“One of Australia’s most notorious pedophiles”. With these words the Australian channel ABC News describes Ashley Paul Griffith, a former child care worker sentenced this Friday, November 29, to life in prison for having committed 307 sexual crimes against around 70 children in her care, over almost 20 years.
Queensland District Court Judge Paul Smith called the acts “depraved” and imposed the maximum sentence and a special non-parole period of 27 years. Therefore, he will not be eligible for parole until 2049.
In fact, the Attorney General had explained during the trial that this man had been evaluated with “a high level of sexual deviation”, that he suffered from a “pedophilic disorder”, that he lacked “empathy towards the victims” and that, therefore, the risk The risk of recurrence was “high”.
Rape, distribution of images of child pornography…
Ashley Paul Griffith pleaded guilty last September to these 307 sexual crimes committed against girls, most of them between the ages of two and five – one of them could be as young as one year old according to ABC News – in nurseries in Brisbane and Pisa in Italy. , between 2003 and 2022.
In particular, he was convicted of “28 counts of rape” and “15 counts of repeated sexual conduct with a child.”
Ashley Paul Griffith, originally from the Gold Coast in the Brisbane region, was also tried for “producing and distributing images of child pornography.” In fact, he has distributed thousands of photographs and videos of his abuse on the “dark web,” accompanied by advice on how to sexually abuse children.
It is also thanks to these videos that the man described as “one of Australia’s worst child offenders” was found. Authorities have linked the leaves visible in the background to leaves sold in some Queensland nurseries.
“I missed a normal childhood”
Judge Paul Smith concluded that Griffith had caused “significant damage” and “significant damage will continue to be caused”.
A young woman who was a victim of this man during her childhood spoke in court about the post-traumatic symptoms she has suffered since then, reports the British media The Guardian. Symptoms that remained unexplained until 2022, when the police contacted her.
“I can never know what it would have been like to grow up not being afraid of people,” he said. “He filmed himself abusing me and posted recordings of me on the dark web. His actions had a profound impact on my life. I missed out on a normal childhood.”
“(My daughter) loved you like an uncle and you used her like a toy,” one parent said, according to News Corp Australia.
The father of one of the victims expressed the “false sense of security” that parents now feel when they leave their children in these establishments. “The children are napping in the same beds they were raped in,” he told reporters outside the court.
“The anger I feel toward daycare and the anger I feel toward (Ashley Paul Griffith) are closely related,” one mother said, referring to a “feeling of betrayal.”
The victims and their families want Queensland education authorities to investigate the “failures” that allowed this man to commit this abuse, specifies The Guardian.
Source: BFM TV
