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In one of the most shocking cases of child abuse possibly ever reported in Australia, a former childcare worker has been charged with more than 1,600 offences. The charges include rape, against 91 girls, at a dozen early learning centres in Brisbane and Sydney, and overseas. The offences allegedly span 15 years.
The horrific offences only came to light when police raided the 45-year-old’s Gold Coast home in 2022. The raid was the culmination of a seven-year investigation, tracking down video material discovered on the dark web in 2014.
He was arrested in August 2022, with police then allegedly discovering a hard drive filled with child abuse material of young girls while executing warrants at his home and other addresses.
The Australian federal police assistant commissioner Justine Gough described the alleged offending as “deeply distressing” and “unfathomable”.
That’s something of an understatement. The charge sheet frankly beggars belief.
The man is now facing 1,623 child abuse charges, including 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10, alleged to have taken place from 2007 to 2022.
The AFP alleges the offending took place in 10 childcare centres in Brisbane between 2007 and 2013, and 2018 and 2022; an overseas location in 2013 and 2014; and one centre in Sydney between 2014 and 2017. The man worked at other childcare centres but the AFP have confirmed that there is no allegation the man offended at those centres.
Gough said officers were confident all 87 Australian girls recorded in the alleged child abuse material had been identified, and their parents informed. Some of the alleged victims are now over 18. The AFP believes the man – who had the required childcare qualifications – recorded all his alleged offending.
The Guardian
The first child abuse images and videos were found on the dark web in 2014 by Queensland police. What followed was seven-years of grim detective work withe Australian Federal Police and an international victim identification database. But the obviously prolific offender went to great lengths to conceal identifying markers in the material.
To their credit, though, police were even more assiduous in tracking down the offender.
“In September 2022, the AFP coordinated a joint agency task force with the Queensland Police Service at the AFP led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation to review nearly 4,000 images and videos the man had allegedly created,” she said […] but they contained few distinguishable clues for investigators to follow.
But the long and dogged police work finally paid off.
“But in August 2022, the AFP was able to trace objects identified in the background of the alleged images and videos posted on the dark web between 2013 and 2014, to a Brisbane childcare centre,” Assistant Commissioner Gough said.
“Following inquiries with the childcare centre, the AFP executed a search warrant on the 28th of August 2022 in Brisbane, and arrested the man in Brisbane’s south-western suburbs about 1am on the 21st of August.
“He was charged with making and distributing child abuse material that was allegedly posted on the dark web.”
The AFP then searched the man’s Gold Coast home and seized electronic devices allegedly containing child abuse material created by the man.
ABC Australia
What they found was a paedophile house of horrors.
“Given there were so many alleged images and videos of children recorded over 15 years on the alleged offender’s devices, the process of identification took time, skill and determination,” Gough said.
“While I am extremely proud of law enforcement’s persistence, and their unwavering dedication to identify this alleged offender and stop further abuse, this is chilling news.”
Gough paid tribute to the work of skilled specialist childcare investigators who managed to identify the alleged victims and perpetrator despite “few distinguishable clues for investigators to follow”.
The Guardian
The charges in Queensland are only the beginning of the long road to justice this monster faces.
The New South Wales police assistant commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said the man would also face more than 100 charges in NSW.
“Once this man faces the AFP charges in Queensland, we will be seeking to extradite him to Sydney to face the full force of the law in NSW,” he said.
Fitzgerald said the NSW police would not call a single victim witness to prosecute the case, saving the victims from being retraumatised.
ABC Australia
Police are still working with international agencies to try and identify at least four victims who were abused overseas.
