Chris Minns looks to tighten child protection system after alleged abuse of 91 girls
Premier calls for greater collaboration between states after a childcare worker was charged with allegedly preying on 91 girls across NSW and Queensland.
NSW Premier Chirs Minns has called for greater collaboration and transparency between states and territories to strengthen protections for children in light of a childcare worker being charged for allegedly preying on 91 young girls across 15 years.
Mr Minns said Education Minister Prue Car would review whether there were any oversights in the child protection system that could be strengthened.
Information sharing between jurisdictions will also be examined to ensure any red flags in any sector are visible to other agencies interstate.
“This morning, thousands and thousands of families dropped their children off in childcare centres across NSW,” Mr Minns said in parliament on Wednesday.
“Walking through the gate, leaving your child in the care of another adult, is one of the biggest acts of trust a parent can undertake.
“But I want to reassure the community we are taking steps to look at any gaps in our system, and our regulations, to strengthen child protection in this state.”
NSW will seek an immediate meeting of federal and state education ministers to demand urgent progress on improving information sharing between jurisdictions. It will also seek to engage the Independent and Catholic sectors to ensure offenders cannot avoid detection by filtering between public and private systems.
Bedsheet clue led police to alleged abuser
A trusted childcare worker was only exposed as one of the nation’s most heinous paedophiles when investigators traced bed sheets seen in a horrific video back to one of his centres, police allege.
In a case some of Australia’s most senior officers have described as “unfathomable” and “beyond the realm of anyone’s imagination”, the 45-year-old Gold Coast man allegedly targeted vulnerable pre-pubescent girls in 10 childcare centres in Brisbane, one in Sydney and another overseas before his arrest in August last year.
Authorities and the centres face questions about how the man could have roamed from one workplace to the next and allegedly offended with impunity for so long – and how he appears to have been able to keep his Blue Card to work with children in Queensland despite two reports to police about him.
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, police allege.
Queensland Police said they received the two reports about the man in 2021 and last year without being able to prove he was involved in wrongdoing at the time.
Acting Queensland assistant commissioner Col Briggs said: “Both reports were subject to investigation. However, there was insufficient evidence to take action against any person based on the evidence available to investigators at that time.”
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said it was “beyond the realms of anyone’s imagination what this person did to these children”
“This is one of the most horrific child abuse cases that I have seen in nearly 40 years of policing,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
Police allege the man recorded his offending on phones and cameras while working in Brisbane child care 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.
He was only tracked down and stopped after investigators last year allegedly traced bed sheets – pictured in the background of horrific images and videos he posted on the dark web between 2013 and 2014 – to a Brisbane childcare centre.
Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath on Tuesday was seeking urgent briefings on how the man kept his Working with Children pass, as the opposition questioned the strengths of the Palaszczuk government’s child-protection regime.
Childcare centre owners could face payouts to the alleged paedophile’s victims, as the co-chair of the National Office for Child Safety’s advisory board, Hetty Johnston, said children should never be left alone with any adult in a childcare centre and owners would be held responsible.
AFP assistant commissioner Justine Gough said the man “had all the qualifications that he needed to work in the centres”.
Ms Gough said what the police investigation named Operation Tenterfield had uncovered would “seem unfathomable”. It was “chilling and shocking news for any parent”, she said at a joint news conference with Mr Briggs and NSW Police assistant commissioner Michael Fitzgerald.
“I can assure members of the Australian public that if you have not been contacted by law enforcement, it is extremely unlikely your child was allegedly offended against by the man,” Ms Gough said.
Under Queensland laws, the man cannot be identified.
“The man worked at other childcare centres but the AFP is highly confident the man did not allegedly offend at those centres,” the AFP said in a joint statement with Queensland and NSW counterparts.
“The AFP is also highly confident that all 87 Australian children who were recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been identified. The AFP believes the man recorded all his alleged offending. The parents of all the Australian children recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been informed of the investigation.”
Mr Briggs said Queensland Police Task Force Argos came across images on the dark web in 2014 that involved the man’s abuse of children.
If police suspected the offender was Australian they were unable to identify him, despite some of the world’s leading child victim identification experts and investigators being based in Brisbane with Argos and the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
Following the man’s arrest last August, Queensland Police conducted an internal review of the investigations that were carried out in relation to reports received about the man in 2021 and earlier in 2022. The review revealed the matters were appropriately investigated, that there was insufficient evidence to lay charges, and that the investigations were conducted in accordance with Queensland Police policy, Mr Briggs said.
One of the reports from 2021 or 2022 is now the subject of charges against the man, following evidence seized by police following his arrest, The Australian understands.
“I commend each and every investigator for their relentless work to put this offender before the court,” Mr Briggs said.
Ms D’Ath said the allegations were “shocking, horrific and extremely serious” and the matter was being investigated. Anyone working in early childhood is required to pass working-with-children checks, which in Queensland means they must hold a Blue Card.
“I am seeking an urgent brief on the status of the Blue Card in this case,” Ms D’Ath said.
“Queensland has one of the toughest working-with-children check systems in the country, including a ‘no card, no start’ scheme, but it’s imperative we investigate to see if there are any areas in the system that need urgent action.”
A Queensland Blue Card holder’s police information is monitored daily by police, with Blue Card Services notified of changes to a person’s criminal history if they are charged with a relevant offence. If suspended, the person can no longer work with children, and the relevant employer is notified.
A similar process is undertaken in NSW, with a working with children check requiring renewal every five years.
Queensland opposition child-safety spokeswoman Amanda Camm said the investigation had raised “serious questions” about the effectiveness of working-with-children checks.
“These allegations will shake parents to the core,” Ms Camm said. “Families expect the Palaszczuk government to ensure all checks and processes are followed to keep children safe”
Ms Gough declined to comment about the level of scrutiny of childcare centre workers.
Asked how the man was able to commit the crimes over such a long period without being red-flagged, she said: “The AFP did not receive any reports from parents or any other person prior to this man being charged.”
Ms Gough also declined to comment on the reaction of the childcare centres but said they had been cooperative.
The accused man has been in custody since his arrest, when he was initially charged with two counts of making child exploitation material and one of using a carriage service for child exploitation material. NSW Police have issued a first instance warrant for the man’s future extradition in relation to 180 charges laid against him in that state.
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