Victim’s parents demand answers from childcare centre after shock allegations

Authorities are investigating shock allegations that a four-year-old suffered a horrifying sexual assault by another four-year-old during playtime at a Queensland childcare centre.

Generic shot of young boy child holding hands with childcare worker.

Education authorities are investigating shock allegations that a four year old suffered injuries consistent with a sexual assault by another four year old during playtime at a Queensland childcare centre.

The explosive incident has blown up the lives of his parents who claim their son came home with a serious injury which emergency doctors diagnosed as an anal tear and sexual assault.

Police made preliminary investigations but due to the young age of the children involved the matter is now in the hands of the Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (RA).

The Courier-Mail has viewed a previous incident report lodged by a different mother complaining about the lack of supervision in kids aged two to five and had concerns of inter-peer touching.

The distraught parents of the injured boy claim they were first told by centre staff that their child had been ‘pressured’ into an interaction with another child captured on CCTV and they claim centre staff stated the children were ‘playing around’ and their son was a ‘willing participant’.

His mum and dad only became aware of the seriousness of the incident when they took the child home and found he was not wearing his underpants and was wearing his spare shorts that were bloodied.

They took him to the emergency department the next day. On his admission form the diagnosis states an “anal tear and sexual assault”.

“My wife was informed of an incident when she went to pick him up but it was portrayed as normal inquisitive touching by small children but in what world is a 2cms tear of the rectum normal,” he claimed.

“My child was penetrated and the centre incident report says he was found half naked in the outdoor play area. Why were the kids left unsupervised? The kids were also on video but we have not been able to watch it – yet it has been shared with staff.

“Where is the transparency? Following the awful case of pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith’s reign of terror in child care centres I would have thought that every single centre in the state would be going to great lengths to watch children every minute,” the dad of three said.

Queensland Police confirmed they are aware of an alleged incident involving two four year olds.

“While police cannot confirm whether any offence has occurred, there is no criminality in this matter due to the children being under the age of criminal responsibility. As such, there will be no further involvement by QPS,” a police spokesman said.

The manager of the centre told The Courier-Mail that there is no evidence that there was a sexual assault of any child at the centre at any time.

The incident report lodged by an educator stated that the two boys were found hiding in the outdoor play area.

“When I asked X why he wasn’t wearing a shirt he replied “it’s a secret”. X disclosed that the other boy had touched him on the “doodle and bum”, the report stated.

The dad said: “This has turned our lives upside down. Our son has had some counselling but we are worried sick of how this will impact him.

“The most disappointing thing is that the centre has not responded to any queries or even checked to see how this incident has impacted our family.”

The family said they have no interest in gaining anything by what has happened but want an independent investigation and a formal explanation as to what occurred.

They want transparency and support for parents when incidents happen.

Originally published as Victim’s parents demand answers from childcare centre after shock allegations