Accused childcare paedophile charged with abusing more kids at more centres

Childcare worker Joshua Brown is accused of abusing children during his very first job in the sector, as police reveal their case against the 27-year-old has widened from one daycare centre in Melbourne’s west to four.

On Thursday, police charged Brown with an extra 83 offences, saying they had discovered four more alleged victims at other childcare centres, including the first one he worked at just weeks after graduating from high school.

The discovery of a cache of child abuse material allegedly linked to Brown in May sparked an urgent police investigation and plunged Australia’s childcare sector into crisis as it emerged Brown had worked at 24 centres across Melbourne over more than eight years.

Brown was first charged with abusing eight toddlers and babies at Point Cook daycare Creative Garden between April 2022 and January 2023. There, police allege he sent child abuse material to another man and recorded himself contaminating children’s food with bodily fluids, which prompted unprecedented STI testing for kids at affected centres.

Police said the ongoing investigation into Brown had now expanded to alleged offending as far back as March 26, 2019 while at Nino Early Learning Adventures in Point Cook.

Families of newly identified alleged victims had already been notified and no one would require further health testing, detectives said.

Between them, children affected by the charges Thursday attended Nino in Point Cook on March 26, 2019; Only About Children in Williamstown on December 1, 2020, and February 22, 2021; and Aussie Kindies Early Learning Centre in Keilor between February 3 and 11 this year.

The new charges include six counts of sexually penetrating a child under 12, eight counts of producing child abuse material, and committing a sexual act in the presence of a child under 16.

Brown has also been charged with 12 bestiality offences, not related to childcare, and further sexual abuse charges relating to his previously identified alleged victims at Creative Gardens.

Brown was previously fired from at least three childcare centres but attracted little notice from regulators or employers who missed glaring errors on his resume. When police raided his home in May, he still had a valid Working With Children Check.

Brown left the Williamstown centre run by Only About Children, where he is now charged with abusing children, just shy of finishing his probation period, and they did not give him a reference.

The two main childcare chains where Brown worked, Affinity and G8, have some of the poorest safety records in the industry, and this masthead has since revealed that safety complaints made at the centres where Brown worked were ignored by regulators.

Affinity in particular also led police investigating Brown on a wild goose chase by inadvertently handing over incorrect employment records – despite tracking their workers’ locations.

Police confirmed on Thursday that the employment history for Brown that is publicly available was now complete and accurate, but the investigation was ongoing.

Officers have also been investigating suspected further offending at an Affinity-owned Papilio centre in Essendon where Brown worked right before his arrest, and which this masthead revealed had been on a government watch list months earlier. But the new charges do not relate to that centre.

An Affinity spokeswoman said the childcare chain was deeply distressed by the further charges, which she said included an alleged incident involving one child at its Keilor centre, owned under the brand Aussie Kindies.

“No child or family should ever have to face this,” the spokeswoman said. “We are deeply sorry.”

Affinity also owns the affected Nino Early Learning Adventures in Point Cook (now a Papilio centre), though it was acquired in December 2024, after the time of Brown’s alleged offending there.

The fresh charges now affect a third large childcare chain, Only About Children, which said on Thursday that it was devastated by the allegations.

A spokeswoman said the company was co-operating with authorities and was focused on supporting the children, families and staff affected, “and ensuring they have access to the information and assistance they need”.

In a statement, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she was “angry and distressed by these additional allegations”, as Victorian parents would be.
They had “broken the trust of Victorians, and they’ve broken my trust too,” she said. But she pointed to new childcare safety reforms, passed this week in parliament, including the creation of a new childcare regulator.

The new regulator “will have the authority to act swiftly and decisively … to immediately re-assess, refuse, suspend or revoke a WWCC when credible information is received”, Allan said.

But three government sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, are concerned reforms will do little to address bigger systemic problems in the sector such as understaffing and for-profit business models that put company reputation ahead of safety.

They add to the worries voiced by families in the wake of the Brown revelations, including by Ruth*, who chose to speak publicly after her daughter was repeatedly raped at a family daycare centre in Melbourne’s west.

The childcare regulator declined to say whether it had investigated the centres affected. A spokesperson said it would consider the additional charges as part of its ongoing investigation into Brown.

In October, Affinity chief executive Tim Hickey and another top executive abruptly stepped down over recent safety scandals reported by this masthead.

On Thursday, new CEO Glen Hurley was at Affinity’s affected Keilor centre as staff and families were told of the new charges, and Affinity said external counselling was on offer.

G8, which owns the Creative Gardens centre where Brown was first accused of offending, said it was horrified by the new charges.

In an ASX market update on Thursday, CEO Pejman Okhovat said G8 would continue to do everything in its power to give authorities the best chance of achieving justice for the children and families involved.

Brown is due to face Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on a total of 156 charges on February 10.

Victorian opposition education spokesman Brad Rowswell said the distress, trauma and anguish of affected families would be felt across the entire state.

“This situation is every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said.

With Caroline Schelle

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