Former Australian child care worker pleads guilty to sexually abusing around 60 girls

By Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Former child care worker Ashley Paul Griffith pleaded guilty on Monday to raping, sexually abusing and exploiting dozens of girls in his care in Australia and Italy.

According to state broadcaster ABC, Judge Anthony Rafter took more than two hours to read out the 307 charges against Griffith in the Brisbane courtroom, where several victims and their families were gathered.

Police accused the 46-year-old of being one of Australia's worst paedophiles after the charges against him became public last year.

Griffith was first arrested for creating child sexual abuse content in 2022. A year later, he was charged with 1,623 crimes against 91 children.

However, some charges were dropped and ABC reported that Monday's charges involved about 60 children. Many of the victims were under the age of 12.

The crimes occurred between 2003 and 2022 in twelve different locations in Australia and in Pisa, Italy.

Griffith is in custody and will be sentenced at a later date. The court heard that sentencing could take more than two days to allow time for victims' statements to be read, ABC reported.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Miral Fahmy)