A cleaner who had been promoted to casual support worker for an intellectually disabled boy despite a lack of training has avoided jail after sexually abusing him at his home.
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Chief Justice Helen Murrell sentenced the woman to an intensive corrections order for 22 months, after a sentence hearing in which the woman's own horrific upbringing had been aired.
The 28-year-old woman, who cannot be identified, was caring for the 15-year-old on August 18 last year when his regular support worker was unavailable.
After collecting the boy from school, the woman, who worked for an organisation called DUO, drove him home and then watched him play video games and musical instruments.
They began to watch a movie together and the boy put his right hand behind the woman and her head on his upper chest, using his left hand to rub her stomach.
The woman asked the boy if he "would like to touch it".
They touched each other over their clothing and he giggled, the court heard. She asked him if it was OK and he said it was.
She took off her clothes and allowed the child to digitally penetrate her, conduct which made up a sexual intercourse with a child charge. She is also charged with an act of indecency for rubbing the boy's penis.
She said what had happened was "their little secret". But when the woman left the home the boy's mother thought he was acting unusually.
He held a toy gun against his right temple and said words to the effect of, "I hate my life, I want to die".
He didn't want to tell his mother what had happened, saying "I don't want to tell you because I'm scared I will get into trouble", "It's really bad", and "I don't want to go to jail".
Eventually he disclosed what had happened.
The boy's mother called police. The woman later made full admissions.
The woman pleaded guilty to the two charges and was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court earlier this week.
A victim impact statement written by the boy's mother said her son had struggled with feelings of fear, sadness and guilt about the woman's plight, as well as embarrassment and confusion.
The mother said she worried he was at risk of future manipulation and had lost confidence in the disability care sector, adding to the already great stress of raising a disabled child.
The child was especially vulnerable, Chief Justice Murrell said in sentencing the woman.
"Any child is deemed unable to give meaningful consent to sexual activity, a circumstance which is aggravated in the case of an intellectually disabled child," she said.
The woman, who had no criminal history, had experienced a horrific upbringing.
She was neglected, bullied and abused at home. Her father also abused her mother and siblings but by all accounts she was victimised the most.
Her father raped her, and the children were sometimes told to perform sexual acts upon each other while he watched.
They lived in terror of being hit with a stick. They were not allowed parties or to get presents from their parents.
Their father discouraged their building friendships with others.
Chief Justice Murrell said the woman's upbringing was further complicated when her father came out as transgender.
He would dress as a woman at the school crossing and the woman was regularly bullied by the other children.
Later, the woman was a passenger in the family car with her father driving when they had a serious crash that left her sister paraplegic.
Her father's reaction was to tell the children that they should deny that he had been speeding in order to protect the insurance payout.
The accusations made against the woman's father are such as to be almost unbelievable, the judge acknowledged in her sentence.
But she accepted the evidence of the woman's aunt, who said: "I lived in the same house as the offender's father for 18 years and believe every accusation made against him.
"There is no doubt that [the offender] had a horrific upbringing in so many ways."
The woman has been diagnosed with autism, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, the court heard.
A psychologist, Dr Danielle Clout, described a documented link between sexual offending in women and early experiences of severe sexual and physical abuse.
The severity and early age at which the woman had experienced childhood sexual trauma had a serious impact on her cognitive and mental development, Dr Clout said.
The woman had had little opportunity to develop an understanding of appropriate boundaries and behavioural standards.
The court heard the offender was no longer a support worker and now worked in retail.
Chief Justice Helen Murrell sentenced her to 22 months imprisonment, to be served in the community by way of an intensive corrections order.