HER life has been turned upside-down. The victim of an alleged serious sexual assault, the young woman has been forced to leave her home, give up her friends, and start anew.

Her alleged attacker has not even been put on the sex offenders' register. Neither victim nor alleged perpetrator has received anything like the support most Scots would demand as a right.

The reason? "It's because they're disabled, " said the mother of the victim yesterday.

The Herald has decided not to name either of them. Both, until this summer, were residents of Camphill Blair Drummond, a pioneering centre for disabled young adults in Stirlingshire, run by an independent charity and taking clients from across the country, usually funded by local authorities.

The alleged sexual assault of the young woman by the youth, late on June 30, 2006, has had a huge impact on the centre, which styles itself as "a community".

Camphill Blair Drummond remains, as revealed by The Herald last week, closed to new admissions pending the outcome of a report from the Care Commission, its watchdog, sparked by the alleged sexual assault and the way the case was handled.

Care workers at Blair Drummond did not phone the police until three days after the attack. They did not ring their manager when it happened, or tell the "coworker" or carer who was individually responsible for the victim.

According to an official minute taken of a meeting to discuss the incident, they failed to take action because "they had not wanted to make a big fuss at the time".

The minute is an official record taken of an emergency review meeting on the victim's future held at Camphill Blair Drummond on July 3, 2006, and attended by senior social and health workers, the police, the Care Commission, the victim's mother, and representatives of the centre itself. It details what is believed to have happened that evening, according to Blair Drummond's "community leader", Hazel Brown, and a male care worker identified only as Robert.

The minute reads: "Hazel stated that the male student involved. . . had been out of the house on Friday evening. When he returned to the house [the victim] was in bed. Robert, the support worker on duty in the house saw that [the youth] wasn't in his room and went to look for him.

"At about 11.30pm, he heard noises coming from [the victim's] room and entered. Robert found [the youth] with [the victim] on his lap. Both residents were naked and there was an unopened condom beside them. Robert and the duty house leader on shift sent [the youth] to his room; a female support worker took [the victim] to the toilet then to bed.

"By the time Robert had filed the incident report and other paperwork, it was 2.30am and he did not feel it was necessary to alert Hazel until first thing in the morning. Robert waited until 7am to inform Hazel. . . Hazel rang the police on Monday morning at 9.15am."

The victim, her mother stressed last night, has no experience of sex and would be unable to give her consent or to resist. "She just indicated she had been kissed and then pointed to her genitals and breasts. . . then she started crying, " the mother said.

The young man had been out that night. Care workers had taken him for a drink. At the meeting set up to discuss the incident, a senior social worker asked Ms Brown if the alleged perpetrator had been drunk. The minute reads: "Hazel responded that [the youth] was known to have had a few drinks. . . and is allowed three beers in an evening."

Another social worker, the minute said, asked "if anyone thought of letting police gather forensic evidence when the incident happened. Hazel stated that it was very late when the incident happened."

Ms Brown also added that she and Robert "thought it was only a potential incident". She then added "that it was felt that this was a serious situation" and that Robert had stayed awake all night.

Two weeks after the incident, all the parents of young people at Camphill Blair Drummond were sent a letter from the community, signed by Gordon Venters, the then chairman of the centre's council of management.

Mr Venters no longer appeared to share the view of Ms Brown that the offence was "only a potential incident".

He wrote: "Concerns have been expressed by Stirling Council regarding how the incident was managed by staff. We believe that the diligence of the staff at the time prevented a more serious occurrence."

The alleged attacker was asked to leave Blair Drummond. He was eventually charged with sexual assault.

The procurator-fiscal, however, has told the victim's mother in a letter that the Crown Office is not currently pursuing a prosecution due to "insufficient evidence at this time to take proceedings". The case remains open.

That does not help the victim or her mother, who is now trying to cope with a full-time job and a severely handicapped daughter at home. "We have taken her away, " the 60-year-old woman said last night. "The whole thing has been devastating for her. We really liked Camphill, it was a wonderful place for her and she had been there for so many years. I feel sorry for everybody involved. I feel dreadful for the boy's parents. Our daughter has been let down by Camphill, but so has he.

"What was done was done. It was how it was dealt with that I will have to live with forever. They failed my daughter. They dehumanised her. They treated her like a rag doll."

The mother now wants a full inquiry and is considering legal action. She has been given a sympathetic ear by her MSP, Jackie Baillie of Dumbarton.

Ms Baillie said yesterday: "Based on what I have seen, there seems to have been a serious catalogue of errors. I would like to see a robust investigation by the Care Commission."

Mr Venters retired in the summer and the community's new chairwoman has told The Herald she expects a moratorium on new referrals to be lifted.

Helen Munro, a former senior official with Stirling Council, said workers had been retrained since the incident. "Staff took a wrong decision not to phone the police, " she said. "It has now been drummed into them that the first thing they do is dial 999.

"This is the kind of incident that nobody wants to see happen. Everybody is a victim. The parents are victims. Everybody is hurt."

Mrs Munro denied that she had been brought in to sort out Camphill Blair Drummond, which, like 10 other communities across Scotland, is autonomous.

Most parents, she said, were still very happy with the service available at the community, which is based in a stately home next to Scotland's only safari park. There are, however, Mrs Munro acknowledged, some families who are not satisfied. Several have contacted The Herald in recent days.

One couple, Sue and Bill Gutteridge, last night said the alleged sexual assault and its aftermath was "symptomatic of the whole culture at Blair Drummond".

They, and other parents, have made a raft of complaints about the community. Mrs Gutteridge, herself a professional in the caring sector, has strong views on the failure of staff to phone the police after the June incident. It was, she said, "inexcusable negligence".