Autistic woman ‘pimped’ to strangers by care agency

Sex experiment to help her ‘learn from mistakes’

HORRIFIED relatives of an autistic woman who was allowed by her carers to have sex with men so she could ‘learn from her mistakes’ want to take legal action to protect her.

The 23-year-old woman, who has severe learning difficulties and an IQ of just 52, was free to have sex in public with strangers under a plan authorised by a judge sitting at a secretive court.

It was only after a shocked psychiatrist said her unsupervised sexual activity was ‘dangerous’ and could put her at risk of abuse or even death that it came to an end two months later.

As the scandal was made public yesterday, an autism charity expressed its shock and said ‘urgent lessons’ needed to be learnt. And her appalled family are considering taking legal action to ensure she is better protected in future.

According to legal documents seen by the Mail, the extraordinary arrangement began after years of state intervention, starting with concern that the woman had been sexually abused in childhood.

She was said to have gone missing from home and been raped by men, ‘particularly Asian men’.

The unidentified woman – whose ethnicity is not known – was diagnosed with a form of autism which manifested itself in an ‘obsessional interest’ in men, in particular men ‘from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds’, it reported.

From the age of 18, her care was made the responsibility of the Court of Protection, which safeguards vulnerable adults who do not have the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves.

Two years later, in 2015, a judge ruled she was able to consent to sex but said she lacked the capacity to make such decisions herself.

The court approved a plan under which Manchester City Council employed a specialist private agency called Engage Support to provide her with round-the-clock support. During one of those visits

‘Distressing and complex case’

she met and befriended a Bangladeshi waiter, later undergoing an Islamic marriage with the court’s approval, with care staff acting as bridesmaids.

But 12 months ago, according to the court documents, her attempts at sexual behaviour outside her marriage became increasingly risky, involving men she barely knew.

They included sending photographs of herself naked to a man who worked in a shisha bar [where patrons smoke hookah tobacco pipes] and making naked video calls on FaceTime to a taxi driver.

Engage Support is said to have threatened to terminate its care contract unless the restrictions on her freedom were reduced.

In June, Judge Jonathan Butler reportedly gave Engage Support permission to leave the woman alone at home from 10am to 4pm while her husband was out – shockingly, he was apparently not informed. Over the next few weeks, the court heard she had sex with at least six men in her bedroom, as well as in a taxi and at the back of a bowling alley.

Yesterday a source close to the woman’s family told the Mail: ‘They’re appalled by what’s hap- pened and are now considering whether there’s any action they can take over a breach of her rights.

‘They want assurances that she will now be safe and secure.’

Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society, said he had been ‘shocked’ by the ‘distressing, unusual and complex case’.

Engage Support was approached for comment.