By A former childcare worker described as “one of Australia’s worst paedophiles” received a life sentence Friday for sexually abusing nearly 70 girls aged between one and seven years old over almost two decades.
Ashley Paul Griffith, 47, confessed to 307 offences committed at childcare centers across Queensland and overseas between 2003 and 2022, including 28 counts of rape and nearly 200 charges related to indecent treatment of children. Brisbane District Court Judge Paul Smith ordered a non-parole period of 27 years, citing Griffith’s “paedophilic disorder” and high risk of reoffending.
“There was a significant breach of trust,” Smith said, describing the crimes as “depraved” and “horrendous.” Investigators identified Griffith through distinctive bedsheets visible in thousands of abuse videos he had uploaded to the dark web, linking the material to childcare centers across Queensland.
The victims included 65 girls from 11 Brisbane locations and four children from a facility in Pisa, Italy. Griffith faces separate accusations of abusing at least two dozen additional children in New South Wales and Italy.
Victims and families delivered emotional impact statements before sentencing. One former kindergartener recalled Griffith as her favorite teacher before learning the truth: “To find out what he was really doing was devastating… I don’t seem to be able to process it even now, because there’s a disconnect between what I remember and the reality.”
“I will never know what my life could have been like,” another victim told the court. “I can never know what it would have been to grow up unafraid of people.”
Parents expressed guilt over trusting Griffith, with one telling him: “(My daughter) loved you like an uncle and you used her like a toy.” Outside court, families called for an investigation into how Griffith operated undetected for so long. “Parents are walking their children into these centres today with a false sense of security,” one father told reporters.
Griffith was initially arrested in August 2022 by federal police and later charged with more than 1,600 child sex offences, though most charges were eventually dropped.
