Sydney
Australia Police charged a former childcare worker with more than 1,600 offences, including sexually abusing 91 children. According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the 45-year-old man committed the crimes at 10 child care centres in Queensland and one each in New South Wales and another country. AFP said the accused targeted girls over the age of 15. He has 246 cases of rape and 673 cases of sexual assault against children.
The maximum punishment is life imprisonment. He is also accused of filming and distributing child abuse material. Police have found 4,000 images and videos on his electronic device and also allege that he recorded all his crimes. Addressing the media on Tuesday, AFP commissioner Justin Gough said: “What this man did to these children is beyond imagination. This is a terrible case.”
The 87 Australian children who were allegedly sexually abused, some now adults, have been identified and their families contacted. Australian authorities are now working with their international counterparts to contact the other four alleged victims. AFP executed a search warrant in Brisbane Center on August 20, 2022, before also searching the man’s Gold Coast home and seizing an electronic device containing child abuse material allegedly made by him. Police say he was reported to police in Queensland twice before, in 2021 and 2022, but investigators found insufficient evidence to act. The man will appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 21 August.
