Former childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith has been charged with a further 202 child abuse offences in New South Wales, days after his extradition from Queensland. The allegations concern 23 children aged between one and five and date from 2014 to 2017, when he worked at a childcare centre in Sydney’s inner west.
Griffith, 48, is already serving a life sentence imposed in Queensland in November 2024. He received that sentence after pleading guilty to more than 300 child sexual offences involving nearly 70 victims. The new NSW charges concern alleged offences against a further group of children identified by police.
The NSW charges include 68 counts of rape of a child younger than 10 and 42 counts of aggravated rape of a child younger than 10 who was under his authority. Police have also charged him with 69 counts of aggravated indecent assault and 23 counts of producing child abuse material.
Authorities laid the charges while Griffith was being held at Sydney’s Silverwater Correctional Complex. He had arrived in NSW on Wednesday following his transfer from Queensland. The charges bring allegations involving children as young as one before the courts, with police describing the case as involving particularly vulnerable members of the community.
NSW police assistant commissioner Brett Greentree said the investigation had been lengthy and had involved cooperation with police elsewhere in Australia. Describing the allegations, he said: “The allegations before the court are deeply disturbing and involve some of the most vulnerable members of our community.”
Greentree said children were entitled to safety and protection from harm. He also said NSW police were committed to identifying and investigating people who used positions of trust to commit offences against children, and to bringing those people before the courts. His comments accompanied the announcement of the new charges.
In the Queensland proceedings, Griffith admitted that he had assaulted and filmed young girls over a period of years while employed at childcare centres. Those admissions formed part of the case that resulted in his life sentence, before his extradition to face the NSW allegations.
A Brisbane magistrate approved Griffith’s transfer earlier in October. During that hearing, supporters of the alleged victims shouted insults at him as he stood in the dock for the decision.
