Kay Dibben

A FEMALE psychologist who was treating an autistic sexual abuse victim ending up having a sexual relationship with him.

Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal has heard that the psychologist, then in her early 30s, knew the 18-year-old, who had a mental age of a 13 or 14-year-old, thought she looked like his former special needs teacher who had had sex with him.

Despite the teenager developing an inappropriate personal interest in her, the psychologist did not refer him to another psychologist.

Shannon Hampton

A father who whipped his “severely autistic” son over the legs with a coathanger has been fined $1200 by a magistrate who said to use a weapon on his child involved “an appalling lack of judgement”.

Szu Sheng Lo, 41, admitted assaulting the 12-year-old after he had a “meltdown” at their in Canning Vale home in December.

The Armadale Magistrate’s Court was today told Lo hit his son on the back of his legs after he “took exception” to his instructions to change his shirt after a bike ride and before he went to church with his care workers.

Kathryn Bermingham

An Adelaide man who stabbed his autistic friend and decapitated a puppy during a “sadistic” crime spree has been jailed for at least three years.

James Alexander Rech, 20, was sentenced in the District Court on Friday for charges including assaulting police, aggravated assault and ill treatment of an animal on separate occasions in 2017 and 2018.

In sentencing, Judge Sophie David said Rech had repeatedly stabbed his housemate’s eight-month-old American staffordshire terrier in retaliation for an unpaid debt.

Kristen Hovet

An ACT study of mental health care provider organisations suggests the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is failing to achieve some of its core aims for persons with a lived experience of severe mental illness.

In a survey reporting on the transition to the NDIS, researchers from The Australian National University's Centre for Mental Health Research found the transition to individualised funding brought significant distress and uncertainty for care provider organisations in the mental health sector.

My daughter came into the world in dramatic fashion in November 1994.

Key points:

• Tracey Stewart had no idea her daughter was autistic
• She was not diagnosed until the age of 23
• Doctors say girls mask symptoms, making diagnosis harder

I had been hospitalised with pre-eclampsia and she was delivered via an unplanned caesarean at very short notice.

Claire Campbell and Alice Dempster

The drowning of a carer could have been avoided if the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) had responded to requests for a second carer for an autistic boy, a South Australian MP has claimed.