The family of Nancy Lennox spoke out after an ABC investigation revealed a five-year cover-up of her alleged sexual abuse by a worker in a Queensland government aged care home. Weeks after the story, staff called police alleging Mrs Lennox had also been abused by her husband and son — allegations the family says are false and are a reprisal for speaking out to the media. The federal government has introduced new whistleblower protections for aged care residents and their families who speak out about alleged mistreatment.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00It began in 2021 when the family of Nancy Lennox, who's a resident of a state government
00:08aged care facility called Eventide in the central Queensland town of Rockhampton, her
00:13family were brought in and told that she had been allegedly abused by one of their own
00:20aged care workers. The issue with that was the allegations had been raised five years
00:25earlier and never reported to police. So the family was shocked to learn this. Nancy Lennox
00:31has no way of speaking out for herself. She has an acquired brain injury and she cannot
00:37speak or walk. The family was very shocked by this. I started investigating this case.
00:45I approached them and I also uncovered the fact that the aged care employee had gone
00:52on to abuse another vulnerable resident with an impairment of the mind and was convicted
00:59and given a suspended jail sentence a few years before that. So I reported this issue
01:05in early 2021. After our story, staff came forward from the facility and accused Nancy
01:13Lennox's husband of both historical domestic violence and of allegedly sexually abusing
01:21her within the home. He found himself under police investigation. Her son, Mark Lennox,
01:31was also questioned by police over Nancy being found with a black eye that was reported by
01:39the home. Now, this family say that they were extremely distressed already from hearing
01:47that their loved one had been allegedly abused by an aged care worker. So that distress was
01:53obviously intensified by these allegations, very serious allegations made against them,
02:00effectively of abuse. So they were accused of being abusers. Now, years later, it's become
02:06clear that there was no evidence supporting these allegations. These allegations have
02:12not been substantiated by police. The family says they were falsely accused in reprisal
02:18for speaking out in the media about the home zone failure to protect its residents from
02:23a predator within its own ranks. The family has been backed by a federal MP, Michelle
02:29Landry, who wrote to the state government saying that Trevor and Mark Lennox had been
02:34slurred by staff as abusers and were the target of an ongoing campaign of discrimination.
02:42For more UN videos visit www.un.org