Parents and co-workers struggle to come to terms with alleged child sex offences as more information comes to light

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2 days ago

For more than a year, Jessica* worked in childcare alongside Joshua Dale Brown and trusted him to look after her own children.
They would take it in turns changing nappies, co-ordinate mealtimes and make small talk about their family and friends. She remembers sitting with him and singing Christmas carols with the kids.
Warning: This story contains details of alleged child sex offences which may distress some audience members.
Yet she has now spent days consumed with guilt and tears, since discovering the Melbourne childcare worker has been charged with more than 70 child sex offences that allegedly occurred at that same centre — Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook.
"The times when I was working in the room with him, I've been playing the scenario back in my head, like did I miss stuff?" she says.
She is among the distressed parents who say they are desperate to know if their children have been put at risk. They told the ABC this week that they have been left feeling confused by communications from authorities and abandoned by centre operators.
Parents are demanding to know — how is it possible for vulnerable infants and toddlers to be abused in a business whose key promise is to keep them safe?
When parents drop their kids off at daycare they trust workers with their children's safety, development and wellbeing.
If the allegations are proven, not only has that trust been betrayed, it's been abused in the most appalling way. The matter also raises questions about the entire childcare business model in Australia and how it is regulated.
Now the most important question — what needs to be done to keep kids safe at childcare?
Police say the charges related to eight alleged victims who were at the Point Cook childcare centre between April 2022 and January 2023.
They were between five months and two years of age.
Mr Brown began working in childcare in 2017 after leaving the Emmanual College Catholic school in Point Cook.
His last shift, at a northern suburbs childcare centre, came just days before police took him into custody in May.
The arrest didn't stem from a complaint from a parent or a tip-off from a childcare centre, police say.
Instead, it originated from an investigation into the alleged sexual assault of a teenage boy in Hoppers Crossing weeks earlier.
Detectives examining the devices of 36-year-old man Michael Simon Wilson — who has been charged with the assault, along with offences relating to child abuse material and bestiality — allegedly discovered material linking him to Mr Brown.
Mr Wilson does not work in childcare. But police allege the men are known to each other, and both are due to appear in court again in September.
For those who knew them, it was as if the men suddenly moved on with their lives.
In May, Mr Brown and his housemate told their landlord they didn't wish to renew the lease on the modest house in Point Cook they'd rented for nearly two years.
"What surprised me is they were going to stay there," the landlord tells the ABC.
"They were always asking if we were going to put up the rent, and we hadn't."
The landlord says the pair moved out and Mr Brown's mother committed to pay the rent for the three months until the lease ended.
At around the same time, Mr Wilson suddenly resigned from the amateur radio club, where he had been president for just six months.
"He just said he wasn't coming any more and resigned his position," a club member tells the ABC.
Victorian authorities initially released dates and names of the 20 childcare centres where Mr Brown worked, which led to the call for 1,200 children to be tested.
But there are fears this number could be the tip of the iceberg, as more employment dates come to light.
On Thursday the ABC revealed Mr Brown worked at some Affinity centres for a longer period than was initially disclosed, prompting fears that many more families may be at risk.
Police say they have received 'further material' about Mr Brown's employment history.
'We understand that many in the community are feeling concerned and anxious, however it is incredibly important that this information is confirmed, then thoroughly reviewed with other relevant agencies prior to any public release,' a police spokesperson said in a statement released on Friday.
Several affected families also say communication from the Victorian Department of Health on who should get tested, and for what, has been confusing and added to their distress.
Parents at the same childcare centres have been given different advice on what STIs their children should be tested for, without any explanation as to how this decision was reached, they say.
Now living in a regional town interstate, Jessica had returned home from a school drop-off when she got the email that would rock her family.
The email was sent because two of her children attended the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook at the time Mr Brown worked there. Nurses said they should be tested for sexually transmitted infections.
Thinking back to her time working with him at the centre, Jessica says Mr Brown came across as a "kind, bubbly person".
"There were no red flags," she says.
"The staff did not ignore [the alleged abuse]; we are as shocked as everyone.
"I would never let that happen to a child, like I've been sitting here crying."
Her children are among the 1,200 currently recommended to get tested for infections including syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea.
On Thursday, Jessica took her children out of school and drove 30 minutes each way to get them tested.
"It makes my blood boil. I shouldn't be taking my kids for STI testing," she says.
"Even if the tests come back clear we are never going to have that peace of mind, we are never going to know if anything happened."
The crisis rocking Victorian families has also spread to the world of big business.
This is because in Australia, childcare is dominated by for-profit providers who juggle making money for their investors with providing care and education to children.
The centres where Mr Brown worked were all operated for profit.
Eight of them were run by Affinity Education, which is owned by private equity fund Quadrant. Another four are owned by the biggest operator in Australia, ASX-listed G8 Education, which has more than 400 centres across the country.
Almost 20 per cent has been wiped from G8's share price since police revealed the charges on Tuesday.
Wilson Asset Management, run by high-profile fund manager Geoff Wilson, was the company's fourth-biggest shareholder a week ago.
But since Tuesday it has dumped as much of its 6.33 per cent stake as it could.
"Clearly we've taken a view, a moral stance, on the issues that have transpired," its deputy portfolio manager Shaun Weick tells the ABC.
G8's second-biggest shareholder, giant super fund Australian Retirement Trust (ART), which owns almost 10 per cent of the company, is also concerned.
'The conduct alleged to have occurred at Melbourne childcare centres is deeply disturbing and abhorrent,' an ART spokesperson says.
'We are seeking an explanation from G8 Education around their staff screening processes and ongoing child safety measures, what steps they will now take to improve these processes, and related governance issues."
Speaking generally, Gabrielle Meagher, a professor emerita at Macquarie University researching the childcare industry, says it is "not a coincidence" that alleged abuses happen in for-profit centres.
"If you don't have enough staff, if they are not well-trained, if there is high turnover, [and] if centre directors have KPIs that focus their attention on revenue and occupancy, it is hard to foster a safe, child-focused, collaborative culture in centres," Dr Meagher says.
"And we know that, compared to not-for-profits, on average large private operators do worse on all staffing related measures — they pay less, they offer less secure hours, they have higher turnover and hire less well-trained staff."
She says a conflict of interest between making a profit and looking after children is built into the entire system.
"Ministers have been coming out with some tough talk about tightening up regulation," she said.
"There is certainly some room for that, but it's by no means the whole solution.
"Governments are conflicted because they want to be seen to be growing the system to meet demand and the easiest way to do that is to leave it to private developers. Simply tightening regulation doesn't resolve these conflicts."
On Wednesday, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced an urgent review into child safety in early childhood education to be delivered on August 15.
Led by former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill and senior public servant Pamela White, the review will look at installing CCTV cameras in centres and other measures.
'We will adopt every recommendation of the review and implement them as quickly as possible,' Ms Allan says.
Her government will ban the use of personal devices in childcare centres by the end of September.
The federal government is also promising swift action, vowing to fast track legislation to cut funding to childcare centres that fail to meet safety standards.
For Jessica, her initial shock has transformed into extreme anger and grief.
"We're going through all the symptoms of when you lose a family member," she says.
"The system does need to change, but [authorities] need to sit down and think properly — we need something that works, not just rushed bandaid solutions."
*Name has been changed to protect her children's identities.