Former Australian child care worker guilty of sexually abusing dozens of girls

Ashley Paul Griffith, a 46-year-old former childcare worker in Australia, pleaded guilty in a Queensland court on Monday, September 2, to 307 counts of rape and sexual assault of dozens of girls in his care at daycare centers in Brisbane and Italy for twenty years, between 2003 and 2022, with the majority of his victims being under the age of 12, reports British broadcaster BBC.

Police had previously described Griffith as one of Australia's most vicious paedophiles of all time.

It took an assistant judge more than two hours to read out all the charges against him.

The charges against him include 28 counts of rape, 190 counts of sexual assault, 67 counts of producing child sexual abuse material, four counts of producing such material and one count of distributing such material.

Several victims and their families appeared in court on Monday, and parents were visibly moved and cried as their children's names were read.

One mother described the children's centre as a “horror room” and the father of one of his children said he could not believe Griffith had managed to avoid conviction for his crimes for 20 years.

Griffith was arrested by the Australian Federal Police in August 2022 after thousands of photos and videos uploaded to the dark web related to his crimes were found.

Last November, he was accused of over 1,600 sex crimes against children, most of which were eventually dropped.

Griffith remains in custody and a verdict will be announced later.

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