Police spelling error missed link to prolific paedophile
A spelling error by Queensland police prevented them from linking a 2009 complaint against Ashley Paul Griffith to his arrest on 300 child sex offences.
A complaint made against Australia’s worst pedophile in 2009 could not be linked back to him because police spelt his name wrong in the report.
The staggering spelling error was revealed as part of the government’s Blue Card review, sparked by Ashley Paul Griffith’s offending.
Griffith was flagged by a parent 13 years before his 2022 arrest after her child described alarming incidents of sexual abuse at the hands her male educator.
But police did not connect that the educator named “Ashley” was the same prolific offender they arrested in 2022 on more than 300 child sex offences until the parent who first made the complaint saw the publicity and contacted police.
It was at then that the error in recording “Ashleigh” instead of “Ashley” was identified.
The typo was one of several failures by law enforcement exposed in the scathing review released on Monday analysing how Griffith was able to abuse little girls over two decades.
Leading child safety advocate Hetty Johnston said she was disappointed in the way police managed complaints made against Griffith.
“I’m sure they’re not proud of it,” she said.
“Our children are being failed by the law every day, every hour.
“It’s needs to be checked and doubled checked, it’s infuriating, because at the end of the day it’s children’s lives at stake.”
In October 2009 the parent told Queensland police their child had told her an educator at the centre named Ashley would hurt them when changing a nappy, and went on to describe explicit details of sexual abuse.
The report noted police did not interview the child until a month later, which may have impacted the victim’s memory of the events.
Police made the decision to file the complaint pending any new information.
Then in 2022, police discovered Griffith was recorded on the QPRIME database as “Ashleigh” despite the written complaint spelling it as “Ashley”.
“This prevented other officers from being able to consider patterns of behaviour and draw connections between different incidents where future complaints about the offender were made,” the report stated.
Police did not visit the childcare centre to interview the offender or other staff, which the report said was an outcome-defining event.
An external review commissioned by police after Griffith’s arrest noted there were “obvious deficiencies” in police responses which had negative flow-on effects to identify the offender.
Ms Johnston said a key recommendation would be improving responses by following the models of the Child Advocacy Centre.
Meanwhile, the report also revealed online predators are outpacing police by hiding behind advanced and up-to-date technology, while law enforcement lags two or three years behind.
Police child protection investigation units and Taskforce ARGOS were also severely understaffed, the report said.
A Queensland Police Service spokesman said the agency would consider the report in detail and any recommendations that apply to police.
