Uniting Church blasted in court over pursuit of alleged childcare pedophile whistleblower
The Uniting Church has been savaged for complaining to police about a whistleblower accused of leaking information about one of Australia’s worst child sex offenders to the media.
Police & Courts
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A top Queensland silk has savaged the Uniting Church for pursuing a charge against a whistleblower accused of leaking sensitive information about one of Australia’s worst child sex offenders to the media.
Monster pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith is set to be sentenced later this week for the abuse and rape of dozens of little girls inside Queensland childcare centres – the majority being in Brisbane – from 2003 to 2022.
Prior to his arrest last year Griffith was accused of kissing a young girl at a Uniting Church childcare centre in Queensland, but not only were there no charges, he was “welcomed back” by the centre with minimal restrictions.
Former Uniting Church childcare worker Yolanda Maria Borucki, 60, is accused of tipping-off Nine’s A Current Affair in August 2023 that she had helped report Griffith, who was her colleague at the time, to Queensland police in 2021 over the incident.
It is alleged that Ms Borucki leaked sensitive information – including the Uniting Church’s internal investigation report into the incident – to the TV news program via email in the days before she officially finished her employment with the church.
At a hearing in Brisbane Magistrates Court this week Ms Borucki is fighting a single charge of use restricted computer without consent and cause detriment.
In his closing address defence barrister Patrick McCafferty, KC, questioned the Uniting Church’s motives in complaining to police about his client.
“Perhaps it’s a feeble attempt at reputation management to distract attention away from permitting Griffith to work with children,” he said.
“It’s difficult not to form the view that the Uniting Church has persisted with this charge because of the abject humiliation it suffered by reason of what can only have been either a fundamentally flawed or an inadequate internal investigation into Ashley Griffith a pedophile it employed.
“That investigation enabled Griffith to continue to work with children. It permitted Griffith to return to work subject to mild conditions, including he be required to review two policies, one of which was called the relationships with children policy.
“Not simply ironic, the prosecution in this case seek to hold Ms Borucki criminally liable for an apparent breach of Uniting Church policy, it’s brazen hypocrisy in the circumstances.”
Mr McCafferty said the prosecution had failed to prove every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt and the charge must be dismissed. He said the computer his client allegedly used was not a restricted computer at the relevant time and the prosecution failed to prove she did not have consent.
He said the Uniting Church policy regarding confidentiality that his client allegedly breached was “so hopelessly vague it would be unenforceable” even in a civil proceeding.
“(This) proceeding is not a civil case, a policy cannot be the foundation for criminal liability,” he said.
Police prosecutor Bimal Raut by contrast said every element of the offence had been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
He said the court had heard from several witnesses who testified to seeing 17 emails sent from Ms Borucki’s work email account to a private one and several emails sent to Nine. Mr Raut said the report into Griffith’s kissing a child at the centre had been attached to an email and included children’s names.
Mr Raut said any defence available under the legislation was not open to Ms Borucki in the circumstances.
“She was never allowed to use (the computer) to send emails to private email or to Channel 9. There’s no exception,” he said.
Magistrate Kerrie O’Callaghan reserved her decision to December 20.
Griffith, 46, who has remained behind bars since his arrest in August 2023, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court in September to 307 child sexual offences.
The content summaries were created with the assistance of AI technology, then edited and approved for publication by an editor.
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