Male staff banned from changing nappies at 16 childcare centres across Victoria after alleged child sex predator exposed

a day ago

A Melbourne childcare operator has banned male educators from changing nappies or toileting duties, after a recent police investigation exposed a string of alleged horror abuse against multiple children, by accused child rapist Joshua Brown.
Inspire Early Learning – which operates 16 childcare centres across Victoria, is the first in the state to restrict male staff members' interactions with children.
Brown has worked at 20 childcare centres across Melbourne since 2017, but Inspire Early Learning is not one of them.
Chief curriculum and quality officer Eleinna Anderson sent a letter to parents on Friday afternoon noting changes have been made to its policies to "remain sensitive and responsive to family needs".
'At Inspire Early Learning Journey, the wellbeing and safety of your children are at the heart of everything we do,' the letter said.
'We're writing to share a few important updates to our guidelines around staff interactions with children and team responsibilities – changes made with careful thought and a continued commitment to maintaining a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for all.
'To ensure we remain sensitive and responsive to family needs, we have made an adjustment: male educators will not be assigned to nappy change or toileting duties.'
Staff will also be required to seek consent before holding a child's hand or hugging them in times of emotional support.
Educators have also been told to refrain from kissing or engaging in unnecessary physical contact with children in their care.
It comes after experts and child abuse victims raised the alarm on male workers at childcare centres and called for a blanket ban on male carers to prevent further child sex abuse.
Child abuse victims' advocate Louise Edmonds, a founding member of the independent Collective of Survivors, appeared in several media interviews this week debating the role of males at childcare centres and strongly pushed for a ban.
'This is the third case of huge amounts of children being exposed to alleged pedophiles and alleged child sex abuses in a childcare centre,' she said on Today.
'We actually have to look at the safety first and foremost of our most vulnerable citizens, which are our children, and a lot of them are voiceless.
'So children start communicating well at around two years old. The children under two years old, they cannot speak.
'The sad reality is there's so much lived experience and evidence and data around child sex offenders, and 97 per cent of them are male.
'And this is a scary topic and a lot of people, we don't want to talk about it because it's so horrific when it comes to the abuse of children.'
This week Melbourne residents were confronted with horror as the state government issued an emergency plea urging the families of more than 1,200 children to have their kids tested "for infectious diseases", after the sexual abuse allegations of a childcare worker came to light.
Accused childcare rapist, Joshua Dale Brown, 26, was arrested on May 12 facing more than 70 child sex offences against eight alleged victims, who were in his care at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook between April 2022 and January 2023.
Brown's alleged list of offences include sexual penetration of a child under 12, producing and transmitting child abuse material, and recklessly contaminating goods to cause alarm or anxiety.
It has been alleged Brown used bodily fluids to tamper with the children's food in his care.
The 26-year-old's identity was legally suppressed until Tuesday when the horror was unleashed on the public.
Another man, Michael Simon Wilson, 36, has also been exposed for alleged child sex crimes after his arrest on Wednesday.
Wilson faces 45 charges including rape, bestiality and possession of child abuse material.
Victoria Police said Wilson's charges relate to the alleged sexual assault of a teenage boy in Hoppers Crossing on August 16.
Brown and Wilson are reportedly known to each other, but Wilson's charges are not related to any childcare centres and involve different alleged victims.
Brown has remained in custody since his arrest in May.
Both Wilson and Brown are due to face Melbourne Magistrates' Court on September 15.