Two little girls key to exposing accused pedophile

The case against a childcare worker accused of being one of Australia’s worst pedophiles started with charges over the abuse of two girls.

Police allege the 45-year-old man raped and sexually abused 91 girls at 10 child care centres in Brisbane, one in NSW and one overseas over a period of more than 15 years.

The case against a childcare worker accused of being one of Australia’s worst pedophiles started with charges over the abuse of two little girls referred to in court documents only as Victim 1 and Victim 2.

Court records obtained by The Australian reveal the man, now 45, was charged last August with two counts of making child ­exploitation material with the two girls.

The location of the alleged offences is listed as a childcare centre in Brisbane’s southwest. He faced a third charge at the time of distributing child abuse material.

Australian Federal Police victim identification experts examining child-abuse images and videos shared on the dark web in 2013 and 2014 were last year able to trace bedsheets visible in the background to the Brisbane childcare centre, identifying the man as the alleged offender.

Investigations rapidly expanded after these initial charges, with police allegedly discovering the childcare worker had a trove of child-abuse material recorded over the previous 15 years.

Police this week alleged the man raped and sexually abused 91 girls at 10 childcare centres in Brisbane, one in NSW and one overseas from 2007 to 2022.

The man is not yet able to be identified under Queensland laws but that will change under retrospective laws expected to pass state parliament as early as this month.

Currently, state laws protect the identity of people charged with ­serious sexual offences until they are committed to stand trial.

Under a bill introduced in May by ­Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath , the media will be allowed to name accused rapists when they are charged with a crime.

As new details continue to emerge, a person claiming to be a mother of one of the alleged victims said she had seen no red flags indicating abuse. Her daughter would run up to the childcare worker and “exclaim his name and express excitement at all they would do that day”, she said.

“I felt so reassured knowing my baby was cared for,” she wrote in an anonymous Facebook post on a Brisbane mothers’ group.

“This individual befriended us and appeared to be child-centred in his approach to early learning.

“He … indulged the children in exceptional play-based learning strategies that had everyone impressed. He loved art and would encourage the kids to express themselves using any media they could find.”

However, she added, the man had abruptly left the centre.

“It was six months later that we would be contacted by the AFP to identify stills of our daughters from videos where he was (allegedly) abusing them,” she wrote in the post, obtained by The Courier-Mail.

She criticised the secrecy that allowed the man to continue working in childcare after two reports had been made to Queensland police about him in 2021 and last year. Police said the reports were investigated but there was insufficient evidence for action.

“When I asked our childcare centre why we were not advised about the 2021 report, the very dismissive reply suggested that the centre could not appear discriminatory against the individual by advising parents, for it was imperative they retained his right to confidentiality,” the mother wrote.

“How dare these centres make those choices for us, hiding the truth and keeping us in the dark.”

The comments were unable to be verified.

Questions have been raised about how the man was able to keep his Blue Card to work with children in Queensland, despite two reports to police about him. His Blue Card was suspended only after the AFP later charged him.

Ms D’Ath sought urgent briefings on the issue and had been told that “Blue Card Services acted appropriately”.

Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli blasted the Queensland government for failing to implement all recommendations from a 2017 review into the state’s Blue Card system.

The review, ordered after schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer was murdered by her stepfather in 2015, recommended the state government strengthen working with children checks.

“There were 81 recommen­dations in that report; six years on, only 28 have been implemented,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“If you can’t keep children safe, that is a fundamental breach of trust for any state government.”

Of the 81 recommendations, 28 are complete, 48 are in progress and five have not begun.

Ms D’Ath said Queensland would work closely with NSW and other states “to ensure we do everything we can to strengthen laws and procedures when it comes to protecting children in this country”.

“So far, 95 per cent of the recommendations from the Queensland Family and Child Commission Blue Card Review Report have been completed or are in progress, with some dependent on the implementation of other recommendations and/or other government initiatives at the national and state level,” she said in a statement.

“To say this government hasn’t acted to strengthen child safety is inaccurate.”

Education Minister Grace Grace said the government would “do what we can … to ensure this never happens again”.

Handwritten notes on court records indicate the man had sought Legal Aid and was refused. He has been remanded in custody since his first court appearance.