A Gold Coast man formerly employed at a Brisbane childcare centre has been charged with 1,623 child sex offences against 91 children. Image: Miguel Á. Padriñán via Pexels
A Gold Coast man formerly employed at a Brisbane childcare centre has been charged with 1,623 child sex offences against 91 children allegedly committed between 2007 and 2022.
The alleged offences, committed in Brisbane, Sydney and overseas, include 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 years of age.
On August 20 of last year, a joint investigation involving the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Queensland and New South Wales led to the arrest of the man.
A search conducted at his Gold Coast home resulted in the seizure of devices containing a large amount of child abuse material.
The man was arrested the following day and has been in custody in Queensland since August 2022.
An official media release from AFP revealed further details of the case.
“The AFP alleges the man recorded his offending on phones and cameras while working in 10 childcare centres in Brisbane between 2007 to 2013, and 2018 to 2022; an overseas location in 2013 and 2014; and one centre in Sydney between 2014 and 2017. All the children allegedly offended against were pre-pubescent girls. The man worked at other childcare centres but the AFP is highly-confident the man did not allegedly offend at those centres.
“The AFP is also highly-confident that all 87 Australian children who were recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been identified. The AFP believes the man recorded all his alleged offending.”
The AFP said that the childcare centres would not be named in order to protect the identities of the victims.
“I can assure members of the Australian public that if you have not been contacted by law enforcement, it is extremely unlikely your child was allegedly offended against by the man.
“The AFP is highly-confident that all the Australian children who were recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been identified.”
Efforts are underway between AFP and international authorities to identify four children appearing in the alleged child abuse material recorded overseas.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said that ongoing support would be provided by the AFP and other agencies to the victims and their families.
“This is a distressing time for families, carers and the community broadly,” said Gough.
“We know this type of news can re-traumatise survivors of sexual abuse, and, please, I urge those survivors to seek support, or talk to a trusted network, if today’s news has caused distress.”
