Screening and employment standards are being questioned after it was revealed there had been a sexual assault of an elderly patient at the condemned South Australian Government-run Oakden nursing home. In July 2011, a 99-year-old woman with dementia was indecently assaulted. Court documents show the woman’s breast was rubbed by a male carer, who then lifted up her top. Emeritus Professor Rhonda Nay from La Trobe University, who is an aged care specialist, said her immediate response to hearing about the case made her “want to weep”. The carer was found guilty of aggravated indecent assault, but the prosecution argued he was mentally incompetent. The man was a former police officer who was medically discharged in 2005. Court documents show he had a history of mental health issues, had previously attempted suicide and was thought to be in a bipolar manic state at the time of the assault.
