One of Australia’s most horrifying child sex abuse cases has come to light as police reveal that a childcare worker allegedly sexually abused 91 young girls over a span of 15 years. The police describe the extent of the alleged crimes as “unfathomable,” and seasoned detectives have called it beyond imagination.
The charges against the 45-year-old man include 136 counts of rape, 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 10 (a charge used in some Australian jurisdictions instead of rape), and 613 counts of making child pornography. The investigation began in 2014 when authorities discovered child pornography shared on the dark web. After a breakthrough in August last year, they identified a childcare centre in Brisbane based on visual clues in the images.
Initially charged with only three offences, the gravity of the alleged crimes emerged as investigators delved deeper into the man’s computer, phone, and hard drive. The police believe that the man documented “all” his alleged crimes, amassing over 4,000 photos and videos of abuse.
The abuse reportedly took place at ten different childcare centres between 2007 and 2022, targeting prepubescent girls, some as young as one year old. The police painstakingly identified 87 of the 91 victims, all from the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales. The remaining four unidentified children were abused while the man worked overseas between 2013 and 2014. International crime agencies are now assisting in locating those children.
While the man had passed stringent background checks to work at childcare centres in Queensland and New South Wales, police assert that they are highly confident he did not abuse children at other facilities. Detectives first received a tip-off in 2021 but were initially hampered by a lack of evidence.
A dedicated task force of around 35 staff worked tirelessly to document the extensive amount of child abuse material involved in the investigation. The accused man is scheduled to face court in Queensland on August 21, after which he will be extradited to New South Wales to face additional charges.
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