A childcare worker has been sentenced to time behind bars for indecently assaulting a four-year-old boy in a "sexually motivated" crime.
"Young children depend upon their carers to meet [their] needs, and not to abuse their vulnerability," Justice Belinda Baker said on Wednesday.
In the ACT Supreme Court, Muhammad Ali, of Scullin, was sentenced to 18-months jail with a non-parole period of 12 months.
In June, a jury found Ali, 30, guilty of committing an act of indecency on the boy in 2022 at a Canberra daycare centre.
However, Ali was acquitted of committing an act of indecency on another boy.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on a third allegation involving a three-year-old girl, and was discharged after four days of deliberations.
In April last year, about 4pm, Ali was supervising a number of children in an outside play area at a Canberra daycare centre.
At some point the victim, who was four years old at the time, came close to Ali.
Ali then pinched the child's penis "in the middle" through his pants.
The victim asked "Why are you pinching me on the doodle?" before biting Ali on the arm.
The crime occurred in a blind spot in the playground, which was not captured by CCTV.
About 20 minutes later the child's mother picked him up from daycare. While in the car the mother asked the four-year-old how his day was.
The victim said Ali had "pinched [him] on the doodle".
As a result the parent got her phone out, and started filming the conversation.
The boy repeated that the childcare worker "pinched [him] on the doodle, that's what he done".
In her sentence hand-down on Wednesday, Justice Baker found the touching was "intentional" and "sexually motivated".
"The offender was a trained and experienced educator at a childcare centre," she said.
"In view of this training and experience, I do not accept that the offender would have pinched [the child] on the penis as an act of horseplay or general 'fooling around'.
"Given his position, the offender would have been aware the victim was four years old and of the victim's acute vulnerability."
Justice Baker said Ali had not shown any remorse for the crime, and had not accepted responsibility.
"Childcare centres provide a supportive and caring environment for children to develop cognitively, socially and emotionally," the judge stated in her sentence hand down.
"It is vital that parents and other caregivers can have trust in childcare institutions."
Earlier this month, the victim's mother read an impact statement to the court.
The mother said she "didn't factor in a paedophile in a daycare centre".
The woman told the court her son had told her: "Put Ali in jail for a reason and the reason why because it hurted me."
Ali will be eligible for release in November 2024.
