Australia former child care worker pleads guilty to 307 child sexual abuse charges

A former child care worker in Australia pleaded guilty Monday to more than 300 counts of raping, sexually abusing and exploiting dozens of girls under his care.

The charges against 46-year-old Ashley Paul Griffith were so extensive that it took Judge Anthony Rafter more than two hours to read them inside a packed Brisbane courtroom on Monday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported.

According to police – who accused him of being one of Australia’s worst pedophiles when the charges against him were made public last year – Griffith committed the offenses at child care centers where he worked between 2003 and 2022 in Australia and Italy.

Griffith worked at multiple child care centers in Brisbane, Sydney and Pisa, Italy.

He was first arrested in 2022 for making child exploitation material. A year later he was charged with 1,623 offenses against 91 children, ABC reported.

Many of those charges were dropped. The 307 charges on Monday were related to about 60 children, many of whom were under the age of 12.

The convictions include 190 charges of unlawful and indecent dealing with a child under 12 in his care, 28 counts of rape, 67 counts of making child exploitation material, four counts of producing child exploitation material, 15 counts of repeated sexual conduct with a child and more.

Griffith showed little emotion as the charges were read out on Monday, ABC reported.

The parents of one of the victims – who cannot be identified due to legal reasons – told reporters outside the court they were glad Griffith pleaded guilty rather than “having him see the pictures of all of these children again [in order to make a defense]”, the mother said.

“We see people going in [to the child care center now] and I [think] this happened to my child in that room,” the child’s mother said. “It’s a room of horrors.”

Griffith remains in custody and sentencing will be at a later date. Rafter expects it will take more than two days to give time to read victim impact statements.