By Perry Duffin
A Sydney childcare worker has been charged with abusing children, allegedly using them to create horrific content, but a court order prevents his identity from being revealed.
The man, who cannot be named under court order, was charged with seven counts of using a child to make abusive material – three counts were aggravated.
A Sydney childcare worker has been charged with using children to make abuse material.Credit: SMH
He was also charged with possessing child abuse data through a phone.
The man fronted Parramatta Local Court on Friday after being arrested by Australian Federal Police on Thursday, 10 News+ reported.
Police had previously seized his electronic devices and arrested the married father at his own home.
He worked at an early childcare centre in Sydney, but it cannot be identified because a court order was put in place to prevent “psychological harm” to his alleged victims – including those yet to be identified by detectives.
The AFP, in a statement, said they charged the Sydney man as part of an investigation into online child abuse material.
“The man came to police attention after the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received a report regarding an online user who had allegedly uploaded child abuse material files to a cloud platform,” the AFP statement reads.
“There is no ongoing threat to the community.”
The man did not apply for bail, and it was formally refused on Thursday.
He will remain in custody at least until his next court appearance in September.
The arrest comes one week after Joshua Dale Brown, 26, was identified as a childcare worker accused of abusing eight children in his care at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, Victoria.
Brown was arrested on May 12 after allegedly being linked to a cache of child abuse material.
His alleged victims are aged between five months and two years old, and Brown was charged with more than 70 offences.
He had worked across 20 Melbourne childcare centres since 2017, and Victoria’s Health Department recommended sexual disease tests for 1200 children as part of the investigation.
A second man, Michael Simon Wilson, was also charged as part of the same investigation; his case involved different alleged child victims and no childcare centres.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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