Ex-doctor on child grooming charges worked at Churchie
A former boarding house tutor at Brisbane's Churchie school is facing more than 100 charges including for child grooming offences that allegedly occurred after he left the college.
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A former doctor facing multiple child grooming charges was previously employed at one of Brisbane’s most prestigious boys’ schools.
Joseph Lee Smith, 47, was a boarding house tutor at Anglican Church Grammar School and lived on campus in the mid-2000s while completing his medical degree.
The new charges do not relate to his time at the school.
Smith, who went on to work at Mater Children’s Hospital, is due to appear in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court today on 41 counts of grooming a child under 16 and eight counts of using the internet to procure a child under 16.
He also faces 56 charges of failing to comply with reporting obligations relating to unconnected criminal matters.
Smith was arrested in his Toowoomba home in September 2019 and has been in custody since that time.
A spokesperson for the Anglican Church Southern Queensland, which governs Churchie, confirmed Smith was a boarding house tutor, along with other undergraduate students, and left in 2006.
“There have never been any claims or allegations about Smith during his time at Churchie.
“We were not aware of his alleged offences until well after that time,” the spokesperson said.
Within months of leaving Churchie 15 years ago, Smith was cleared in a criminal history check by Queensland Health.
He began working at Nambour Hospital in January 2007 and a year later moved to the Mater Children’s Hospital.
He is no longer licensed to practise medicine.
In 2016 Smith began studying mechanical engineering at the University of Southern Queensland, and his LinkedIn profile says he is an intern at the Centre for Agricultural Engineering.
It also says he is a co-secretary of Engineers Australia, completed a public speaking course in 2016, and from 2017-2018 was an active member of the USQ engineering and surveying club where he participated in club promotion at university open days.
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