A former childcare worker who abused nearly 70 children in Queensland and Italy between 2003 and 2022 was sentenced today by the Brisbane District Court to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 27 years.
The Gold Coast man, 46, pleaded guilty on 2 September, 2024, to 307 charges, including 15 counts of repeated sexual contact with a child, 28 counts of rape and 190 counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16.
The charges relate to 65 children he abused in Southeast Queensland and four in Italy.
The AFP arrested the man in August, 2022, following a painstaking investigation that started in 2014 when the Queensland Police Service (QPS) located 46 images and 10 videos the man had created and uploaded to the dark web.
QPS posted the material to the International Child Sexual Exploitation database, seeking assistance from the global victim-identification community to piece together clues that could identify the offender, the victims and their location.
The material contained so few distinguishable clues it was not even certain at first which country the offending had taken place in, and the matter was never referred to a specific law enforcement agency.
Even knowing the perpetrator and victims may not be in Australia, AFP victim identification specialists determined they would never give up on trying to solve the case.
AFP specialists kept going back to the images and videos, searching for the vital clue that would break open the case and reveal the identity of the man or his victims or their location.
As they went back time after time to the images and videos and started to piece tiny clues together, it became apparent the offending had taken place in a childcare setting in Australia, and AFP investigators started making enquiries.
Building on each vital clue they uncovered, including bedsheets visible in some of the material, investigators narrowed the search down to Southeast Queensland as the likely location of the childcare centre.
On 18 August, 2022, the AFP confirmed that a Brisbane childcare centre was the location in the material after matching it to the bedsheets and other distinguishable features of the rooms in the background.
On 19 August, enquiries at the childcare centre confirmed the identity of the man and within 24 hours a search warrant had been executed at a property linked to him in Brisbane’s southwest suburbs, where he was located and arrested.
In the next 48 hours, the AFP executed two further search warrants, including at the man’s Gold Coast home, and seized electronic devices containing child abuse material created by the man that contained dozens of victims.
As searches of the man’s digital material revealed the full scale of the offending – 64 victims in Queensland and four in Italy – the major focus of Operation Tenterfield became identifying the children and detailing every offence he had committed.
In September 2022, the AFP coordinated a week-long joint-agency taskforce with QPS and the Department of ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Affairs at the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) to review nearly 4000 images and videos of child abuse material the man created.
Investigators obtained childcare records from locations where the man worked to assist with identifying the victims.
The AFP is highly confident it has identified all the children in the seized material created by the man.
The parents of all Queensland children recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been informed. Some of the individuals identified in the alleged child abuse material are now aged over 18 years and have been informed. Support services have been offered and continue to be provided to victim and their families.
The AFP has also worked with Italian authorities to identify each of the four children recorded in alleged child abuse material the man created in Italy.
In August, 2023, after all Queensland victims had been identified and informed, the AFP announced the results of Operation Tenterfield, leading to the AFP receiving thousands of calls about this matter.
Investigators from the Queensland Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET) considered all information provided to the AFP in these phone calls.
As a result of one of those phone calls, officers from the Queensland JACET charged the man with an additional offence.
The new charge, which the man pleaded guilty to, relates to offences he committed between 2003 and 2004 at a Brisbane after-school care facility, where he was working as a volunteer and subsequently on a casual basis.
The AFP wishes to thank the public for their assistance and support throughout the investigation.
Investigators continue to invite members of the public who may have had contact with the man to come forward and provide that information.
Operation Tenterfield has not been finalised, so parents, childcare workers or anyone with information about this matter can still provide it to the AFP, where it will be carefully considered for the potential to identify more offending and add appropriate criminal charges.
The AFP has also spoken to all Queensland childcare centres where the man has worked and thanks them for the information they have provided.
On 2 September, 2024, the man pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to:
- 15 counts of repeated sexual conduct with a child, contrary to section 229B of the Criminal Code (Qld), which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment;
- 28 counts of rape, contrary to section 349 of the Criminal Code (Qld), which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment;
- 190 counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16, under 12, under care, contrary to section 210 of the Criminal Code (Qld), which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment;
- 67 counts of making child exploitation material, contrary to section 228B of the Criminal Code (Qld), which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment;
- Four counts of producing child abuse material outside Australia, contrary to section 273.6 of the Criminal Code (Cth), which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment;
- One count of distributing child abuse material outside Australia, contrary to section 273.6 of the Criminal Code (Cth), which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment;
- One count of using a carriage service for child pornography material, contrary to section 474.19 of the Criminal Code (Cth), which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment; and
- One count of possessing child exploitation material, contrary to section 228D of the Criminal Code (Qld), which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment.
Operation Tenterfield has been complex and has involved highly skilled victim identification specialists. Up to 50 AFP members have been involved in the investigation since 2014.
The AFP thanks QPS, the New South Wales Police Force and Department of ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Affairs for dedicating resources to the investigation.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said the AFP and other agencies had provided ongoing support to parents and children.
“The AFP, working with support services, has ensured parents and carers have received as much information as possible through this investigation and during the court proceedings,” Assistant Commissioner Gough said.
“The AFP and our partners never gave up trying to identify the offender and the children in the abuse material.
“Given there were so many images and videos of children recorded over 15 years on the offender’s devices, the process of identification took time, skill and determination.
“While I am extremely proud of law enforcements’ persistence and their unwavering dedication to identify this offender, and stop further abuse; this has been a chilling investigation.
“It is with a heavy heart that the AFP and other law enforcement dedicate so much time and resources to prevent and take action against individuals who commit heinous crimes against children.
“This is a distressing time for families, carers and the community broadly.
“We know this type of news can re-traumatise survivors of sexual abuse, and, please, I urge those survivors to seek support, or talk to a trusted network, if today’s news has caused distress.”
The AFP urges anyone in the community who needs to access support to visit the ACCCE website – www.accce.gov.au
