Former Childcare Worker Pleads Guilty To Abusing Over 300 Girls In Australia

A former Australian childcare worker, Ashley Paul Griffith, has admitted to sexually abusing and raping hundreds of young girls under his care over a span of two decades. The 46-year-old appeared in a Queensland court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to 307 charges related to offenses committed at childcare centers in Brisbane and Italy between 2003 and 2022.

The court heard that most of Griffith’s victims were under the age of 12. The judge’s associate took more than two hours to read the extensive list of charges against him.

Griffith has been described by police as one of Australia’s most prolific paedophiles. His charges include 28 counts of rape, 190 counts of indecent treatment, 67 counts of making child exploitation material, four counts of producing such material, and one count of distributing it.

During the court proceedings, several of Griffith’s victims and their families were present. According to reports from ABC News, some parents were moved to tears as the names of their children were read aloud in the courtroom. One mother expressed her horror, saying, “We see people going into the childcare center now, and I think this happened to my child in that room. It’s a room of horrors.”

The father of another victim expressed disbelief that Griffith had been able to carry out his crimes undetected for 20 years. The couple shared that although they had informed their daughter about what had happened, she could not fully grasp the situation due to her young age. “As she grows up, we’ll deal with that as it comes, but it’s going to be something we deal with through our lives now,” the father said.

Griffith was arrested in August 2022 by Australia’s federal police after thousands of photographs and videos of his abuse were discovered on the dark web. Despite the faces of the victims being cropped out, investigators were able to trace the images back to Griffith by identifying a unique set of bedsheets in the background.

Police believe Griffith recorded all his offenses using his phones and cameras. Initially charged in November last year with over 1,600 child sex offenses, many of the charges were later dropped. However, Griffith remains in custody and is expected to be sentenced at a later date.