Rosa Maione's six-year jail sentence for Ann Marie Smith's manslaughter by criminal neglect 'inadequate' - ABC News

Disability advocates have described a six-year jail term for a carer who killed her client by neglect as "a slap in the face".

Key points:

• Rosa Maione pleaded guilty to the manslaughter by criminal neglect of Ann Marie Smith 
• Maione has been sentenced to six years and seven months in jail
• Disability advocates say the sentence is inadequate

Carer Rosa Maione will serve a minimum of five years and three months in jail for the manslaughter of cerebral palsy sufferer Ann Marie Smith in 2020.

Maione received a sentencing discount for pleading guilty early and for already serving some time in home detention.

Disability advocate Kelly Vincent, a former MP, said the sentence would not reassure people in care that the law will protect them.

"I was prepared to be disappointed, but six years is an absolute insult and a slap in the face, not only to Ann Marie's memory but to everyone who ever lived with the fear and the vulnerability that they or someone they loved might end up in that situation," she said outside court.

"In the gravity of what Rosa Maione has done, six years is a pretty breezy sentence.

"We haven't done justice in this case."

Disability care recipient Ann Marie Smith died in 2020.(Supplied: SA Police)

The case identified serious lapses by Maione's employer, Integrity Care SA — then an National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provider.

It allowed Maione to work as Ms Smith's sole carer, despite Maione having a Workcover claim for a permanent disability to her shoulder that prevented her doing any heavy lifting.

Integrity Care SA was fined more than $12,000 for failing to report the death to the NDIS and later banned from operating.

An investigation into the company is ongoing.

"Ann Marie Smith's death was the result of failing at every level of the system," Ms Vincent said.

"We heard today in the court that they knew, Rosa Maione knew, Integrity Care knew, Workcover knew, that she was not fit to perform that job in the first place."

Ms Smith's death sparked numerous investigations and reviews, including by police, the state government and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

The NDIS commission's independent investigation led to 10 recommendations, including that vulnerable NDIS participants should have multiple carers.

Since then, legislation has been introduced to give the NDIS commission greater powers to protect participants, and the commission has made changes including introducing national worker screening and putting further conditions on personal care providers.

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability also took a strong interest in the case, holding a hearing in June that looked at what has been learnt since Ms Smith's death to help protect other people with disability.

Rosa Maria Maione outside court in August 2020. (ABC News)

But disability advocate Kelly Vincent said the reviews had not improved protections for people in care.

"I'm not confident because absolutely nothing has changed," she said.

"Just weeks ago I was dealing with a case … where three people had been living in a home for years, for decades, where their pension was being taken off them, they were being controlled and nobody knew about it until the so-called carer went to hospital and they were only safe to speak out once she was not around watching them anymore.

"People like me … and everyone else that I love live in fear every day because apparently people have to waste away in their own urine and faeces for us to think about changing the system to give people a voice to speak out before this happens."

Robbi Williams, CEO of disability advocacy organisation JFA Purple Orange, said the sentence seemed inadequate. 

"Given the extent of publicly reported neglect revealed through legal proceedings … we hope the prosecutor gives consideration to grounds for appealing the length of the sentence," he said. 

"Service providers must urgently think much harder about how to redesign their services so that people are authentically supported into those ordinary valued roles of life.

"Because that is also how services can best safeguard the people they support from the treatment meted out to Ann Marie." 

Ms Wade believes the sentence has sent an important message to the community. (ABC News: Claire Campbell)

Natalie Wade, the principal lawyer at Equality Lawyers, agreed.

"We have not seen enough change from a systemic and structural perspective to ensure this never happens again.

"It is absolutely clear that there is a lot of work to be done that we must do today."

But she said Maione's sentence was appropriate.

"The DPP and the courts have sent a message to the disability community and the broader community that where disability support people treated people with disabilities in this way it will be taken seriously and people will be prosecuted for it," Ms Wade said. 

"This is a very important step towards justice for people with disabilities."

Principal lawyer at Equality Lawyers Natalie Wade says there has not been enough systemic change.(ABC News: Claire Campbell)

Maione faces deportation to Italy when she completes her sentence.

Ann Marie Smith's brother Steven said Maione should have to spend longer in custody.

"Is it a fair sentence that she's taken someone's life? To us — no it's not —because really, she should sit in a cell and rot," he said. 

"But it is what it is and hopefully when she does get out of jail, she'll end up back in Italy and be alone, just like my sister was."

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2022-03-18 05:30:25Z
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