Teacher aide Boden Reece Ashworth in court for alleged indecent treatment

A Sunshine Coast prep teacher aide has faced court after a search of his phone allegedly unearthed indecent images taken of students while they used the toilet.

Boden Reece Ashworth has been granted bail after he was charged with photographing students’ genitals.

A Sunshine Coast prep teacher aide has been granted bail after he was charged with photographing students’ genitals.

Boden Reece Ashworth, 25, was charged with five counts of indecent treatment of children under 12 and possessing child exploitation material.

Court documents state Mr Ashworth was employed by Education Queensland as a teacher aide at the time of the offences and was the current holder of a Blue Card.

Since July, 2022, Mr Ashworth worked full-time four days a week at one primary school and one day a week at another school.

Mr Ashworth had also worked on a casual basis at a third primary school and was employed at an After School Care program from November, 2021 to July, 2022.

He was also employed by the Caloundra RSL in the child minding ‘cosmic cave’ from April, 2018 to November, 2021 – it is not suggested that any of the alleged offences occurred at the RSL – and he had been undertaking babysitting duties for families within the Baringa area.

Police searched Mr Ashworth’s house in Baringa after they were notified by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children that he had allegedly uploaded a child exploitation material file to his Google Drive.

Detectives from the Caloundra Child Protection and Investigation Unit seized his tablet and mobile phone during the search on October 25, 2022.

“The defendant denied possessing child exploitation material, accessing child exploitation material or having any sexual interest in children,” court documents state.

An investigation of Mr Ashworth’s mobile phone found an application called Photo Vault that was passcode protected and allegedly contained child exploitation material.

As stated in court documents, a review of the material allegedly revealed a number of images of young children in school uniform using toilet facilities with genitals exposed.

The images also included the groin area of children taken under a desk and images of children sitting down with a view up their school shorts.

“Further images were located of young children in swimwear and casual clothing which were centred around their groin and bottom areas,” documents state.

“A review of the school uniforms worn by these children revealed that the students were from (a school) where the defendant was employed as a teacher aide.”

Court documents said police worked with administration at the school to assist in identifying the students captured in the images, which confirmed that the children are current students who have engaged with Mr Ashworth through their schooling.

“A review of inside the toilet block also matched the background contained within the images,” documents state.

Boden Reece Ashworth has been granted bail after he was charged with photographing students’ genitals.

Court documents stated Mr Ashworth had allegedly “crafted a profession that gave him unfettered access to children without parental oversight”.

“(His profession) enabled him to have one on one access with young children who would at times be unaware that they were being (allegedly) offended against and garnered the trust of parents and teachers to allow him to have that access,” documents stated.

The parents of the children who have been identified have been contacted by detectives and became emotional after realising their child was the subject of the allegations, the documents said.

The school community had also been advised that an employee had been stood down and charged regarding child sexual offences.

“This has caused consternation for a large number of families who have children attending both the school and the after school care program,” documents state.

“The anxiety caused to a large school community is based around the unknown of whether their child has been subject to (alleged) offending by the defendant.”

Mr Ashworth appeared in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on November 9, 2022, via video link from the watch house and defence solicitor Kylie Anderson applied for bail on his behalf.

Ms Anderson said her client could stay at an address where no children would be living.

Magistrate Rod Madsen released Mr Ashworth on bail on a range of conditions including that he not approach any education facilities where there may be children under 16, wear a tracking device, have no contact with children under 16 and not have access to the internet except for banking and Centrelink purposes.

The matter was adjourned to February 3, 2022.