Ashley Paul Griffith, a 46-year-old former child care worker has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing over 60 girls kept in child care centers where he worked.
Griffith, on Monday, pleaded guilty to 307 charges involving children in his care, including 28 counts of rape, 90 counts of indecent treatment and 67 counts of making child exploitation material.
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He abused many of the children under 12, at childcare centres in Australia and Italy over more than 19 years.
His charges were read out for about two hours by the judge’s associate at the District Court in Brisbane. Griffith appeared emotionless as he pleaded guilty to every charge, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Griffith was arrested in 2022 and originally charged with several child exploitation material offences.
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.
Michael Fitzgerald, New South Wales state police Assistant Commissioner, last year described the case as “one of the most horrific cases of alleged child abuse our detectives have seen”.
Police said they had been searching for Griffith since discovering a collection of child exploitation images and videos circulating on the dark web in 2014.
Griffith will be sentenced at a later date, he did not seek bail and was returned to custody after his arraignment.
