Nurse sentenced to home detention for assaulting elderly residents

Phoebe Schwager, a 22-year-old assistant in nursing, has been sentenced to 15 months of home detention for assaulting six elderly residents in the dementia wing of Uniting Garden Suburb. The assaults, which occurred between October 2024 and February 2025, included punching residents in the stomach and other degrading acts intended to inflict pain or humiliation.

Prosecutor Emily Winborne stated that Schwager also assaulted two colleagues as a “power play” to prevent them from reporting her actions. While Judge Roy Ellis noted that Schwager abused the trust placed in her and was “the wrong sort of person to be doing the job,” he opted for home detention rather than jail, concluding the community would be better protected by avoiding a prison term.

Schwager reportedly showed a lack of remorse and insight into her actions, expressing to a psychologist that she still hoped to pursue a nursing career.