QLD: Carer fly-swatted disabled man's genitals, court hears

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2009
QLD: Carer fly-swatted disabled man's genitals, court hears

By Christine Flatley

BRISBANE, Aug 31 AAP - A disability carer used a fly swatter to whip a patient's genitals
and used bedsheets to tie another to the toilet, a court has been told.

Susan Beryl Lister, 50, also locked a boy with autism in a "cage" and held him down
while another woman rubbed chilli in his mouth, the Brisbane District Court was told on
Monday.

Prosecutor David Nardone told the court Lister assaulted five male patients - aged
between five and 48 years - while working at the Care Independent Living facility at Bribie
Island between 2000 and 2003.

She is currently on trial after pleading not guilty to two counts of deprivation of
liberty and seven of common assault.

Two former carers on Monday told the court they had seen Lister dish out a variety
of punishments to the patients, all of whom had significant intellectual impairments.

Lynelle Wemyss (Lynelle Wemyss) said she saw Lister use a fly swatter to beat a young
teenager on his bare genitals, while he cried for her to stop.

"She was telling him that he was filthy (and) she just kept hitting and hitting him,"

Ms Wemyss said.

"He had tears running down his face."

Ms Wemyss rejected suggestions from defence barrister Don MacKenzie that the young
boy, who was prone to tantrums which could escalate to violence, may have done something
to deserve the punishment.

"It's a perfectly rational and logical hypothesis ... to say that he had done something
to cause Ms Lister to hit him with a fly swatter," Mr MacKenzie said.

"There was no excuse for that," Ms Wemyss said.

"That's your opinion," Mr MacKenzie fired back.

"That's right," she replied.

Ms Wemyss said she had also seen Lister, on another occasion, tie a five-year-old boy
with autism to the toilet, telling him he couldn't leave until "he'd done his poos".

"She took a photo of him," Ms Wemyss said.

"(The boy) was looking really distressed and squealing."

The court heard evidence of other assaults allegedly perpetrated by Lister.

It's alleged she used a fly swatter to beat a man with Down Syndrome, boxed a young
man's ears, held down a boy so chilli could be rubbed in his mouth, and locked a patient
in an outdoor "cage".

Ms Wemyss told the court she had been so horrified by the level of care provided at
the facility that she and two other staff members reported it to government agency Disability
Services Queensland (DSQ).

The court was told this eventually resulted in a Senate inquiry.

Ms Wemyss, and fellow former carer Donne Gilbert (Donne Gilbert), both strenuously
rejected Mr MacKenzie's suggestions that they were mistaken about what they had seen.

"I was there and I know what I saw," Ms Wemyss said.

"You just can't believe that people would do that," Ms Gilbert said.

The trial continues.

AAP cf/pjo/jnb/cdh

KEYWORD: LISTER

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