(AFP) – A former childcare worker has been charged with more than 1,600 child abuse offences – including rape – against 91 young girls at a dozen early learning centres in Brisbane, Sydney and overseas over a 15-year period.
Police say they became aware of the 45-year-old Gold Coast childcare worker’s alleged offending after recently identifying video 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”.
According to Guardian news report, 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.
