System failed to stop pedophile Ashley Griffith despite 18 opportunities
Ashley Paul Griffith exploited systemic failures to abuse children for two decades despite being dismissed from five workplaces and reported to police three times.
Australia’s worst pedophile, Ashley Paul Griffith, could have been stopped and apprehended on 18 occasions over his two decades of moving between child care centres to offend if the appropriate reporting mechanisms were in place, a new report has revealed.
Queensland’s ‘In Plain Sight’ report into Griffith’s offending and broader child exploitation in the community found the former child care worker had been dismissed from five different workplaces and had 13 instances where he was enabled to offend, which were not adequately reported.
Griffith was charged in 2022 with assaulting 91 girls in Queensland, NSW and Italy while working in more than a dozen child care centres, and then posting child exploitation material he made online.
He pleaded guilty to 107 offences against 65 Queensland children in 2024 and was sentenced to 27 years in prison, but has yet to face the interstate charges.
There were at least three instances in which parents and colleagues reported him to the police, but none led to an investigation.
Luke Twyford, who was appointed by the Crisafulli government to lead the review, found Griffith was a manipulator who “groomed” his colleagues, employers, family and friends in order to get close to children and regularly offend without detection.
“This offender could have been stalked and should have been stopped,” Mr Twyford said. “Perpetrators move like water across the landscape.
“They will go to the place where they have the most trust from the adults around them, and the place where they have the easiest access to children.”
The Crisafulli government has confirmed that it will fast-track the introduction of the Reportable Conduct Scheme by 12 months, making it a requirement for employers to report alleged abuse by workers and volunteers.
Following the 2017 inquiry into the murder of Queensland schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer by her foster father, the former Palaszczuk Labor government committed to introducing the scheme. In 2020, then child safety minister Leanne Linard said a reportable conduct scheme would be a “key focus” for delivery, but this did not occur.
Premier David Crisafulli said no system can be perfect, but it was the responsibility of the government to implement positive change.
“To every parent in this state, we can’t always guarantee the kids are safe, but we can do a lot better than what’s happened in Queensland over the better part of the last couple of decades, and a lot better we will do,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“You want to see a document like this, and you want people to be able to accept accountability and then chart a way forward.
“I can assure you, we are going to deliver the strongest child safety system in the country.”
In Plain Sight is one of the first to consider the for-profit early childcare sector and the prevalence of online offending.
Mr Twyford, who is also the chair of the Child Safety Review Board, said improving reporting is important, but parents need to be alert and critical of who they leave their children with.
“I want you to be very worried about any centre that says there’s never been a concern. We need to build a system that is transparent. Concerns happen. They are natural. They are normal. I want you to be very worried about any centre that says there’s never been a concern raised.”
The report found the Blue Card system operated as intended over the two decades Griffith held one.
Among the 28 recommendations of the report was the introduction of appropriate reporting pathways be introduced for parents and caregivers, after the concerns of several victims were dismissed by police.
The introduction of a Reportable Conduct Scheme coincides with the introduction of a child sex offender register called Daniel’s Law, and the state’s commission into the child safety system.
