A Wanganui caregiver who committed a "disgusting" act on a seriously disabled woman has been found guilty of indecent assault and performing an exploitative indecent act.
The gravity of what 40-year-old Shaun Burgess did has shocked police, who said his actions defied belief.
Burgess was a predator who put himself in places where he could exploit vulnerable people, Detective James Middleton told the Wanganui Chronicle. "What he did was so disgusting it makes it difficult to report and detail publicly."
Burgess was convicted by a jury in Wanganui District Court and has been remanded in custody for sentencing. He had been employed at the local rest home, which has name suppression, for nine months at the time of the offending.
The court was told that on March 8 last year he was in the room of a severely disabled woman in her 60s, supposedly washing her.
But he was interrupted as another caregiver entered the room to find he had been committing a sex act over her.
The incapacitated woman could not move or speak.
The caregiver who had walked in reported the incident immediately and police were called within the hour, Mr Middleton said.
Resthome management were appalled and sickened when they were told the details of what had happened, he said.
"But they were excellent throughout the investigation and very helpful."
The home's hiring practices were under immediate scrutiny and changed within days, he said.
"In organisations like this staff must be thoroughly vetted -- someone can't be hired just on face value." Burgess will be sentenced on June 17.
