Almost 200 distressed parents are turning to legal help after the shock allegations of child sex offences by a childcare worker
Joshua Dale Brown, 26, has been charged with more than 70 child abuse offences, including the sexual penetration of a child and producing child abuse material.
The alleged offences occurred during Brown's employment at Creative Garden Early Learning Centre Point Cook, where he worked from October 2021 to February 2024.
Last week, an urgent warning from the Victorian Department of Health and Victoria Police horrified the parents of 1,200 children who were told to get them tested for infectious diseases.
Days later, on Thursday, almost 200 parents filled a room at Sanctuary Lakes Function Centre in Point Cook, in southwest Melbourne, to discuss legal action.
The crowd were very emotional during the event which had been organised by high-profile Victorian law firm Arnold Thomas & Becker.
Many broke down in tears and felt overwhelmed by the lack of information.
Some raised concerns there was a lack of accountability by childcare centres, the government and the police.
Principal lawyer Jodie Harris heard from some parents who had to give up work to stay home with their children and have said they are 'suffering their own mental health conditions'.
She told Daily Mail Australia they are 'so concerned that they've put their child in a position where they may have been abused'.
'A major red flag for us in considering actions on behalf of families is just the sheer amount of access (Brown) had one-on-one with children to allow this alleged offending to occur.'
The lawyer said the firm will be starting legal proceedings in the 'very near future', but added they are unsure whether it will be a class action suit.
A GP from MyHealth Clinic in Point Cook, Dr Parul Solanki also attended the event to offer advice to parents on testing and how they should handle it.
This included discussing the 'inconsistent' approach of the state government's health department which is understood to have asked some families to do urine tests and others to do blood test.
Many questions were directed to the doctor around the process of testing and the 'injuries' caused to children as a result.
The department declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia, pointing to its FAQ page offering information to parents.
A spokesperson for Victoria Police said officers are working through further material provided over the past few days by childcare centres in relation to Brown's employment history.
'All of the childcare providers are cooperating fully with police on this matter,' they said.
'This assessment is being completed by police as a priority.
'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.'
They said that, once the assessment is completed, authorities will seek to inform the impacted parties directly and also update the government website.
The investigation remains ongoing and anyone with further information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers via the website or on 1800 333 000.
Brown worked at 20 childcare centres over an eight-year period between January 2017 and May 2025.
His Point Cook home was raided by police shortly after an investigation was launched earlier that same month.
Police have said he was not known to them before his arrest and he had a valid Working With Children Check, which has since been cancelled.
He will next appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on September 15.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
15 hours ago
- The Independent
Hundreds of children to be tested for sexually transmitted infections in Australia amid childcare abuse case
Authorities in Australia have urged over 800 additional children to undergo testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), after four more childcare centres were linked to a former employee now facing more than 70 charges, including child rape. Joshua Dale Brown, 26, is accused of sexually abusing eight children, aged between five months and two years, while working at a childcare centre in Point Cook, a suburb of Melbourne. The alleged offences occurred between April 2022 and January 2023. Mr Brown was arrested in May and is due to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates' Court in September. Victoria Police said the list of centres where he worked has now grown from 20 to 23 after investigators uncovered additional dates and locations, with one previously named centre removed from the list following a review. Earlier, the authorities contacted approximately 2,600 families with children who attended the centres. At least, 1,200 advised to undergo screening for STI, reported the Guardian. The health department is contacting 830 more families whose children may have been in contact with Mr Brown, and recommends STI screening for approximately 800 of them after four more centres were added to the list. The infections being tested for include chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis – treatable conditions that are not commonly associated with children, and whose presence could indicate serious abuse. Although the risk of exposure is 'considered low', Victoria's chief health officer Dr Christian McGrath said testing is being advised as a precaution. 'This is obviously a highly distressing situation, and I want to reassure all families being contacted that the potential exposure risk to an infectious disease for their child remains low,' Dr McGrath said, reported the Guardian. Families will be contacted via text message, followed by a phone call, and those who have already had their children tested do not need further screening. Victoria Police Acting Commander Janet Stevenson acknowledged public frustration over the delays in updating Mr Brown's work history. 'We are working through a large amount of information that has been provided to us,' she said, reported ABC News. 'Each piece has to be individually assessed and verified before it can be released to the public.' Investigators described the process of reconstructing Mr Brown's employment timeline as 'extremely complex' due to the lack of centralised records in the childcare sector. Detectives had to obtain handwritten rosters, execute search warrants, review over 270 Crime Stoppers reports, and interview multiple witnesses. Ten of the 20 previously identified centres have had their employment dates amended following new information, while one centre, Papilio Early Learning in Hoppers Crossing was removed after investigators found Mr Brown had not worked there. G8 Education, the childcare operator that employed Mr Brown at the time of his arrest, has committed to fast-tracking the installation of security cameras across its 400 centres and will initiate an independent review once criminal proceedings are concluded, reported BBC News. Affinity Education Group, which operates several affected centres, has apologised for the distress caused and said it had submitted updated employment records to the police earlier this month. 'No family should have to go through this. We are committed to supporting every family impacted,' a spokesperson said. Despite being under investigation for concerning behaviour two years ago – reportedly unrelated to sexual misconduct – Mr Brown retained his Working with Children Check, a clearance mandatory for individuals employed in child-related roles. The case has sparked widespread outrage across Victoria, with parents expressing anger not only at the alleged crimes but also at what they see as serious failings in the vetting and oversight of childcare workers.
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- The Guardian
Medical charlatans have existed through history. But AI has turbocharged them
Nearly a year into parenting, I've relied on advice and tricks to keep my baby alive and entertained. For the most part, he's been agile and vivacious, and I'm beginning to see an inquisitive character develop from the lump of coal that would suckle from my breast. Now he's started nursery (or what Germans refer to as Kita), other parents in Berlin, where we live, have warned me that an avalanche of illnesses will come flooding in. So during this particular stage of uncertainty, I did what many parents do: I consulted the internet. This time, I turned to ChatGPT, a source I had vowed never to use. I asked a straightforward but fundamental question: 'How do I keep my baby healthy?' The answers were practical: avoid added sugar, monitor for signs of fever and talk to your baby often. But the part that left me wary was the last request: 'If you tell me your baby's age, I can tailor this more precisely.' Of course, I should be informed about my child's health, but given my growing scepticism towards AI, I decided to log off. Earlier this year, an episode in the US echoed my little experiment. With a burgeoning measles outbreak, children's health has become a significant political battleground, and the Department of Health and Human Services, under the leadership of Robert F Kennedy, has initiated a campaign titled the Make America Healthy Again commission, aimed at combating childhood chronic disease. The corresponding report claimed to address the principal threats to children's health: pesticides, prescription drugs and vaccines. Yet the most striking aspect of the report was the pattern of citation errors and unsubstantiated conclusions. External researchers and journalists believed that these pointed to the use of ChatGPT in compiling the report. What made this more alarming was that the Maha report allegedly included studies that did not exist. This coincides with what we already know about AI, which has been found not only to include false citations but also to 'hallucinate', that is, to invent nonexistent material. The epidemiologist Katherine Keyes, who was listed in the Maha report as the first author of a study on anxiety and adolescents, said: 'The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with.' The threat of AI may feel new, but its role in spreading medical myths fits into an old mould: that of the charlatan peddling false cures. During the 17th and 18th centuries, there was no shortage of quacks selling reagents intended to counteract intestinal ruptures and eye pustules. Although not medically trained, some, such as Buonafede Vitali and Giovanni Greci, were able to obtain a licence to sell their serums. Having a public platform as grand as the square meant they could gather in public and entertain bystanders, encouraging them to purchase their products, which included balsamo simpatico (sympathetic balm) to treat venereal diseases. RFK Jr believes that he is an arbiter of science, even if the Maha report appears to have cited false information. What complicates charlatanry today is that we're in an era of far more expansive tools, such as AI, which ultimately have more power than the swindlers of the past. This disinformation may appear on platforms that we believe to be reliable, such as search engines, or masquerade as scientific papers, which we're used to seeing as the most reliable sources of all. Ironically, Kennedy has claimed that leading peer-reviewed scientific journals such as the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine are corrupt. His stance is especially troubling, given the influence he wields in shaping public health discourse, funding and official panels. Moreover, his efforts to implement his Maha programme undermine the very concept of a health programme. Unlike science, which strives to uncover the truth, AI has no interest in whether something is true or false. AI is very convenient, and people often turn to it for medical advice; however, there are significant concerns with its use. It is injurious enough to refer to it as an individual, but when a government significantly relies on AI for medical reports, this can lead to misleading conclusions about public health. A world filled with AI platforms creates an environment where fact and fiction meld into each other, leaving minimal foundation for scientific objectivity. The technology journalist Karen Hao astutely reflected in the Atlantic: 'How do we govern artificial intelligence? With AI on track to rewire a great many other crucial functions in society, that question is really asking: how do we ensure that we'll make our future better, not worse?' We need to address this by establishing a way to govern its use, rather than adopting a heedless approach to AI by the government. Individual solutions can be helpful in assuaging our fears, but we require robust and adaptable policies to hold big tech and governments accountable regarding AI misuse. Otherwise, we risk creating an environment where charlatanism becomes the norm. Edna Bonhomme is a historian of science
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Aussie dad left fighting for life as father-son day out at a waterpark ends in horror
A father is fighting for life after falling from a wakeboard and hitting his head on a ramp as his young son watched on in horror. The accident occurred on what was meant to be a father-son bonding day out for Darcy Coulson and his seven-year-old boy Sonny, at a waterpark in Melbourne on July 5. During the session, Mr Coulson lost his balance and fell from the wakeboard, hitting his head 'hard' on the ramp in the process. 'In a moment no child should ever experience, Sonny witnessed the fall and was the first to raise the alarm,' family friend Danielle Dickson said. She said it took lifeguards 'several crucial minutes' to reach the young father, before they found him unconscious in the water. 'The impact caused a severe brain bleed, and with significant oxygen deprivation, the situation was critical,' Ms Dickson said. First responders administered CPR at the park before paramedics rushed Mr Coulson to the Alfred Hospital. He remains there in a critical condition on life support. 'Against the odds, Darcy is showing small signs of improvement, but the road ahead is uncertain and incredibly tough,' Ms Dickson said. Last week, things took a turn and Mr Coulson developed a chest infection caused by E. coli bacteria while in hospital. He was then diagnosed with pneumonia, and was placed on strong antibiotics to fight the infections through an IV drip. On Monday, the family was told the antibiotics were beginning to work. 'It's a small but deeply meaningful step forward,' Ms Dickson said. 'We cannot express enough how grateful we are for the exceptional care Darcy is receiving. 'The team at The Alfred Hospital has been nothing short of incredible - their expertise, compassion, and dedication have given Darcy the best possible chance during the most critical time of his life.' Ms Dickson has set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe for the family, saying 'any donation, no matter how small, will make a real difference' to his partner Leah and their two children. She said the family needed assistance with living expenses, medical bills, travel, psychological care for the couple's two children, and Mr Coulson's long-term care. The family has so far raised more than $12,600.
