Key points
- A 26-year-old former daycare worker in Melbourne has been charged
- The man worked at 20 nursery schools between 2017 and 2025
- Authorities have urged 1,200 children potentially exposed to the accused to be tested for infectious diseases
- Officials describe the case as “deeply distressing”
SYDNEY, Australia: Doctors urged that 1,200 Australian children get tested for infectious diseases on Tuesday after police charged a former daycare worker with dozens of “deeply distressing” sex crimes.
According to AFP, Victoria police said a 26-year-old man had been charged with more than 70 crimes stemming from alleged sexual assaults against eight children aged between five months and two years old.
“As you could imagine this was deeply distressing for the families to hear,” police commander Janet Stevenson told reporters.
“Potential exposure”
The man worked at 20 nursery schools across the city of Melbourne between 2017 and 2025, Stevenson said.
As you could imagine this was deeply distressing for the families to hear.” – police commander Janet Stevenson
State chief health officer Christian McGrath said 1,200 children who may have come into contact with the accused should be tested for “potential exposure” to infectious diseases.
Authorities did not specify which diseases the children may have been exposed to but said they could be easily treated with antibiotics.
“We do understand that this is another distressing element to this situation,” McGrath, an infectious diseases physician, told reporters.
“Sickened”
State Premier Jacinta Allan said she was “sickened” by the man’s alleged crimes.
“They are shocking and distressing,” she told reporters, according to AFP.
“And my heart just breaks for the families who are living ever parent’s worst nightmare.”
One of Australia’s worst paedophiles
In 2024, according to The Guardian, a former childcare worker, Ashley Paul Griffith, confessed to committing 307 sexual offences against dozens of children under his care in Brisbane and Italy between 2007 and 2022.
Griffith, 46, from the Gold Coast, pleaded guilty to all charges at an arraignment at the Queensland district court.
He was formally convicted of offences committed at childcare centres where he worked between January 2007 and August 2022.
They include 190 charges of unlawful and indecent dealing with a child under 12 under his care, 28 counts of rape, 67 counts of making child exploitation material, four counts of producing child exploitation material and a count of distributing child exploitation material. He was also charged with possessing child exploitation material between 2005 and 2022, using a carriage service for that purpose. Asked if he had anything to say, Griffith mouthed no and shook his head.
