Former childcare worker pleads guilty to sexually abusing more than 60 girls

Ashley Paul Griffith, a 46-year-old former child care worker, has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing more than 60 girls who were held in the daycare centers where he worked.

Griffith pleaded guilty on Monday to 307 charges relating to children in his care, including 28 counts of rape, 90 counts of indecent exposure and 67 counts of making child exploitation material.

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He abused many children under the age of 12 in daycare centers in Australia and Italy for more than 19 years.

His charges were read out for about two hours by an associate judge at the Brisbane District Court. Griffith appeared emotionless as he pleaded guilty to each charge, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Griffith was arrested in 2022 and originally charged with several substantive offenses related to child exploitation.

Prosecutors later charged the Gold Coast, Queensland, man with more than 1,600 offences against 91 girls, but most of those charges were dropped before Monday’s hearing, AL Jazeera reported.

New South Wales State Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald described the case last year as “one of the most horrific cases of alleged child abuse our detectives have ever seen”.

Police say they have been searching for Griffith since discovering a collection of child abuse images and videos on the dark web in 2014.

Griffith is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date, but he did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody after being summoned.