The old man was grieving the death of his wife. At a vulnerable time and age he gave his son power of attorney. Perhaps he was relieved when the son sold the house in regional New South Wales where he had lived with his wife for decades and moved him into a granny flat. Perhaps he was comforted by the thought he would be close to family and cared for.
The man, who is in his 80s, could not have imagined what was to come: his daughter-in-law subjects him to a tyranny of verbal abuse, constantly demanding money and threatening to boot him out. The son, who travels frequently for work, has refused to participate in mediation. The old man's house sold for $470,000, but the money has disappeared and he has no resources to move elsewhere. But he doesn't want to leave: he'd lose contact with his grandkids then, and the family dogs. They're his main company now. 
"He feels trapped because he doesn't want to break up the family unit," says Cathy, one of five women who works at the NSW Elder Abuse Helpline and Resource Unit, which received more than 1500 calls in the 2014-2015 financial year. The old man has regularly called the helpline in the past year. Sometimes, he has suggested suicide might be his only option. "That's how distraught it's left him."
There is only patchy national data on the incidence of elder abuse, but experts believe that, every year, about 5 per cent of elderly Australians are abused by someone they trust and, in some cases, the figure is as high as 20 per cent. Elder abuse can be financial, physical, psychological and, in rare, terrible cases, sexual. Neglect is elder abuse. Different forms of abuse can co-exist, leaving an old person in a special sort of hell.
Age Discrimination commissioner Susan Ryan believes the issue will get more attention. "It is a problem that's increasing if only because the number of people in that age group where you're susceptible to it is increasing rapidly," says Ryan.
In   November, she wrote to Federal Attorney-General George Brandis asking him to resource a national elder-abuse prevalence survey. The senator had earlier commissioned the Australian Institute of Family Studies to look at the issue. In   February, a NSW Legislative Council inquiry will resume public hearings into elder abuse in the state, while Victoria's Royal Commission into Family Violence, set up in the wake of the murder of Rosie Batty's son, Luke, and which will deliver its report at the end of   February, also took submissions on elder abuse.
The term "elder abuse" is an umbrella tag not a criminal charge; a perpetrator could be charged with offences including unlawful restraint, fraud, bullying, harassment, failure to provide the necessities of life, or even murder. In late 2014, Kerry Forrest, then 54, was found guilty of murdering an 84-year-old man in 2010 by giving him a lethal dose of morphine. The pokies addict had moved in with William Adamson in 2009 after the death of his wife. She became increasingly involved in Adamson's financial affairs, eventually gambling away hundreds of thousands of dollars - the proceeds from the sale of his house.
But in more than two thirds of elder abuse cases, the abuser is a family member - mostly an adult child. Like the woman who kept her mother locked up in a house near Tamworth. The case came to the attention of Superintendent Rob Critchlow, NSW Police spokesman for elder abuse, early in 2014. "The daughter's husband had encouraged the elderly woman to live with them so they could draw the carer's pension," Superintendent Critchlow says. Eventually, someone heard the old woman's screams. When she was rescued, she was covered in faeces. Doctors later had to amputate her gangrenous finger.
And what about the Melbourne mother who sold her home and gave some of the proceeds to her son and daughter-in-law? They promised she could live with them for the rest of her life, but when the marriage ended so did the arrangement. When the mother asked for her money back, the warring couple refused.
In the story of elder abuse, money is so often the root of the evil - about a third of cases relate to financial abuse. It's a litany of petty and not-so-petty crime: the money borrowed and never paid back, fraudulent outings with a parent's credit card, the surreptitious raids on bank accounts, the misused power of attorney, the granny flat that turns out to be a financial booby trap.
Experts talk about "inheritance impatience" - as life expectancy grows, so too does the time adult children have to wait for parents' wills to be read. "Family members want their aged parents' assets," says Susan Ryan. Times have changed, she says, and many older people have considerable assets. Perhaps they bought a modest house half a century ago but now, especially in capital cities, it could be worth a million dollars or more. "Some cases are appalling to hear about; a son will say to his mother, 'oh look mum, we want to build an extension on the house, why don't you sell your house, give us the money and we'll put a granny flat in and look after you'. The mother agrees without any legal advice and she never gets the care or the accommodation and she's left penniless and in a terrible state."
Elder abuse experts also talk of the prevalence of "boomerang kids" in the statistics; adult children who move back in with a parent after a marriage breakdown or job loss and bring their baggage - an addiction, mental health issues, violence. Like the man who lived with his mother on an isolated farm. He liked to watch porn and masturbate in front of her.
Or perhaps the dysfunctional child has never left. Michael, a Sunshine Coast businessman who asked that his last name not be used, has been helping his wife deal with her 82-year-old mother's increasing social isolation at the hands of her son, with whom she lives in Melbourne. The middle-aged man has lived at home for his whole life and in the past few years has started to shut down contact between his mother and the rest of the family. "They have become like a bit of a married couple," says Michael.
The concerning incidents have mounted: On occasions when she's tried to go out without him, he'll say things like, "but what am I going to do?" Michael and his wife suggested they buy her mother a new fridge but her son intervened to say it wasn't necessary, that his "water cooler" was there. Michael claims his brother-in-law bullies his mother, blaming her for his problems, quoting from the Bible. At times he has "poked" her, leaving bruises. When it was suggested she move in with Michael and his wife, the brother threatened to commit suicide. Michael's mother-in-law is of sound mind but that on its own offers little to no protection against an abuser. In the underworld of family life, it's a tangled skein of hope and obligation, loyalty and entitlement, love and righteousness, fear and power. Victims rarely speak up, fearing retribution such as exile to a nursing home. But it's not just fear of a future filled with pureed muck and dribbling companions. Embarrassment often keeps victims quiet. Kerry Marshall, manager of the NSW Elder Abuse Helpline and Resource Unit, says: "They're devastated and ashamed. They say, 'I didn't raise my children to behave like this'."
Michael says that, for his mother-in-law, getting outsiders involved would be unthinkable. "For her, the shame [would be] worse than the abuse; it's better to put up with it than [let people know] she has a failed son."
An elderly person's feelings of shame are not the only barrier to identifying cases of abuse. Someone with dementia or other health issues might not have the capacity to seek advice or assistance, even if they are able to recognise that the way they are being treated constitutes abuse and/or neglect. Legislation goes some way towards protecting residents of aged-care facilities, with mandatory reporting required for even a hint of abuse, but there is no mandatory reporting for elderly people living in the community.
"There is a policy and practice vacuum in relation to policing elderly abuse in Australia," says Dr Nicole L Asquith, associate professor of policing and criminal justice at Western Sydney University. In a submission to the NSW Legislative Council inquiry she cited research showing that often, when elder abuse was reported to police, older complainants were not considered "good witnesses for reasons of frailty, senility, poor memory or lack of understanding of the legal system".
Kerry Marshall believes elder abuse is still a grey area for even well-educated practitioners, from GPs to home-care services, and that education is essential. "The person coming in to shower an older person, or vacuum the floor - they need to be the ones watching out," Ms Marshall told the NSW inquiry. Superintendent Rob Critchlow believes the wider community also needs to be aware of the issue.
"Just say hello to your neighbours. The more people say g'day and know what's happening in their neighbourhood the less likely these problems are going to develop."
NSW Elder Abuse Helpline: 1800 628 221.
Elder abuse: the facts
" Research suggests that about 5 per cent of elderly Australians are victims of elder abuse every year.
" Elder abuse can include financial abuse (31 per cent), physical (12 per cent), psychological (39 per cent), sexual (1 per cent) or neglect (17 per cent), based on calls to the NSW Elder Abuse Helpline.
" Elder abuse is defined as abuse of an older person in a relationship based on trust.
" Financial abuse can include a person in a position of trust abusing a power of attorney or, in extreme cases, involve an elderly person signing over their assets as a result of undue coercion.
" In   July, Victoria's Royal Commission into Family Violence heard that in about 92 per cent of elder abuse cases, the abuser is a family member.
" 26 per cent of perpetrators are an adult son, 21 per cent are an adult daughter, and 12 per cent a spouse - NSW Elder Abuse Helpline.
" A total of $56.7 million in property and savings was misappropriated from 139 elder abuse victims in Queensland in the 2013/14 financial year - the Royal Commission into Family Violence.