A Sydney man has been charged with allegedly producing child abuse material at six out-of-school hours care services. Australian Federal Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Brett James said the AFP and other agencies remain committed to providing ongoing support to affected families.
00:00Today I will be outlining details of an AFP investigation into a 26-year-old man employed at out-of-school hours care services, also known as OUSHs, on Sydney's North Shore.
00:14The AFP will allege the man took explicit photos of 10 children aged between 5 and 6 over a three-year period, 2021 to 2024.
00:25These children were allegedly in his care at six OUSH services where he worked.
00:30Today court orders were lifted so we can now talk about this investigation.
00:35The non-publication order issued by the court was to allow our investigators the time to carefully work through all the available evidence to establish a full picture of the alleged offending.
00:48Victim identification is a painstaking and detailed process that can take months to carry out.
00:53It is crucial to make sure we identify all the victims and capture the evidence in a way that will stand up to the rigours of a criminal trial.
01:02Our experience has been that parents and carers can be very distressed when they learn of criminal and predatory behaviour through the media before police have spoken to them.
01:11Our process is victim-led.
01:13Simply put, the victims and their families are our key priority.
01:18We need to ensure appropriate support services can speak to and support the affected families and our investigators can obtain the evidence they need to ensure a successful prosecution.
01:28It's very important for me to reassure parents and carers in the community about this investigation.
01:36If you have not heard from the AFP, it is because we have no evidence which has linked your family to this man's offending.
01:44It is important to note that this man remains in custody.
01:49This AFP investigation began in June 2024 after the detection of child abuse material on the dark web.
01:58A man was identified as being allegedly responsible for this material and a search warrant was executed at his Artarman home in September 2024.
02:07We were alleged the man refused to provide access to his electronic devices and was charged and refused police bail.
02:12He was then granted bail by the courts five days later.
02:17AFP digital forensics investigators were able to crack into the man's devices and we found what we will allege is child abuse material.
02:27The man was re-arrested in October 2024 and charged with 13 offences, including nine counts of using a child to produce child abuse material.
02:36This major offence carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.
02:40From this point on, our victim identification process began in earnest as our investigators went through every image or video on his phones, his computers and his storage devices.
02:53In all, we had to examine 142,000 files on his devices or 18.9 gigabytes.
02:59Not all of those were child abuse material, but it shows the effort it took to thoroughly go through every single file.
03:07This then led us to establishing what is called a local contact point centre process in June 2025.
03:14This process was facilitated by our partners at the New South Wales Police Force and was supported by a range of New South Wales government agencies.
03:22Letters were sent to the parents, carers and operators at the six OUSH centres where the man had allegedly produced child abuse material.
03:31It provided advice on support services that were available, as well as a hotline for concerned parents and carers.
03:39Today is the start of the second phase of this process.
03:42We have activated a website listing all 58 care services where the man had been employed between March 2018 and September 2024.
03:52On this website, and I'll give you the website's name, it's www.afp.gov.au forward slash op arctile, and I'll spell that O-P-A-R-C-T-I-L-E.
04:08You will find the following, tips on how to approach and talk to your child.
04:14That's a very important part, very important for parents to remember.
04:18A list of centres impacted, dates the man worked at those centres, what support services are available to you and your children,
04:28and relevant contact and reporting details if you think you need them.
04:31The local contact point centre is currently staffed by members of the Department of Community and Justice and the AFP.
04:38Members are sitting there awaiting your calls right now.
04:42To be clear, comprehensive inquiries by police so far have found no evidence to suggest that any alleged offending took place at the remaining 52 centres.
04:52Any form of child sexual abuse is confronting, even more so when the alleged perpetrator is an individual trusted with the care of our children.
05:02The AFP and our law enforcement partners are dedicated to combating child sex predators each and every day.
05:08I would like to thank our partners, including New South Wales Police, the Department of Community and Justice, New South Wales Education, New South Wales Health and the Office of the Children's Guardian.
05:20To the wonderful people of the AFP, I'm extremely proud of the work our people do to protect our children.
05:26I need to thank our dedicated AFP investigators for their diligence on this investigation so far.
05:35They are relentless and the AFP is very proud of them.
05:39I will now take any questions.
05:41Do you know if this man used his status as a member of New South Wales Police on any applications for any childcare work?
05:48Look, I think any questions in relation to New South Wales Police should be directed to them.
05:51There's a statement they've put out today.
05:53What I can say is the offending that took place, the evidence that we hold, is that offending took place at six centres only in his role as a childcare worker.
06:02Did he have a working with children part? Was he accredited to work with children?
06:07Yeah, my understanding is he did have an accreditation.
06:10But obviously at the time of arrest, and what is normal practice, is we engage with our stakeholders, that being the Office of the Children's Guardian,
06:18and we ensure that those checks, those working with children certifications are taken away.
06:22Can you provide further detail as to how he came to your attention and how he came to your attention?
06:30Yeah, I think we need to, I just need to understand that the matter is still before the court.
06:35So there's, I can talk generally, but not in specifics, but what I can say is what I said at the start.
06:41We located some information on the dark web, and then we worked from there, and as soon as we found out that the man was a childcare worker, we obviously sprung into action very quickly.
06:52What I would like to say is, but these pedophiles seem to think that they can work under the cover of encryption and on the dark web.
06:59So I need to be very clear, I need to be very clear, the AFP can see you, okay?
07:04We are working diligently to ensure that if you think you're under the cover of darkness, you're not, and we're coming after you.
07:11You mentioned some tips in that link for parents, are they able to run through some of them?
07:17Are there any tips for childcare centres to be able to look out for within their staff?
07:21So the childcare centres have received a letter today, we've given them some advice in relation to how to contact the parents, they're obviously a subject to the timeframes that we're talking about.
07:33The tips in relation to talking to concerned parents, take your time to read them, they're detailed, but they give you some information on first off how to approach your child, and then what questions, how to ask those questions, and how to lead them through the conversation.
07:49This is a really important piece for us. Today is about having a conversation with the parents that are affected by this man's behaviour.
07:58If you have any concerns, the local contact point centre number is at the bottom of the page.
08:04We really do urge you to ring the contact point centre and have a conversation with us if you have any concerns.
08:10Out of the mountains of files that your investigators went through, you said not all were related to child abuse material,
08:16but can you give us an idea of how many of those files work in the fact of child abuse material? Is it the majority? Is it a percentage?
08:24So the child abuse material that he was charged into, it's only 10 files, right? Sorry, 10 victims.
08:32And I'm not going to go into the detail of that material, just out of pure respect for our victims.
08:37Those 10 victims we've been engaging with the families for a period of time now.
08:43I don't want to rehash some of the trauma that they're already going through, so I won't go into the detail.
08:49Other than to say, we went through every single file, that's 142,000.
08:54Our victim identification investigators are an incredible bunch of people.
08:59They're the most resilient investigators that I've ever seen, and they do this every single day.
09:04So it was a fantastic job, Lauren.
09:06How are those families? You just mentioned, obviously, it's traumatic for them, but how has it been dealing with those 10 sets of parents?
09:14Yeah, I won't go into that.
09:16Other than to say, it's been led by a health and investigative response.
09:21So our partners at New South Wales Government are absolutely integral to this process
09:27in ensuring that not only we can, I guess, collect the evidence we need,
09:31but we can support the families and the victims as well.
09:33I think it's really important to say this is just about the investigation, this is about the victims as well.
09:39Any evidence for physical touching or any allegations for physical touching of those 10 victims?
09:44As I said, I don't want to jeopardise the court manner.
09:48It's before the courts.
09:49I don't want to go into the details in regards to that, but also in respect for the victims at the moment.
09:55So we'll put those allegations before the courts, and the courts will deal with them.
09:59Is it clear how and why he was left alone with these children in order to produce this?
10:05That will form part of the brief of evidence and what we put before the courts.
10:09So I, once again, don't want to go into those details.
10:12I just want to make a commitment to those families, those 10 families that are going through this process,
10:18that the AFP will work diligently ensuring that justice is met.
10:22What do you want to do is it for possessing and creating child abuse material?
10:27The challenges are for possessing and creating child abuse material.
10:31Are you certain that there's been no distributing of this child abuse material anywhere?
10:35Or is that something you're still looking into?
10:36Look, that's something we're looking into.
10:38It's part of our investigation.
10:40Obviously, we started on the dark web, and we'll continue to do so.
10:44We'll continue to collect evidence through this process and put it before the courts.
10:48So do you believe he was using these images for personal use?
10:52Look, I can't speak for the male individual.
10:55I don't want to go into the detail, but generally speaking,
10:57I think what we find is that people make, they share, they look at this material
11:02for their own personal gain, but what they're doing is preying on vulnerable young people in our community.
11:10And we are absolutely dedicated to protecting those young people
11:15and bringing those pedophiles to justice and putting them in front of the courts.
11:19How much of a surprise it was to your officers finding out that he had been part of the law enforcement
11:26and a probationary capacity, and when did you inform your New South Wales counterparts about this?
11:34Look, I'm not going to go into the details about our partnership with New South Wales Police.
11:37What I can say is that, you know, these sort of individuals cross all industries.
11:43They cross all parts of the community.
11:46We don't discriminate.
11:49We just deal with criminality, and then we put those people before the courts.
11:52What I can say about the New South Wales Police,
11:54they've been wonderful partners through this process.
11:57They led the local contact point centre.
12:00They did so in partnership with us.
12:02And in relation to child abuse and child protection matters,
12:06the New South Wales Police and the AFP have a wonderful relationship.
12:09We work side by side.
12:11It's a really, really difficult job for our people to go through that,
12:16and, you know, we can empathise with the work that New South Wales Police have to do as well.
12:19But I've got to say, hats off to everybody that works in that area.
12:25They're wonderful, amazing investigators.
12:28You've got about 60 centres on this list of places where this man works.
12:32Is it a concern for police that this man was able to work across nearly 60 centres in a span of about six years?
12:38I think what you'll find, some of the centres, he might have worked one shift,
12:43and some of the centres he might have worked a lot of shifts.
12:45I think how the industry work is a matter for industry.
12:48It's not for law enforcement.
12:49We just look at the criminality and deal with what's in front of us.
12:54So I really think that's a matter for others to talk about.
12:58Are the centre directors looking at any breaches for the fact that this man was left alone on multiple occasions?
13:04Is that a part of your investigation?
13:06Look, it doesn't form part of our investigation.
13:08It's really not for us to sort of talk about.
13:11I think that's a question for the New South Wales government agencies.
13:15What we predominantly look at is the offending itself
13:17and getting to the bottom of how, you know, how, why and what he did.
