Childcare predator kept digital files on young victims

A childcare worker accused of being one of Australia’s worst pedophiles allegedly kept a catalogue of individual files containing images and videos of each of his young victims.

Child protection campaigner Hetty Johnston has called for an inquiry into how a childcare worker could allegedly sexually abuse 91 girls over 15 years.

A childcare worker accused of being one of Australia’s worst ­pedophiles allegedly kept a digital library of individual files containing images and videos of each of his young victims.

The 45-year-old Gold Coast man, who is alleged to have preyed on 91 young girls across childcare centres in Queensland, NSW and overseas, was meticulous in cataloguing the recordings of his abuse on files, which were labelled with the victim’s names or nicknames.

Multiple sources have told The Weekend Australian that the trove of images helped police investigators rapidly track down his alleged victims since his arrest in August last year.

The scale of offending has shocked experienced police, child protection advocates and government, and has raised serious questions about the vetting of childcare workers and the supervision of children in daycare.

It is at least the third major case of a childcare worker being arrested on child abuse charges in as many years, and childcare centres across the country are now being slapped with strict new rules in ­response.

Child protection campaigner Hetty Johnston said a commission of inquiry was needed.

She said she had been told that Queensland police had failed to check the alleged offender’s mobile phone after they had received two reports about him in 2021 and 2022.

Queensland police this week said there had been insufficient evidence to take action against any person at the time.

Ms Johnston said she was “outraged” to learn that childcare regulators who oversee the blue card vetting scheme had not been notified by police about the reports.

“It’s a disgrace. We need answers,” Ms Johnston said.

The man was tracked down and stopped only after Australian Federal Police investigators last year traced bedsheets that were pictured in the background of ­horrific images and videos he had posted on the dark web between 2013 and 2014 to a Brisbane childcare centre.

The former childcare worker has been charged with 1623 child abuse offences, including 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10. The charges against the man involved 87 child victims from Australia, and four overseas.

Childcare worker Bronte John Ciracovitch was jailed for 14 years for child abuse.

Police allege the man recorded his offending on phones and ­cameras while working in Brisbane childcare centres between 2007 and 2013, an overseas ­location in 2013 and 2014, the Sydney centre between 2014 and 2017, and again in Brisbane between 2018 and 2022.

“What will be alleged is that he kept a catalogue of files of each of the victims with their names or nicknames,’’ one senior police source said.

The suspect – who holds tertiary science and education qualifications – cannot be named under Queensland laws, and police have so far refused to name the centres where the abuse is alleged to have occurred.

After police discovered the record of alleged abuse, the AFP secretly briefed federal Education Minister Jason Clare, who immediately ordered a national review of child safety last October.

Childcare regulator the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority told childcare operators in July that they must report any allegations of sexual or physical abuse of a child within seven days.

Operators must also notify ACECQA of “any incident where you reasonably believe that ­physical and/or sexual abuse of a child has occurred or is occurring at the service’’ and that centres “regularly review’’ checks on staff.

Federal, state and territory ministers ordered the regulatory review of child safety regulations at a meeting in March.

ACECQA said it had identified “a number of gaps” that would be dealt with through updated rules from October 1.

“This includes matters relating to improving record keeping for volunteer staff, and ensuring family day care co-ordinators undertake pre-employment and annual child protection training,’’ an ACECQA spokeswoman said on Friday.

ACECQA documents sent to childcare centres in the past month reveal they must provide “safe online environments’’, relating to iphones, ipads, and cameras.