The parents of some of the 87 Australian children allegedly victimised by a childcare worker are seeking legal advice to determine if they have a case against the companies he worked for.
While the criminal prosecution of 1623 charges against the 45-year-old Gold Coast man has begun in Queensland, the parents have engaged law firm Slater and Gordon to look at the possibility of suing the childcare providers.
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The strength of the civil case hinges on establishing that the providers had a duty of care to the children and whether it was breached.
“We’d be looking at whether or not these daycare centres have implemented adequate policies and procedures and if they have been implemented, whether they’d actually been used,” Slater and Gordon’s Tiffany Marsh told 7NEWS.
Court filings are yet to be made in the civil matter.
On Tuesday, law enforcement officials revealed the man allegedly raped and sexually assaulted little girls while he worked in childcare centres in Brisbane and Sydney from 2007 to 2022.
He has been accused of recording his alleged abuse of children and posting the photos and videos to the dark web.
He was initially arrested in August 2022 before analysis of his electronic devices led to the 1623 charges, including 136 counts of rape in Queensland and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 in NSW.
‘All the qualifications’
He has also been accused of abusing four children overseas.
Law enforcement officials have declined to reveal how the man was able to be in a position to allegedly abuse so many children.
But Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said on Tuesday that the man “had all the qualifications required to work in childcare centres” in Queensland and NSW.
The childcare centres he worked at have not been made public to protect the identify of his victims.
It was revealed the man had been investigated in the years before his arrest, but there was not enough evidence to charge him.
“The 45-year-old man was subject to two reports in Queensland — one in 2021 and another in 2022,” Queensland Acting Assistant Commissioner Col Briggs said.
“Both reports were subject to investigation, however there was insufficient evidence to take action against any person on the evidence available to investigators at that time.”
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