Australian ex-care worker charged with over 1,600 child abuse offences against 91 children

‘This is one of the most horrific child abuse cases that I’ve seen in nearly 40 years of policing’

Representational image: 45-year-old childcare worker was initially charged and arrested for making child exploitation material (PA Wire)

A former childcare worker in Australia has been charged with more than 1,600 child abuse offences against 91 young girls at a dozen early learning centres in Brisbane, Sydney and overseas between 2007 and 2022, Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old Gold Coast childcare worker, who has not been identified by authorities yet, has been in police custody in Queensland state since August last year and was initially charged and arrested for making child exploitation material.

The man has now been charged with 136 counts of rape and at least 110 counts of forced sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10. He faces 1,623 child abuse charges for crimes committed over 15 years.

All survivors were said to be girls at the time of the crimes, with some now aged over 18 years.

The man has been accused of recording the offences on phones and cameras while working in 10 childcare centres in Brisbane between 2007 and 2013, as well as from 2018 to 2022, an overseas centre in 2013 and 2014, and one centre in Sydney between 2014 and 2017, the police said.

The offences are “deeply distressing” and “unfathomable”, Australian federal police assistant commissioner Justine Gough said.

“There is not much solace I can give parents and children who have been identified under Operation Tenterfield [police operation to find the accused and his alleged crimes], but I can tell you that we never gave up, and we never will when it comes to protecting children. This is a distressing time for families, carers and the community broadly,” she said.

The police officials said more self-produced child abuse material has been recovered on electronic devices purportedly owned by the man, after further investigations since his arrest last year.

“This is one of the most horrific child abuse cases that I’ve seen in nearly 40 years of policing,” New South Wales state police assistant commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said.

“It’s beyond the realms of anyone’s imagination what this person did to these children,” he said.

The police commissioner warned that once the accused faces the AFP’s charges in Queensland, they will try seeking to extradite him to Sydney and subject him to the full force of the law in New South Wales.

The AFP is working with international authorities to help identify four children recorded in alleged child abuse material created overseas, it said in a statement.

The case will be next heard in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 21 August.