This is the face of the childcare worker alleged to be Australia’s worst pedophile.
Ashley Paul Griffith can be identified for the first time under new Queensland laws that allow alleged sex offenders to be named before they are committed to stand trial.
The 45-year-old former childcare worker stands accused of 1623 charges relating to the abuse of 91 little girls over a 15-year period in a dozen centres spanning states and continents.
Court documents viewed by The Australian allege he systematically recorded each assault and rape on phones and cameras, keeping meticulous files of each of his victims. The charges revealed a pattern of escalating offending, with two little girls at one centre raped more than two dozen times each over several months.
Prior to his arrest, Griffith worked as a director of a childcare centre on Brisbane’s northside. In a since-deleted staff profile on the childcare centre’s website that has been viewed archived online, Griffith said he was a “firm believer in play-based learning”.
Griffith had previously been investigated by Queensland Police on two occasions in 2021 and again in 2022, but no charges were laid despite a former colleague alleging she had seen him kissing a child.
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