Australian ex-childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith, sentenced to life for abusing more than 60 girls

Ashley Paul Griffith, a former Australian nursery school worker, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday after he was found guilty of sexual abuse of dozens of children in grave cases that are described as "depraved" and "beyond the realms of anyone's imagination".
Griffith, who worked at childcare centers between 2003 and 2022 pleaded guilty to raping and sexually abusing more than 60 children, majorly girls. Out of Griffith’s 300 charges, 28 were of rape.
Sentencing judge Paul Smith said the 46-year-old's crimes had caused "significant harm".
"People expect that their children will be protected in childcare centres," he noted.
"The offences were depraved and committed by a man with a high risk of re-offending," quoted news agency AFP.
Police speculated that many of his victims may have been as young as 12 months old at the time.
Detectives began searching for Griffith a decade ago after uncovering a cache of child pornography that had been shared anonymously on the dark web.
Although their efforts bore no fruits for a long time, an unexpected breakthrough occurred when detectives matched visual clues in the background of the images to a childcare center in the city of Brisbane.
After charging him in 2023, senior officer Michael Fitzgerald described it as "one of the most horrific cases" of child abuse the police force had ever encountered.
"It's beyond the realms of anyone's imagination what this person did to these children," he said at the time.
"I can only say, you try not to be shocked after a long period of time in the police, but this is a horrific case."
Griffith had also managed to pass the rigorous background checks needed to work at childcare centers in the states of Queensland and New South Wales.