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A childcare worker in Australia is facing over 1,600 charges of sexual related crimes involving children in a case law enforcement officials have called “horrific” and “beyond the realms of anyone’s imagination.”
An unidentified 45-year-old male is facing a total of 1,623 charges, including 136 counts of rape, 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 10 and 613 counts of making child pornography after a years-long investigation, CBS News reported.
A 45-year-old Gold Coast man has been accused of more than 1600 sex abuse offences against 91 children. https://t.co/TUhbCYjcGD #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/Rq4dslktUe
— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) August 1, 2023
Investigators began searching for the suspect in 2014 after discovering a large cache of child pornography shared on the dark web, the outlet stated. For years, their efforts to find the culprit responsible proved fruitless, until August 2022 when investigators were able to match visual clues in the backgrounds of the images to a childcare center in Brisbane, CBS News reported. (RELATED: Day Care Employee Sentenced To 50 Years For Using Kids To Make Child Porn, DOJ Says)
Initially, the suspect was charged with only three offenses, but as police furthered their investigation, federal police commissioner Justine Gough expressed that the full gravity of the situation became more apparent.
“This is chilling and shocking news for parents,” Gough stated, according to the outlet.
Investigators believe the suspect catalogued all of his alleged crimes with either videos or photos amounting to more than 4,000 pieces of evidence. Police further allege the suspect abused his victims, some as young as 1-year-old, over the course of 15 years, amounting to 91 victims, the outlet stated.
“It’s beyond the realms of anyone’s imagination what this person did to these children. 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,” New South Wales assistant police commissioner Michael Fitzgerald stated, according to the outlet.
The abuse allegedly occurred at 10 different childcare centers in Queensland and New South Wales from 2007 and 2022. The suspect was employed at the facilities after passing a stringent series of background checks.
The suspect is expected to appear in a Queensland court Aug. 21 after which he will be extradited to New South Wales to face more charges, CBS News reported.