Ashley Paul Griffith: Privacy laws kept children’s parents in the dark

A Brisbane woman says she is one of a number of parents left in the dark about the danger their children were exposed to at childcare centres.

Childcare parent ‘Jane’ feels let down by the system. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

• Editor’s view: Something very wrong

A Brisbane mother whose young daughter was in the path of prolific child abuser Ashley Paul Griffith has slammed the state’s privacy laws, saying she had to piece together details alone about whether her daughter had been in danger.

Jane, whose real name cannot be used to protect the identity of her child, said she was one of a number of parents left in the dark about the danger their children were exposed to at childcare centres following news of Griffith’s arrest.

Speaking exclusively to The Courier-Mail, Jane revealed she only discovered through media reports in late 2023 that the man who once cared for her daughter at a Brisbane childcare centre was charged with hundreds of child abuse offences.

“My husband ended up going back through all of his old emails from the centre, and found the communication around him commencing at the centre, which then confirmed the name, and we felt just absolutely sick over it,” she said.

“I struggle to drive past the centre to this day.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through my photos or going through all the emails, just trying to confirm and piece together.

“It would have been great for the police and the centre to be on the front foot and say... OK, this is what we’re advising people to do, this is the reassurance that we can give you.”

Haunted by an incident where Griffith at one point had pulled her child by the arm, forcing her away from another carer, Jane took matters in her own hands and contacted police herself.

Eventually, she connected with an Australian Federal Police investigator involved in the case.

A court sketch of Ashley Paul Griffith

“She said, as far as she’s concerned, she just thinks that we’re extremely fortunate,” Jane said.

“But as I said to her … what’s to say that he didn’t film everything, that’s the bit that makes me sick ... these people, they think that they’re beyond any kind of law.”

While it is not alleged Jane’s daughter was a victim of Griffith’s offending, Jane emotionally recalled the decision to take her daughter for sexually transmitted disease testing, as a matter of caution.

“To have to take your small child along and have the conversation with the doctor … none of it is easy and it’s horrific.”

She was then shocked last week to learn Victoria had published exactly which centres another accused predator, Joshua Dale Brown, was employed at, while she says she was met with radio silence from both the provider and police. Mr Brown remains before the courts and has not entered any pleas.

In the case of Griffith, veteran criminal lawyer Bill Potts said Queensland’s privacy laws had denied parents the right to the knowledge of danger their children were exposed to.

“(The laws) should obviously protect children, but the people who have the right to know about those things are the parents,” he said.

Griffith was sentenced last year after pleading guilty to 307 child abuse offences across two decades.

Compared to Victoria, Queensland has stricter privacy laws and identifications of a perpetrator or potential victim, Mr Potts said, which prevented detailed information, such as a list of centres, to be made public.

He said victims have been silenced by legislation and argued that alongside an independent review investigating how the system allowed abusers like Griffith to fall through the cracks, the government should also examine potential legislative changes.

Ashley Paul Griffith is Australia’s worst ever pedophile.

“What is necessary is not just a review of what went wrong, but a rigorous view underpinning all legislation ... with the right of not identifying individual children, to allow the public and in particular parents whose children might have been exposed to danger, to have the maximum right to know.”

Jane has backed calls for a national register of educators and said the current system has allowed predators, such as Griffith, to take advantage of children.

“If there has been any kind of complaint, it should be entered into the system, it should be a nationwide system and it’d go ... at least part of the way to what we need,” she said.

“Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t put my child in a childcare centre if there was a male employee there.”

An AFP spokesman said they advised operators at all Queensland centres where Griffith worked and provided them contact details for a dedicated hotline parents could contact.

The spokesman said AFP did not have any further evidence of alleged victims who have not been identified.

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said child protection was an “absolute priority” and she would investigate prior failures through Child Death Review Board chair Luke Twyford’s independent review.

“The perspectives and concerns of the families impacted by the Ashley Paul Griffith matter are critically important to Commissioner Twyford’s review, and they will inform his recommendations about how the system responds to reports of child abuse,” she said.

Originally published as Ashley Paul Griffith: Privacy laws kept children’s parents in the dark