Victorian childcare employee charged

Australian Community Media

Victoria Police arrested 26-year-old Point Cook man Joshua Brown on May 12 after eight alleged victims were identified by detectives.

Transcript

00:00Victoria Police sexual crime squad commenced an investigation in May this year after detectives

00:12discovered child abuse material. We immediately acted and executed a search warrant at the

00:18Point Cook home of a 26-year-old Joshua Brown. As a result, Brown was charged with over 70

00:26offences which relate to alleged sexual assaults committed against eight identified child victims.

00:34He was subsequently remanded in custody and will face the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 15 September.

00:41Brown was not known to police prior to this investigation. However, as soon as we identified

00:47his alleged offending, he was removed from the community. He had a valid working with children

00:53check which has since been cancelled. I emphasise that these are allegations and the matter is now

01:00before the courts so I won't be going into specifics. Our number one priority was to identify any

01:07potential victims and identify Brown's employment history so we could determine who may have been

01:14impacted. It has been established that he has worked at 20 childcare centres across Melbourne

01:21between January 2017 and May 2025. A full list of these impacted centres and the date range of when

01:31he was working there will be listed on a government website. I will shortly tell you exactly where those

01:39places were to remove all doubt. We're not suggesting that the accused has offended against children in all

01:47these centres but we're encouraging anyone to come forward with any information to Crimestoppers.

01:55At this stage all of the alleged offending is believed to have taken place in Victoria. We do not

02:02believe that there is any other childcare employees who have been involved. Last week we notified eight

02:10families that we had charged Brown with sexually offending against their children. As you could

02:17imagine this was deeply distressing for the families to hear. We worked with our partner agencies to put

02:23all supports in place to assist them through this difficult period. Today a letter has been distributed on

02:31behalf of Victoria Police and the Department of Health to all the families that we believe had a child

02:37enrolled at the childcare centres that we have listed where Brown worked during the period of his employment.

02:46Those letters contain important instructions which the Chief Health Officer Christian Magar will go into

02:52in more detail. If you have not been contacted then it's highly unlikely that your child has been impacted.

03:00However, if you were concerned there is a full list of these centres and the dates that he was employed there

03:07at the government website and the Chief Health Officer will speak to that. I understand this information

03:14will be deeply concerning and come as a great shock to many of the community. We have a number of services

03:20in place for those who may have been impacted by this matter and detectives will be working closely with

03:26the families of the victims to ensure they get all the support they need at this time. There will be people

03:33out there that hear this news today and they might have information that they wish to pass on to police.

03:40And so this may be families who had a child at the centre where he worked or even staff that worked

03:47alongside the person. Again, we are not suggesting that the accused has offended against children in all

03:55these childcare centres but we are encouraging anyone with any further information to contact Crime Stoppers

04:02or on their website you can send an anonymous information if that is your choice.

04:10I can assure you that we will take every piece of information very seriously and it will be thoroughly

04:16assessed. Victoria Police has been working closely with a number of agencies as part of this

04:21investigation. That includes the Department of Health, the Commission for Children and Young Persons,

04:28Family Safety Victoria, Department of Families Fairness and Housing, Gatehouse, Department of Education,

04:35the Royal Children's Hospital to ensure that we get the right supports in place and that the families

04:42have given as much information as possible about the process. The investigation remains ongoing and again,

04:50if you have any information please contact Crime Stoppers. What I will do, I am going to read out a list

04:57of the childcare centres. I am not going to give you the dates of his employment. If that is required,

05:03please go to the website and there will be further information there.

05:06The first one, Nino Early Learning Adventures in Point Cook, Explorers Early Learning in Point Cook,

05:16Adventurers Education Wyndham Vale, Only About Children in Williamstown, Wallaby Childcare Centre in

05:24Sanctuary Lakes, Nido Early Learning Centre in Werribee, Creative Gardens in Point Cook,

05:32Leopold World of Learning in Leopold, Greenwood in Point Cook, Little Blossoms Childcare Centre in Werribee,

05:42the DOTS Occupational Therapy for Children in Footscray, Aussie Kindies Learning Centre in Sunbury,

05:51Milestones Early Learning in Werribee, Milestones Early Learning in Hoppers Crossing, Papillo Early Learning in

06:00Hoppers Crossing, Kids Academy in Melton, Kids Academy in Kensington, Aussie Kindies Early Learning in Kielor,

06:11Papillo Early Learning in Essendon, and Milestones Early Learning in Bundura.

06:26So,

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