently launch a national inquiry into violence, neglect and abuse against people with disability in residential and institutional settings

National Disability Service | Australian peak body for non-government disability services | www.nds.org.au

Sexual Assault Support Service | Link to services and support around Australia | www.sass.org.au/directory

Disability Rights Homepage | Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission | www.humanrights.gov.au/disability-rights-homepage

Disability Services Commissioner, Victoria | 1800 677 342 | www.odsc.vic.gov.au

United Voices for People with Disabilities | www.uvpd.org.au

RESPONSES TO FOUR CORNERS

Yooralla's Statement on the resignation of CEO Sanjib Roy | 24 November, 2014

Statement from then CEO of Yooralla, Sanjib Roy in response to questions from Four Corners | 21 November, 2014

Statement by Bruce Bonyhady AM in response to questions from Four Corners | 21 November, 2014

Disability Services Commissioner, Laurie Harkin AM responses to questions from Four Corners | 21 November, 2014

Federal Assistant Minister for Social Services Senator Mitch Fifield response to questions from Four Corners | 21 November, 2014

Department of Human Services' responses to questions from Four Corners | November, 2014

Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) on Yooralla revelations | 24 November, 2014

Bruce Bonyhady's 2013 Statement to the Media | 12 December 2013

Victoria's community services opposition spokeswoman Jenny Mikakos MP response | 22 November, 2014

Victoria's minister for Community Services Hon. Mary Wooldridge MP response | 24 November, 2014

Response by Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten | "These allegations are deeply disturbing. Any allegations of this nature should be investigated fully. Labor supports the call for an independent investigation into these serious allegations."

Greens call for inquiry into abuse of people with disability in institutions | Senator Rachel Siewert - Family, Ageing, Community & Disability Services | 25 November, 2014

Urgent Call for National Inquiry: End violence against people with disability in institutions | A joint call from People with Disability Australia and Women With Disabilities Australia | 25 November, 2014

REPORTS AND LAW

Voices Against Violence | Research Paper, investigating the circumstances of women with disabilities of any kind (including physical, sensory and cognitive impairments and mental ill-health) who have experienced violence | Women with Disabilities Victoria | May, 2014

Equality, Capacity and Disability in Commonwealth Laws | Australian Law Reform Commission | 24 November, 2014

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS v VINOD JOHNNY KUMAR | In the County Court of Victoria

Beyond Doubt: the experiences of people with disabilities reporting crime | Human Rights Commission, Victoria | 21 July, 2014

Building on the Millennium Development Goals for Women and Girls with Disabilities - A Long Way to Go | Women With Disabilities Australia | March 2014

Yooralla: A Case Study | A sad story of systemic failure | Jackson Ryan Partners | December, 2013

Tackling the crisis in group homes for people with intellectual disability | Australian Policy Online/ Swinburne University | 21 July, 2013

National Disability Insurance Agency | Annual Report | 2013/14

Disability Act 2006 | Department of Human Services, Victoria

Interagency guideline for addressing violence, neglect and abuse (IGUANA) | Background and discussion paper | Office of the Public Advocate | May, 2013

Freedom From Violence | Violence against women in Australia | VicHealth | October, 2011

Women With Disabilities Australia: 'Gendering the National Disability Care and Support Scheme' | Submission to Stage One of the Productivity Commission National Disability Care and Support Inquiry | Women with disabilities Australia | August 2010

Family Violence - A National Legal Response | Australian Law Reform Commission | 2010

Double the Odds | Domestic Violence and Women with Disabilities | Women With Disabilities Australia | 2004

MEDIA

Calls for inquiry into Victoria's disability sector amid allegations care provider Yooralla failed to act on assault warnings | ABC News | 24 November, 2014

Yooralla chief executive Sanjib Roy quits after damning revelations of sexual abuse in disability services provider | The Age | 24 November, 2014

Bill to protect disabled people from abuse is introduced into SA Parliament | ABC News | 29 October, 2014

Yooralla worker jailed for sexual abuse refused appeal request | The Age | 30 May, 2014

Yooralla disability centre manager charged with abusing client | ABC News | 23 May, 2014

Two Yooralla staff at Benalla accused of sexual misconduct | The Age | 10 December, 2013

Yooralla senior executives accused of ignoring warning signs on rape claims | The Age | 21 November, 2013

Yooralla care worker jailed for sexually abusing disabled clients | ABC News | 20 November, 2013

Questions raised about disability support provider Yooralla | ABC News | 16 August, 2013

Host of problems at home in crisis | The Age | 29 July, 2013

Carers abuse their charges | Disability advocates claim that there is widespread physical and sexual abuse of disabled people in care | Lateline | 12 September, 2012