The care worker charged over the death of Ann Marie Smith has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Adelaide Magistrates Court.
Key points:
- Ann Marie Smith died in April 2020
- Her carer, Rosa Maione, was charged with manslaughter
- She has pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Magistrates Court
Rosa Maione, 68, who also goes by the name Rosemary, was charged last year, four months after Ms Smith died from severe septic shock, organ failure, pressure sores and malnutrition.
The 54-year-old, who had cerebral palsy, was found in what police described as “disgusting and degrading” circumstances, in her Kensington Park home.
Ms Smith — known as Annie — relied on a carer for all of her needs.
Maione will appear again in the Supreme Court in September.
Prosecutors did not apply to have her bail revoked, but indicated they would do so when she next appears in court in September.
ABC News
)Ms Smith’s case sparked public shock and multiple investigations.
Police believe she may have spent up to a year confined to a cane chair before she died in hospital.
Details of her fate were first publicly revealed by police last May and Maione was charged last August.
Ms Smith was a National Disability Insurance Scheme participant who lived alone in the Adelaide suburb of Kensington Park.
Her care provider, Integrity Care SA, was fined more than $12,000 by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission for failing to report her death.
Supplied: SA Police
)Last June, Major Crime detectives revealed $35,000 of jewellery and two fridges were missing from Ms Smith’s home.
They also revealed her car had been used by an unknown person, her inheritance had disappeared and that two separate loans totalling $70,000 were taken out in Ms Smith’s name in the last six years.
A friend of Ms Smith told the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with a Disability last month that she was a caring person who loved to laugh and was cherished by her family.
