A Victorian Yooralla carer who raped three wheelchair-bound women as he showered them and put them to bed has been jailed for 18 years.
Vinod Johnny Kumar, 31, repeatedly preyed on the profoundly disabled women, taunted them by calling them whores and threatened them not to reveal the abuse.
Victorian County Court Judge Felicity Hampel described Kumar's crimes as gross breaches of trust against victims "trapped within their own bodies".
"They were powerless to defend themselves or to physically remonstrate with you," she told Kumar on Wednesday.
"You were careful to choose your time and place, when you were the only person on duty and when your three female victims were at their most vulnerable."
Kumar taunted one of his victims, telling her: "I'm doing a night shift. You won't get much sleep."
On another occasion he repeatedly pulled down the pants of a man with cerebral palsy as he tried to escape on his crutches.
Kumar abused his victims at the home between October 2011 and January 2012.
Judge Hampel noted that Yooralla continued to employ Kumar, despite counselling him for abusing a co-worker and twisting the nipple of male resident.
Months after this warning he was denied a full-time position because of rumours about his inappropriate behaviour, but continued to work close to full-time hours, often as the only support worker at a residence.
Kumar even described the residents as "easy" and outlined how he had abused one woman to a co-worker, Judge Hampel said.
"Still nothing was done to investigate or protect the residents," she said.
So intimidated were the residents, they only revealed the abuse when Kumar quit Yooralla in early 2012 after a conflict with a co-worker.
United Voices for People with Disabilities (UVPD) chairman Peter Cross said Yooralla could have prevented the sexual abuse had it dismissed Kumar after his inappropriate behaviour first emerged.
"Not only did (Yooralla) not take the matter seriously, they have done everything they possibly can to cover it up," he said outside court.
"They need to be made accountable and a clear message needs to be sent to the disability sector that this will no longer be tolerated."
Sanjib Roy, the chief executive of Yooralla, Victoria's largest non-government disability service, apologised to the victims.
He said an independent investigation returned 20 recommendations to improve client safety and all had now been implemented.
"We have put extensive measures in place to prevent something of this nature from ever happening again," Mr Roy said.
Kumar was convicted of eight counts of rape, two counts of sexual penetration and one count of an indecent act on a person with a cognitive impairment by a worker and indecent assault.
The Indian national, in Australia on a student visa, must serve a minimum of 15 years in jail before he is eligible for parole.
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