A caregiver who beat, berated and tormented residents in a home for disabled people in Hamilton – so frequently that they habitually cowered in fear of her – has admitted assaulting them.
Maria Hiria Hohepa, 65, appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Friday, where she pled guilty to two charges of common assault and two of ill-treatment of a vulnerable adult.
It was offending that was only uncovered after a fellow staff member noticed bruising and other injuries on the three victims – injuries that appeared to have usually been sustained during Hohepa’s shifts at the home.
In January this year the staffer placed covert cameras throughout the house to see if there was any foundation to her suspicions.
It was not long before an abundance of violence and abuse was captured in the video footage.
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As the agreed summary of facts on the case reveals, the house in Deanwell, Hamilton, in which the three female victims lived is operated by Spectrum Care – a non-profit charitable trust funded by the Ministry of Health to provide 24-hour in-home support services for people with intellectual disabilities and physical impairments.
All three residents in this home, aged between 23 and 52 years old, have been deemed to be highly vulnerable. They cannot speak, or look after themselves independently.
In one video clip supplied to the police, Hohepa could be seen in a bedroom with a 24-year-old victim – who was clearly fearful of her – instructing her to remove bedding from her bed.
Hohepa lost her temper and hit the younger woman three times to her right ear, causing her to fall onto the bed.
Christel Yardley/Stuff
Marie Hohepa’s breach of trust was “one of the worst, if not the worst” a police prosecutor had seen in 32 years on the job.
Hohepa then shoved the victim while she was on the bed, and ripped the bedding from her hands and throwing it to the other side of the room, before grabbing the victim by her hair, pulling her to the ground, shoving her into a wall, and then pulling her up off the floor by her hair.
In another video Hohepa was in the kitchen with the same victim, who was rinsing dishes. Hohepa could be seen pushing and shoving her because the dishes were not being rinsed to her satisfaction.
Another video showed Hohepa in the kitchen with a 52-year-old resident, who was loading dishes into the dishwasher.
Again, Hohepa became frustrated with the speed at which the task was being accomplished and violently slapped the victim numerous times on her back. Then she placed her hands on either side of the woman’s head, grabbed her hair, and shook her head backward and forward while shouting at her.
Then Hohepa told the victim to close the dishwasher – but then deliberately prevented her from doing so by placing her foot in the dishwasher door, so it couldn’t be closed.
Then she hit the victim in the back of her head so hard the woman had to put out her hands to stop herself from falling over – but Hohepa then pushed her to the ground anyway.
In yet another video, Hohepa could be seen in the older victim’s bedroom, yelling at her to open the blinds. The clearly terrified woman was unable to do this, so Hohepa walked over to her, yelling at her, and then slammed her head three times into a switch cover on the bedroom wall.
The woman ran to the door, trying to escape, but Hohepa grabbed her by her clothes, pushed her to the ground and continued to yell at her as she was on her hands and knees.
As the victim stood up, Hohepa violently grabbed the cords from the blind and tied her left hand up with it, preventing her from fleeing again.
Hohepa then walked out of the room, leaving the woman sobbing and tied to the blind by the cord.
In each video both of the victims could be seen to be clearly terrified of Hohepa, and were flinching and cowering whenever she was with them.
Until her abuse was uncovered, Hohepa had been employed by Spectrum for 16 years. As the most senior of the three staff members working in the home she held the position of “house leader”.
She had also previously been the acting service co-ordinator for all nine of Spectrum’s homes throughout the Waikato.
In court, police prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Kennedy described Hohepa’s actions as “one of the worst, if not the worst cases of a breach of trust … I have 32 years of service and I have never come across such a breach”.
Judge Louis Bidois convicted Hohepa and remanded her, on ongoing bail, to be sentenced in the same court in February next year.
In a statement issued following Hohepa’s court appearance, Spectrum chief executive Sean Stowers said the organisation had immediately informed the police and removed her from her duties when the offending was uncovered.
“Any form of abuse, harm or neglect is unacceptable and the rights and safety of the people we support are our highest priorities.
“Having met the individual who disclosed what was occurring, I can only admire the true leadership they’ve shown in speaking out and doing the right thing.”
The incident was also discussed during the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry – Institutional Response hearing, when Commissioner Paul Gibson asked representatives from Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People representatives: are disabled people safe in residential care today?
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