Inside one mother’s 19-day nightmare with British au pair

When Rebecca welcomed a pretty, young au pair from Britain into her home at the start of July, she hoped for a helping hand to ease the daily juggle and mental load.

Instead, what followed were 19 days of hell, as the woman she now calls a ‘monster’ stole money, alcohol and her child’s ADHD medication, before self-harming with a knife in their home.

The situation spiralled so far out of control that the Queensland mother was left fearing for her family’s safety and ultimately called police for help.

‘I invited the devil to live with us,’ Rebecca, 44, tells me, still shaken by the ordeal.

‘It was like living in a real-life thriller movie. The lies kept coming and coming.

‘She had lied about her host family before us and supplied fake references from the UK.

‘I had no choice but to ask her to leave. It became clear very quickly that she was not who she claimed to be and it was no longer safe for her to be around my children.’

Rebecca had hired the 26-year-old through a Facebook au pair page, and met her with open arms at Brisbane Airport at the start of the July school holidays.

The pair had been exchanging messages for weeks and Rebecca says she felt at ease.

‘I already felt like I was welcoming a little sister to our family,’ she adds.

The au pair said her passions were books and caring for children. She said she was an experienced cook, and was eager to explore Australia.

She spoke of wanting to get her Australian driver’s licence and hoped to settle into life with a welcoming host family.

‘I wanted help between my full-time TAFE study in mental health and managing my home,’ Rebecca explains.

‘My kids are older and legally can be left at home, but I refuse to leave them alone.

‘My ad said we were looking for a big sister-style au pair to help with the house routine. We offered a private studio room, bathroom and kitchenette on the bottom storey of our house.

‘I said the pantry was always full and they would be treated as part of the family. I just needed someone to whiz around with the vacuum and help with the kids after school.’

The young Brit had told Rebecca she’d spent four weeks living with a family in the Western Australian outback, but claimed the experience had been terrible and she’d been mistreated.

‘I felt just awful for her and I wanted to help,’ Rebecca says.

‘But as soon as she arrived, things didn’t feel right.’

Rebecca had paid for the young woman’s flights from Perth to Brisbane, arranged driving lessons as a gift, and even brought the children along to meet her at the airport.

But from the very first car ride, things felt off.

‘She just sat on her phone and didn’t engage with the kids,’ Rebecca recalls.

Unbeknownst to Rebecca at the time, the au pair was scrolling dating apps in the car and – horrifyingly – sending and receiving explicit photos right next to the children.

‘My daughter noticed, but she didn’t feel comfortable saying anything until after everything else happened.’

Over the following two weeks, Rebecca, a former childcare director, began feeling increasingly uneasy.

The au pair’s stories didn’t add up. Alcohol started vanishing from the house. She seemed uninterested in family life and spent most of her time vaping outside or meeting up with men.

She even added Rebecca to her location-tracking app ‘in case something happened’ during one of her casual hook-ups.

‘I was so worried for her and slept with my phone on all weekend in case she needed me,’ Rebecca says.

‘I didn’t think it was any of my business who she was meeting or what she was getting up to. I didn’t want her to feel bad for the choices she was making, so I didn’t say anything. I just worried.’

Then, just before school was due to resume, Rebecca confessed to her husband that she no longer felt comfortable leaving the children alone with the au pair.

Together, they decided to terminate her employment.

What happened next left the couple traumatised.

‘I felt bad and said we would pay her notice period, but she didn’t have to work for us. We also said she could stay with us until she found other work,’ says Rebecca.

‘But she was furious and started sending us abusive texts.

‘It went on and on all day. Eventually my husband and I went down to her room to talk about it, but she was off her face.’

That’s when the couple noticed deep, bloody cuts on her legs. She had self-harmed.

‘It was like a scene from a horror movie. She told us she had done it and that she always does it,’ recounts Rebecca.

‘She had knives everywhere. She was even keeping them in the freezer.’

Panicked, the couple called police and an ambulance. The au pair was removed from their home under the Mental Health Act.

Following the paramedics’ advice, they packed up her belongings and delivered them to the hospital.

But Rebecca’s ordeal wasn’t over.

‘You’re the worst mother I’ve ever met. I hate you so much,’ the au pair texted her from hospital. Dozens of abusive messages in a similar vein followed.

Still reeling from the shock of having the au pair sectioned, Rebecca realised that $2,000 in cash and her daughter’s ADHD medication were missing.

She posted in the Facebook au pair group to warn other families. Soon, she was contacted by the woman’s previous host family in Western Australia.

It was a frighteningly familiar story. The woman had told the same lies, including allegations of abuse against the family she had stayed with previously.

The WA host family also revealed she had once left two toddlers alone to go out drinking with strangers.

‘It wasn’t just me,’ Rebecca adds. ‘She left that family in the same state of despair.’

Worse still, Rebecca says she received a flood of messages from other host parents, many of whom were too afraid to speak out publicly.

‘People told me the au pairs were writing down their hours and threatening to report families to Fair Work for underpayment,’ she explains.

‘Even though they had agreed to light duties in exchange for a room, food, car use and $200–$300 a week pocket money.

‘Families are being extorted after paying for flights and doing airport pick-ups.’

Today, Rebecca says she still can’t sleep at night knowing the woman is free to apply for other jobs in Australia.

She has even had debt collectors come to her door, as well as messages from the woman’s friends in the UK, accusing her of mistreatment.

‘She’s told a pack of lies, claiming we kept her in a basement and made her work 12-hour days, cleaning and painting without pay.

‘It upsets me that I let that monster into my house. She could have harmed my children – and even now she’s trying to scare me.

‘I have reported her to immigration out of desperation, but nothing is being done.’