Ann Marie Smith’s disability care worker pleads guilty to her manslaughter
The woman who cared for Adelaide cerebral palsy sufferer Ann Marie Smith in the period leading up to her death has pleaded guilty to her manslaughter.
Rosa Maria Maione appeared before Adelaide magistrates court on Wednesday and admitted unlawfully killing Smith. She will now face the supreme court for the start of the sentencing process.
Prosecutors made no application to revoke Maione’s bail but said an application was likely at her arraignment in September.
Police previously alleged Smith died of serious criminal neglect and her death was preventable.
The 54-year-old died in hospital in April 2020 from septic shock, multiple organ failure, severe pressure sores and malnourishment.
She had been found to be living in squalid conditions in her own home, largely confined to a cane chair, while under the care of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
In the period leading up to her death, Maione had worked as her carer.
Earlier this year, a former schoolmate of Smith said her treatment and death remained “incomprehensible”.
In a statement read to the disability royal commission, the woman gave a moving account of their longtime friendship.
The pair had gone to primary school together in Adelaide and had kept in touch during high school and as adults but had lost touch in the year before her death because of a falling out.
“This is something I really struggle with. I shouldn’t have made excuses,” the woman said.
“I carry a lot of guilt about that and I know that things would have been different if I had gone around to see her. For me, it is still incomprehensible what has happened to her.”
As well as the South Australian police investigation, the NDIS quality and safeguards commissioner, Graeme Head, launched an independent inquiry by former federal court judge Alan Robertson, with his report last year essentially clearing the commission in terms of how it exercised its regulatory functions.
Robertson said on the question of whether the quality and safeguards commission should have acted earlier to ban Maione, it had no information to take such action before Smith’s death.