Ashley Paul Griffiths, a former child welfare worker often called “one of Australia’s worst pedophiles”, has been sentenced to life in prison for raping and sexually assaulting nearly 70 girls.
The perpetrator admitted to committing 307 crimes in childcare centers across the Australian state of Queensland and beyond between 2003 and 2022.
Frighteningly, his victims were aged between one and seven, with Judge Paul Smith describing the nature of the crimes as “deviant” and “horrific”, adding: “There was a significant breach of trust.”
According to BBCGriffiths is accused of abusing at least twenty children in New South Wales as well as Italy.
He was first arrested in August 2022 by the Australian Federal Police, and the following year was charged with more than 1,600 child sex offences, most of which were later dropped.
Investigations found thousands of visual images of his abuse, which he filmed and then uploaded to the popular dark web with faces cropped out, but they were able to trace them back to Griffiths due to a particular set of bedsheets captured in the background of some of the videos. .
The bedsheets were sold to childcare centers across Queensland.
Griffiths pleaded guilty to 28 counts of rape, more than 200 counts of indecent treatment of a child and several relating to recording and sharing child exploitation material online.
Four of the girls recorded in his videos were from Pisa, Italy while a further 65 victims were from 11 locations across Brisbane.
Before issuing the ruling, the court heard statements from some of the victims and their parents, including two sisters who were abused by Griffiths in kindergarten, one of whom recalled that the perpetrator was her favorite teacher.
She added: “Knowing what he was really doing was devastating… I don’t seem to be able to process it yet, because there is a disconnect between what I remember and reality.” Express mail.
Another woman was quoted as saying in an article by: “I will never know what my life would have been like.” The Guardian Australia.
“I can never know what it would have been like to grow up without fear of people,” she added.
Parents shared their accounts and told the court of their horror when they discovered the abuse their children had been subjected to.
At the same time, some reported struggling to forgive themselves for trusting Griffith with their children.
One of them said: “I loved you (my daughter) like an uncle and used her as a toy.” News Corp Australia.
Another mother added that she was trying to hide the burden of atrocities from her daughter.
“I can’t undo what I did to her body, but I will do everything I can to limit the damage to her mind,” she said. Express mail.