Child sex accused’s colleague arrested

A colleague of a childcare worker, who is allegedly one of Australia’s worst pedophiles, has been arrested after appearing on a current affairs program earlier this month about the case.

The former childcare worker did not appear before court or apply for bail.

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A colleague of a childcare ­worker, allegedly one of Australia’s worst pedophiles who is facing 1600 charges, has been arrested after appearing on a current affairs program earlier this month about the case.

Police raided a 59-year-old woman’s Brisbane home last week and charged her with a computer hacking offence.

She had appeared on the Nine Network’s A Current Affair after the Australian Federal Police announced it had laid 1600 charges against a 45-year-old man who allegedly sexually abused 91 girls over 15 years while working at childcare centres across Brisbane, Sydney and Europe.

In a statement, Queensland Police said detectives from Task Force Argos – ­responsible for investigating ­online child exploitation and abuse – alleged the woman ­“illegally accessed confidential documents relating to her ­former employment at a ­Brisbane childcare centre” and distributed the material to “other persons”.

“These documents allegedly contained the private information of children allegedly ­victims (of) abuse, their families and a male person who allegedly committed sexual offences against those children while in his care at the relevant childcare centre,’’ the police statement said.

Police said they had now ­contacted the families.

The woman and the man have not been identified for legal reasons.

The 1600 charges were heard in court for the first time on Monday, although the man did not appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court.

Crown prosecutor Steven Dickson said more time is ­needed to go through the “voluminous” charges and await more evidence. He said this is unlikely to be finalised until the new year.

“There are some small bits of evidence relating to overseas witnesses that the DPP is waiting on, which the federal police is waiting on, as well,” Mr Dickson said.

“But I don’t anticipate that would stop us from preparing the matter.”

Magistrate Anthony Gett said he would rather bring the case sooner to “monitor” the matter.

“I want to bring it back and see how it is travelling. I don’t want to adjourn for such a long time,” Mr Gett said.

The accused man is being represented by Macalister and Associates.

Police allege the man committed the offences while working at 10 childcare centres in Brisbane, one in NSW and another overseas between 2007 and 2022.

Child abuse charges include rape and making and distributing child abuse material.

The man has been in custody since August 2022.

No application was made for bail.

The matter will be heard again on November 6.