A NSW nurse DANIEL MOONEY has been banned for life from healthcare work after he sexually assaulted an elderly nursing home resident who was unable to move or speak.  Last year MOONEY was convicted of two counts of sexual assault on the woman, a high-care patient at a Wollongong facility who had Alzheimer’s disease and had been left speechless and with very limited movement after a stroke.  He was sentenced to 11 years in jail.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission last week banned MOONEY from engaging in any healthcare work – paid or voluntary – under a provision of the Health Care Complaints Act.

“The possibility that Mr MOONEY may engage in similar conduct on his release from prison poses a risk to the health or safety of members of the public,” the HCCC said.  MOONEY’s duties included caring for and treating the 82-year-old woman, who was under 24-hour care.

MOONEY, 41 at the time, was disturbed by another carer in the patient’s room in the pre-dawn hours of 21 September 2012 at the Marco Polo Nursing Home in Unanderra, New South Wales, according to media reports of police evidence during his trial.

He was allegedly discovered in her room again on 31 October, when another nurse found the patient without her underwear and clinging to the bed rails.  But MOONEY allegedly returned and committed another assault two hours later, police said.

The Wollongong District Court heard MOONEY had admitted to the 2012 attacks and also confessed to assaulting another helpless female resident of the home in 2010.

An incident had been reported to senior staff and management at the time, but police were not informed.  The Marco Polo Nursing Home was issued a noncompliance notice by the NSW Department of Health in 2013 for allegedly failing to report a suspected assault.

MOONEY entered nursing in 1997 and worked at the home from 2004 until 2012.  He was convicted in 2013 will be eligible for release in 2020.