Latest news with #Ararat
News.com.au
25-06-2025
- News.com.au
YouTuber stunned by Victorian ‘pervert park'
It has the title of 'Village of the Damned'. In rural Victoria, a two-and-a-half hour drive from Melbourne, live dozens of the state's most dangerous sex offenders. They are not locked up because they have served their time behind bars. Instead, they are free to come and go from accommodation in Ararat. Behind an electric fence and largely obscured from view by a large hill, convicted sex offenders share supervised living quarters including one, two and three bedroom homes. Pictures from inside are hard to come by and those who live there do not mingle with the public at nearby Ararat. Naturally, there is great interest in the facility and what goes on there. In a resurfaced video, a YouTuber did his best to find out. Aussie Max Caruso, who has 39,000 subscribers, made the long journey to Ararat from Melbourne with a camera and a microphone. 'I don't know if this place still exists. But we're going to head to Ararat,' he tells viewers in the 11-minute clip. Caruso describes the village as 'Australia's trailer park for predators' but admits information is hard to come by. It does not appear on any map and even locals he spoke to were unaware of its existence. 'Apparently there's a park not far from here full of child (sex offenders),' he told a man from nearby Stawell. 'Really?,' was the response he got back. Caruso did in fact locate the facility but was greeted by electric fences and security guards. 'I'm not going to lie. I thought it would be like a super accessible place and that you'd just be able to like walk in,' he says. 'Turns out that's not the case but it exists. I knew it exists. The fence is right there. Behind that fence, see those roofs, that's where all these dudes are living. My original plan was to jump the f***ing fence. That's kind of dumb. I'm pretty sure this fence is electric so we are not going to jump it.' At one point in the video, a white van pulls up next to the YouTuber. 'What's going on?' the driver asks. 'We're just filming a bit of a doco on our friends' farms and stuff. Is that alright?' 'What are you filming for?' 'We have our own individual YouTube channel.' Caruso reveals that he was told to leave and 'realised we can't go any closer without getting charged'. 'I'm not satisfied though. I will return soon and find what I'm looking for,' he says. We travelled five hours for a f***ing wall.' 'Just so we all remember, these dudes are not in prison. They've finished their prison sentence, this is just like a holiday park for them where they can just hang out with their own kind and pretty much be protected from the rest of society. 'So I just want everybody in Ararat and around there to know that they've got a f***ing trailer park full of nonces just getting let into their society because since they're not in prison, they can walk out whenever they want.' Corella Place, the official name for the village which houses the convicted sex offenders after serving their sentence, was set up in 2005. Since then, it has been home to notorious ex-inmates including child rapist Andrew Darling and Robin Fletcher — who blamed multiple rapes on witchcraft. Sean Price, who raped and murdered Masa Vukotic when the 17-year-old got off public transport in Doncaster in 2015, was released into the community a year earlier and spent time at Corella Place. Price had been detained in the Village of the Damned over prior convictions, including sex offences against seven girls and women aged between 13 and 45 in 2002 and 2003. He was supposed to be under a supervision order and subsequent electronic monitoring at the time of Ms Vukotic's murder. Victorian Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry said he had tried, but failed, to understand the catastrophic decision to release Price, a convicted rapist, into the community in 2014 after he was placed on a 10-year supervision order in 2012. 'In a catastrophic example of mismanagement, whether on the part of the Department of Corrections or the Adult Parole Board, the decision was made to release you into the community and then the order ceased to have any protective event,' Justice Lasry said. 'You were given the freedom to commit these offences in circumstances where that should never have occurred. 'How you were permitted to be released into the community ... is astonishing.'
Daily Mail
24-06-2025
- Daily Mail
This may look like an ordinary 'holiday park'... but behind the electric fence is a dark reality
An Aussie filmed the moment he tried to gain access to one of the country's most controversial facilities that house dangerous sex offenders. Max Caruso attempted to enter the heavily guarded compound known as Corella Place, near Ararat, a town in Victoria that has a population of around 12,000 people. Caruso said he was inspired to investigate the site after watching videos about similar facilities in the US, including Florida 's infamous 'Pervert Park.' Corella Place isn't a typical detention centre: it's a purpose-built, high-security complex for offenders who have completed their sentences, but are still considered too dangerous to live freely in the community. Intrigued, Caruso set out to locate Corella Place for himself and documented the journey on his YouTube channel. During his visit to the town, Caruso spoke to several locals, many of whom expressed discomfort about living near the facility. 'They can come out of there, and walk straight out the gate,' one man said, voicing concerns about how freely the residents can move despite being under surveillance. Another local believed he had passed the complex multiple times, but still wasn't entirely sure where it was located. Caruso and a friend eventually drove out of town and followed Warrak Road to the site. The pair were stunned to discover how close the facility was to the Hopkins Correctional Centre, a men's prison. Taking in the view of what he dubbed 'the Pervert Prison', Caruso remarked on how comfortable the facility appeared. 'These people aren't even living that badly,' he said, pointing out the neat, uniform housing. 'This is basically a holiday park for them where they can hang out with their own kind and be protected from the rest of society. 'I thought it would be like a super accessible place, and you'd be able to walk in and see it. That is not the case.' The facility, surrounded by an electric fence, was heavily guarded, and the pair were quickly noticed by security. They were approached by someone in a van who questioned them about what they were filming. Caruso replied they were filming content for his YouTube channel, claiming they were just capturing footage of the surrounding farmland. But the reality of how restricted the area quickly became clear. Caruso said he risked being charged if he moved closer, and the pair left the site. Frustrated by the tight security and lack of access, Caruso vowed to return. 'We drove five hours just to look at a wall,' he said. Operated under Post Sentence Orders (PSOs), Corella Place residents are monitored around the clock, wear GPS ankle bracelets, and have restricted access to phones and the internet. Leaving the premises usually requires an escort. Dubbed the 'Village of the Damned,' the facility was designed to manage high-risk individuals post-release, keeping them isolated under strict conditions until their PSOs expire or are revoked. According to Victoria's Post Sentence Authority, as of June 30 last year, 123 people were under PSO monitoring. Ninety of them are under surveillance for serious sex offences, 20 for violent offences, and 13 for both. Over the years, Corella Place has housed some of Australia's most notorious offenders, including Robin Fletcher, the self-styled 'paedophile witch', who has remained under supervision at the facility since 2006. Among others is Theo Briggs, who raped a woman at knifepoint in 2009 while children were in the home. He escaped in 2016 but was later recaptured. In 2013, high-risk offenders Sean Carmody-Coyle and David Gregory Byrnes escaped the facility and were found 23km away. Carmody-Coyle managed to escape again in 2014, riding off on a mountain bike armed with knives before being caught the following morning. In 2018, child sex offender and inmate Gregory Paul Sedgman died at Ballarat Base Hospital after he overdosed on prescription medication at Corella Place. A review into the incident in 2022 found the death could have been avoided, leading to an overhaul of medication storage in the facility. It was revealed Sedgeman had taken more than he was initially prescribed, after an inmate distracted officers. 'If appropriate oversight of Mr Sedgman's case management occurred … his increased risk of substance abuse may have been dealt with more effectively,' the report said.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
State moves to suspend licenses of troubled L.A. nursing home companies
The California Department of Public Health is moving to suspend the licenses of seven Southern California nursing facilities that have been repeatedly cited in recent years for contributing to patients' deaths. The state health department sent letters last month to seven companies in Los Angeles County that received at least two 'AA' violations within the last two years, indicating a failure that contributed substantially to the death of a resident. The facilities include Ararat Nursing Facility, a Mission Hills nursing home cited last year over lapses related to two residents' deaths less than three months apart. Mark E. Reagan, an attorney for Ararat, said the facility plans to appeal the suspension. "Not only is any action for suspension unwarranted, it is also not in the best interests of the community or residents of the facility," Reagan said. "The facility's top priority is and always has been the safety and well-being of its residents." In addition to Ararat, the state said other facilities targeted for license suspension were Antelope Valley Care Center in Lancaster, Brier Oak on Sunset in Hollywood, Golden Haven Care Center in Glendale, Kei-Ai Los Angeles Healthcare Center in Lincoln Park, Santa Anita Convalescent Hospital in Temple City and Seacrest Post-Acute Care Center in San Pedro. None of those facilities sent letters by the state responded to requests for comment Thursday. An AA violation is a relatively rare penalty within state enforcement. Only 99 have been issued to the more than 1,200 skilled nursing facilities in California since the start of 2020, according to state data. According to California law, the state can move to suspend or revoke a nursing home's license once the facility gets two such violations within two years. In practice, the AA citation has been issued so infrequently that few facilities crossed that threshold, said Tony Chicotel, a senior staff attorney with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. Chicotel said he was 'pleasantly surprised' by the state's recent vigor in issuing AA violations and moving forward with license suspensions. 'As far as I know — and I've been doing this a long time, a couple decades — this is new,' Chicotel said. Representatives from the state public health department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. In each case, state investigations found failures and oversights that contributed directly to residents' deaths. At Golden Haven in Glendale, which previously operated as Glenoaks Convalescent Hospital, an investigation revealed that staff withheld a diabetic resident's insulin and failed to monitor the person's blood sugar for 61 days, resulting in the patient's hospitalization and death in April 2024, according to the state's report. At Brier Oak on Sunset, a resident died in August 2024 after rolling off a bed while her nurse was tending to a different patient, the state said in its citation report, which noted that paramedics found the woman lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Facilities in violation frequently resolve citations through appeals, settlements or other alternate routes that lower the severity level of their violation, their fine amount or both, Chicotel said. All seven of the companies cited were informed by letter that their license would be suspended in 30 days from the sending date if they did not exercise their right to appeal. Advocates said they expected all of them to appeal. Rachel Tate, vice president of ombudsman services at the nonprofit Wise & Healthy Aging, said she was troubled by the fact that many facilities recorded multiple patient deaths before the state took action. 'I understand that we need to be giving facilities due process and these other opportunities, but it seems we are sacrificing patient care in the process,' Tate said. 'How many people are you allowed to kill and still get to appeal and keep your license? That's very concerning.' This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
06-06-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
State moves to suspend licenses of troubled L.A. nursing home companies
The California Department of Public Health is moving to suspend the licenses of seven Southern California nursing facilities that have been repeatedly cited in recent years for contributing to patients' deaths. The state health department sent letters last month to seven companies in Los Angeles County that received at least two 'AA' violations within the last two years, indicating a failure that contributed substantially to the death of a resident. The facilities include Ararat Nursing Facility, a Mission Hills nursing home cited last year over lapses related to two residents' deaths less than three months apart. Mark E. Reagan, an attorney for Ararat, said the facility plans to appeal the suspension. 'Not only is any action for suspension unwarranted, it is also not in the best interests of the community or residents of the facility,' Reagan said. 'The facility's top priority is and always has been the safety and well-being of its residents.' In addition to Ararat, the state said other facilities targeted for license suspension were Antelope Valley Care Center in Lancaster, Brier Oak on Sunset in Hollywood, Golden Haven Care Center in Glendale, Kei-Ai Los Angeles Healthcare Center in Lincoln Park, Santa Anita Convalescent Hospital in Temple City and Seacrest Post-Acute Care Center in San Pedro. None of those facilities sent letters by the state responded to requests for comment Thursday. An AA violation is a relatively rare penalty within state enforcement. Only 99 have been issued to the more than 1,200 skilled nursing facilities in California since the start of 2020, according to state data. According to California law, the state can move to suspend or revoke a nursing home's license once the facility gets two such violations within two years. In practice, the AA citation has been issued so infrequently that few facilities crossed that threshold, said Tony Chicotel, a senior staff attorney with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. Chicotel said he was 'pleasantly surprised' by the state's recent vigor in issuing AA violations and moving forward with license suspensions. 'As far as I know — and I've been doing this a long time, a couple decades — this is new,' Chicotel said. Representatives from the state public health department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. In each case, state investigations found failures and oversights that contributed directly to residents' deaths. At Golden Haven in Glendale, which previously operated as Glenoaks Convalescent Hospital, an investigation revealed that staff withheld a diabetic resident's insulin and failed to monitor the person's blood sugar for 61 days, resulting in the patient's hospitalization and death in April 2024, according to the state's report. At Brier Oak on Sunset, a resident died in August 2024 after rolling off a bed while her nurse was tending to a different patient, the state said in its citation report, which noted that paramedics found the woman lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Facilities in violation frequently resolve citations through appeals, settlements or other alternate routes that lower the severity level of their violation, their fine amount or both, Chicotel said. All seven of the companies cited were informed by letter that their license would be suspended in 30 days from the sending date if they did not exercise their right to appeal. Advocates said they expected all of them to appeal. Rachel Tate, vice president of ombudsman services at the nonprofit Wise & Healthy Aging, said she was troubled by the fact that many facilities recorded multiple patient deaths before the state took action. 'I understand that we need to be giving facilities due process and these other opportunities, but it seems we are sacrificing patient care in the process,' Tate said. 'How many people are you allowed to kill and still get to appeal and keep your license? That's very concerning.'
ABC News
29-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Two Victorians, South Australian killed in Western Highway crash near Ararat
Two Victorians and a South Australian have been identified as the victims of a horrific multi-vehicle crash in western Victoria on Wednesday. Police have revealed a 49-year-old male driver from Lyndhurst, a 24-year-old female passenger from Clyde North and a 65-year-old male driver from SA died in the collision on the Western Highway north of Ararat at about 12:30pm. Five vehicles were involved in the crash, which occurred near the highway's intersection with Thomas Road at Armstrong. The driver of a semi-trailer, a 63-year-old Horsham man, and the driver of another car, an 83-year-old Geelong woman, were taken to Ballarat Hospital with minor injuries. The driver of a small truck, a 52-year-old Corio man, was taken to hospital as a precaution. The Western Highway is expected to remain closed until at least midday Thursday. Police are still investigating the cause of the accident. Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Lineham described the scene as "absolute carnage".
