Former aged care worker pleads guilty to murdering elderly resident

Jacob Anthony Hoysted strangled the 70-year-old. Photo / NCA Newswire

A former aged care worker has pleaded guilty to the murder of an elderly resident under his care.

Jacob Anthony Hoysted appeared in Western Australia’s Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old strangled Monica Stockdale, 70, on November 28 at the Baptistcare Bethel facility in Albany, in WA’s Great Southern region. But he wasn’t charged until Christmas Eve, nearly a month later, after police conducted post mortem examinations on Stockdale.

Hoysted appeared via video link from Casuarina Prison on Wednesday. The state prosecutor moved to have the sentencing heard in Perth, instead of Albany, which was not opposed by Hoysted’s defence.

Monica Stockdale was a resident at an aged care facility in Western Australia's Great Southern when she was killed on November 28. Photo / Supplied / WA Police

The matter was moved to a sentencing hearing in WA’s Supreme Court on October 31 to allow time for pre-sentence reports to be compiled.

Hoysted had been working at Baptistcare Bethel for about a year before he committed the murder.

No further details of the crime were mentioned during Wednesday’s court appearance.

In the wake of her death, Stockdale’s family called on the federal government to fast-track an aged care worker screening process – one of the recommendations of the 2018 Royal Commission into Aged Care.