Uniting Church’s damage control on Ashley Griffith abuse

The Uniting Church accused a whistleblowing manager of damaging its reputation for going to the media about Australia’s worst pedophile before pursuing a complaint against her with police.

Uniting Church childcare whistleblower Yolanda Borucki. Picture: David Murray

The Uniting Church accused a whistleblowing manager of damaging its reputation and future profitability for going to the media about Australia’s worst pedophile, Ashley Paul Griffith, before pursuing a complaint against her with police.

A leaked “show cause” notice sent to the church’s early learning operations manager, Yolanda Borucki, accuses her of likely causing “significant reputational damage” and “significant damage to ongoing profitability” for emailing confidential and sensitive information to a journalist at Nine Network’s A Current Affair.

Eleven days after the notice, acting on a complaint from the church, police raided Ms Borucki’s home on Brisbane’s bayside, seized her phones and devices and charged her with computer hacking for allegedly using a restricted computer without the church’s consent.

Australia’s worst pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith has pleaded guilty to 307 charges.

Ms Borucki, 60, was charged despite still being employed by the church when she allegedly ­accessed the ­information, and having possession of her work phone, computer and car and the ability to log into her emails. The grandmother allegedly used her work email and a work device to forward the ­material.

Queensland police were declining to answer questions about past complaints against Griffith when Ms Borucki appeared on the national television program in August last year. She revealed that in October 2021 a co-worker at a Uniting Church childcare centre in Brisbane reported stumbling across Griffith leaning over a sleeping girl in an outdoor fort, “basically kissing her”. Police and the church cleared Griffith and dismissed the complaint.

Griffith went on to rape another little girl from the same centre in his final week there after being told his position was being made redundant, court records indicate. Subsequently, he abused three more girls at other centres before his arrest in an unrelated police investigation in August 2022. The Uniting Church has said it is “deeply saddened and sorry that harm was done at one of our facilities”.

A mother has also alleged Queensland police dismissed her April 2022 complaint after her three-year-old daughter told her that “Ashley touched my privates” at a different Brisbane daycare centre run by the Anglican Church. At least two girls were abused after that complaint, Griffith’s charges reveal.

Police maintain that in both complaints there was insufficient evidence to establish an offence occurred.

Australian Federal Police officers re-examined child abuse images and videos seized in 2014 by Queensland counterparts and traced bedsheets visible in the background to a Brisbane childcare centre, and then to Griffith.

Searches of his phones, cameras and computers uncovered 4000 child abuse images he had created.

With Griffith in custody, a year-long effort ensued to locate all the victims in his footage. Federal and state police jointly announced on August 1, 2023, that they had evidence a childcare worker, Griffith, had abused 91 girls in daycare centres in Brisbane, Sydney and Italy between 2007 and 2022. At the initial media conference, Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Justine Gough said the AFP “had no information from parents or any other person prior to this man being arrested and charged”. Queensland Police Service Acting Assistant Commissioner Col Briggs said at the same news conference that the accused childcare worker was the subject of two reports investigated by state police in 2021 and 2022.

An internal review “confirmed that the matters were appropriately investigated, that there was insufficient evidence available to investigators to take action against any person at that time, and they were conducted in accordance with QPS policy”, Mr Briggs said.

Asked who made the reports, he said that “as some of those matters are before the court, I won’t go into details”.

Ms Borucki’s position was made redundant on July 31 last year, a day before the police announcement. She was told her last working day was August 11 and that she could apply for an area manager’s position in Townsville in north Queensland, The Weekend Australian understands.

On August 4, the church’s early learning general manager Belinda Briggs issued Ms Borucki with a show cause letter sighted by The Weekend Australian.

“It has come to our attention that on the 3rd of August 2023 you have deliberately behaved in a way that is inconsistent with continuing your employment,” the letter stated. “I have evidence to support the allegation that you have emailed highly confidential and sensitive information regarding the (child care centre) investigation to A Current Affair news reporter, Mr Daniel Nolan. It is further alleged that this was a deliberate attempt to cause irreparable reputational damage to Uniting Early Learning.”

Ms Borucki was also accused in the letter of “causing serious and imminent risk to the health and safety” of all current and past employees and families.

“These issues are of major concern and have put into serious question your suitability as Head of Operations Uniting Early Learning with the Queensland Synod,” the letter added.

She was stood down on pay for two days to prepare a response to why her employment should not be terminated. That night, A Current Affair aired an interview with Ms Borucki.

As one of the people who had to manage the church’s response to the horrific revelations about Griffith, she felt some parents blamed her for not preventing the abuse. She has said she spoke out to make it clear there were efforts to raise the alarm about Griffith.

“We didn’t keep quiet, we (have) been very clear something is wrong but no one (had) done anything about it,” she said.

A police statement said: “QPS received a complaint of computer hacking in August 2023. Sufficient information existed … for a magistrate to be satisfied to issue the warrant which was executed by QPS. As the matter remains before the courts it would be in­appropriate to provide further comment.”

Uniting Church Queensland executive director Mike Folland said on Friday it would be inappropriate to comment “as this matter is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings and in consideration of those involved”.

He added: “We reaffirm our commitment to the safety and protection of children and young people in our care and those most vulnerable in our community. This remains our No.1 ­priority.”

Approached at her home this week, Ms Borucki declined to comment, citing legal advice.

Defence lawyer Jason Murakami, who is representing her pro bono, said outside court after her first appearance there were “real questions in relation to the charges”.

Griffith, 46, this month pleaded guilty in Brisbane’s District Court to 307 charges dating to 2003 and is awaiting sentencing.

The state opposition said on Wednesday that if elected it would order the Queensland Family and Child Commissioner to investigate how Griffith was able to abuse children for almost two full decades.