A charity worker on Tuesday discovered a 16-year-old boy with severe autism chained to a bed while his 38-year old mother was out shopping. But a leading autism awareness campaigner has stepped forward to ask that the mother of the boy be shown compassion.

CEO of the non-profit organisation, the Autism Awareness Australia, Nicole Rogerson said that though there are no excuses for restraining and abusing autistic individuals, parents of such children can at times reach a breaking point where they end up abusing their own children. She even suspects that there are many other similar cases in Australia where parents have been forced to restrain their autistic children.

"My initial reaction was that I was just horrified, but I wasn't surprised," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Rogerson as saying. "There are some families that are absolutely at breaking point, and whilst I do not condone it in any way -- abuse and restraint of an individual with autism is just never OK -- I'm not going to pretend like we don't understand how these things occur.”

She added, "I suspect there are parents who have no clue how to manage a child with autism and they get themselves into situations which are abusive, which is terrible."

The teenager, who cannot talk and has some developmental problems, was reportedly calling out for water when he was discovered. He reportedly has a tendency to run away from home.

Paramedics and police arrived at the small brick home where the teenager lived with his mother and other siblings and freed him before moving him out of the house on a stretcher. The mother was arrested when she returned at 12:30 p.m.

The woman was raising at least five children in Blacktown, NSW, while her husband lives in Africa.

A spokesperson for the Department of Family and Community Services said they would ensure the family receives necessary support.

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