Kylie Lang on Australia’s worst pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith

Kids can turn their lives around with just one positive mentor, but what this deviant did cast aspersions on an entire cohort of males, writes Kylie Lang.

Ashley Paul Griffith dubbed Australia’s worst pedophile

His is a face that reviles us. We know what he did and it makes us sick. But if one of our children were in his care – before his heinous pedophilia was laid bare – would we have suspected him? Would we have looked into the eyes of Ashley Paul Griffith and seen a monster? Or, would we have chastised ourselves for being sexist – why can’t a man be a childcare worker and be trusted?

As the LNP, if elected in October, promises an independent inquiry into how Griffith was allowed to spend two decades abusing children – an inquiry the current Labor government bizarrely thinks is unnecessary – we parents and grandparents whose little ones were not victims are relieved yet we are also troubled.

Griffith abused at least 91 girls in daycare centres in Queensland, NSW and Italy, according to police.

Last week he pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to 307 charges committed between 2004 until his arrest in August 2022.

Appallingly too, Griffith was cleared in 2021 by his employer, the Uniting Church, and by Queensland Police of wrongdoing after a co-worker complained she saw him on top of a sleeping girl and his “mouth was moving across her mouth”.

That Australia’s worst pedophile got away with his crimes for so long is an outrage. Along with a broken child protection system, it has called us to question the validity of Blue Cards, with Griffith retaining his throughout his offending (while whistleblower Yolanda Borucki’s remains suspended). Sadly too, red flags have once again been raised around men being in charge of children. I say sadly because society, more than ever, needs good, strong men who can model kind and respectful behaviour.

With many children growing up without fathers or in households where fathers are violent or otherwise destructive, mentors are critical.

In my Qweekend story today on Mason Black, the former captain of Brisbane Boys’ College tells how now, as a 21 year old travelling the state and talking to school kids about respectful relationships through his Betterment Project, the most troubled ones he meets have deadbeat dads.

Court sketch of Ashley Paul Griffith. Illustration : Scott Breton / Newswire

Research shows that kids can turn their lives around with just one positive mentor. But what deviants like Griffith have done is cast aspersions on an entire cohort of males who work with children.

Findings from a November 2023 online study by UNSW Sydney and Jesuit Social Services don’t make us feel much better. Questioning almost 2000 men, the research revealed one in six Australian men said they had sexual feelings for a child under 18.

One in 10 had sexually offended against children. Of this group, half reported sexual feelings towards children, and were more likely than non-offenders to work with kids. Challenging the stereotype that deviants are social outcasts and obviously creepy, they were likely to be married and earn higher than average incomes.

Pedophilic disorder is defined by recurring, intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges or behaviour involving children 13 years or younger. Most with the disorder are male – with separate research in Canada and the UK estimating up to 5 per cent of the population have it.

The younger the child, the lower the percentage. This might suggest Griffith is in a club of 1 per cent.

When Australia’s male population stands at around 13.5 million, that’s 135,000 men. Huge.

I am not implying for a second that men working in childcare, early childhood education or schools are morally corrupt. Far from it. There are so many terrific blokes doing wonderful work with kids.

But there are not enough.

Federal and state governments have long been aware of the decline in males entering the teaching profession. During the 1980s, roughly 30 per cent of primary school teachers were men. Today, it’s half that.

One of the reasons that’s recently surfaced to explain the drop is men are fearful and uncertain around physical contact.

Vaughan Cruickshank, of the School of Education at the University of Tasmania, says a raft of research identifies this as a top concern.

Anecdotally, the male teachers I know tell me they feel collectively demonised. I wrote about this here in 2015, and cited research from Scotland’s University of Strathclyde showing men are in a “moral panic” and anxious about the perception male child abusers gravitate to teaching. I see no evidence things have changed.

Vile creatures like Ashley Paul Griffith have not only harmed innocent kids but they threaten to malign those very good men out there, men we need more of in helping society raise its children

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

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Originally published as Kylie Lang on Australia’s worst pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith