Disability worker charged with sex offences
A former disability support worker has been charged with sexual offences allegedly committed against a client for nine months.
Police allege that the 52-year-old man from Atherton, a rural town south-west of Cairns, used his position as a disability support worker to groom a client, engaging in abuse of a person “with an impairment of the mind” from June 2022 to February 2023.
Detectives from the Investigation Unit and Tablelands Child Protection investigated after a complaint was received, and arrested the man on Wednesday May 22.
He has been charged with six counts of indecent dealing with a person with an impairment of the mind as a carer, three counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a person with an impairment of the mind as carer, two counts of permit a person with an impairment of the mind to commit to indecently deal with as carer, and one count of procure a person with an impairment of the mind to commit an indecent act as carer.
The man was released on bail and is due to appear in Atherton Magistrates Court on July 2 this year.