A Sydney woman left her elderly parents who suffered a range of chronic health conditions without food or medical care when she went away for a long weekend, a court has been told.
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Renee Prendergast was cleared of charges that she financially defrauded her parents, but found guilty on Friday, following a judge-alone trial, on one count of failing to provide her mother with the necessities of life.
She was acquitted of an identical charge in relation to her father, after Judge Warwick Hunt found he was at a lesser risk of injury or death as a result of being left unattended.
Prendergast's parents Josef and Julie were living with her at the time in the Sydney suburb of Ruse, with her father having dementia and her mother suffering from breast cancer and requiring regular blood sugar readings for her diabetes.
Over the June 2021 long weekend, Prendergast went away leaving her parents in the home by themselves.
Delivering his decision in the Downing Centre District Court, Judge Warwick Hunt said there was no evidence of arrangements being made for either of the parents to be taken care of during that time, down to a lack of pre-prepared food for them to eat.
"Given Josef's established dementia and Julie's established immobility it was not viable for the accused to assume that either would have been capable of preparing food," Judge Hunt said.
He noted evidence of the floors at the property during that time being cluttered "if not squalid" and of both parents having unmanaged incontinence.
"Their clothes and their bed clothing had the effect of urine and ... there was a strong odour," Judge Hunt said.
The couple were taken by ambulance to Campbelltown Hospital on the Sunday of the long weekend.
Julie's blood pressure and blood sugar levels were both "extremely high", placing her at serious risk of harm or death as a result of being unmedicated for her various chronic conditions, the court was told.
Judge Hunt found while Josef appeared to not have been bathed for some time, he was at less risk of serious health complications as a result of being left unattended.
Prendergast claimed Centrelink benefits as her parents' carer, looking after them full-time for around three years after selling their home, and using part of the funds to purchase her own.
"For three years I did doctor's appointments, I looked after them at my home, everything," Prendergast told police.
"I was the only one. Everyone else my brother, my sister-in-law, my dad's family, no one bothered."
The matter has been listed for sentence on July 24.
Australian Associated Press
