a former child care worker Australia On Monday, he pleaded guilty to more than 300 counts of rape, sexual abuse and exploitation of dozens of girls under his command.
The charges against Ashley Paul Griffiths, 46, were so extensive it took Judge Anthony Rafter more than two hours to read them out to 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 paedophiles when allegations against him were made public last year – Griffith committed the crimes at child care centres where he worked in Australia and Italy between 2003 and 2022.
Griffiths worked in a number of child care centres in Brisbane, Sydney and Pisa, Italy.
According to the ABC report, he was first arrested in 2022 for producing child abuse material. A year later, he was charged with 1,623 offences against 91 children.
Many of those charges were dropped. The 307 charges filed Monday involved about 60 children, many of them under the age of 12.
The convictions include 190 counts of unlawful and indecent behaviour with a child under the age of 12, 28 counts of rape, 67 counts of making child abuse material, four counts of production of child abuse material, 15 counts of repeated sexual intercourse with a child, and other counts.
Griffith showed no particular emotion when the charges were read out on Monday, ABC reported.
The parents of one of the victims — who cannot be identified for legal reasons — told reporters outside court they were glad Griffith had pleaded guilty, not that “he had to show all these children’s pictures again (to defend himself),” his mother said.
“We see people going in (to the child care center now) and I think the same thing must have happened to my child,” the child’s mother said. “It’s a scary room.”
Griffith is still in custody and sentencing will be held at a later date. Rafter expects the reading of victim statements will take more than two days.
