Parents and victims who were raped and abused by former childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith have told a Queensland court about the “unimaginable pain” his crimes have caused.
Griffith is being sentenced in the Queensland district court after pleading guilty to committing 307 sexual offences against dozens of children under his care in Brisbane and Italy between 2007 and 2022. Most of the victims are girls who were aged between three and five at the time.
The court was told that Griffith “lacked empathy for his victims” and had attempted to justify his actions. He sat impassively in the dock, often wringing his hands, as victims and their parents spoke about the impact of his actions.
A young woman, who was abused by Griffith on more than 50 separate occasions when she was three and four years old, told the court she grew up exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. She began self-harming at 12 years old and had panic attacks at school.
“I will never know what my life could have been like,” the woman said.
“I can never know what it would have been to grow up unafraid of people.
“He recorded himself abusing me and put recordings of me on the dark web. His actions have profoundly impacted my life. I have missed out on a normal childhood.”
The woman’s mother said, as a five-year-old, the girl had withdrawn from speaking to adults.
“She didn’t have the vocabulary to tell us why she was scared of adults. She just knew they were people to be feared.
“How were we to know the greatest danger to our child was the one entrusted with her care?
“How do you tell your child, who is also at crisis point, that you’ve been the victim of sexual abuse?”
Another parent of a victim told the court she had decided never to reveal the abuse to her daughter. She described burning the girl’s kindergarten cot sheets. She said she would take walks in the heavy rain where she could “howl and howl”.
“There’s not a day goes by where I’m not fearful of the future,” the woman said.
“I have night terrors, awaking with crippling fear of what might happen if she somehow discovers … the horrific abuse. I fear that some day someone will make the terrible mistake of revealing our daughter’s identity.”
Another victim’s mother said: “I stand here today to express the unimaginable pain … his heinous actions have left scars that will never heal. He preyed on them … exploiting their innocence.
“The horror of that knowledge is something I can never escape. The weight of this trauma is unbearable. He took away their trust, their innocence and their ability to feel safe.”
The court heard from parents of victims who spoke about forming a close relationship with Griffith.
“We invited him into our home, into our life, and into our family,” one woman, the mother of a victim, said.
“This whole situation has installed a deep mistrust of everyone in our two oldest boys. We were once a very welcoming family, with an open door policy. Since the abuse has come to light there have been noticeable changes in our beautiful, confident girl.”
She said her daughter had said: “I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m afraid of what’s in the dark.”
How a blanket led to Griffith’s arrest
Earlier, prosecutors summarised details of the charges and the investigation that had resulted in Griffith’s arrest.
In about 2013, Griffith posted child exploitation material to a now defunct child exploitation community on the dark web under the username Zimble.
Authorities had been searching for Zimble for almost a decade until a breakthrough in 2022, when a brand of blanket sold to Queensland childcare centres was identified by investigators in one of the photographs. Griffith was identified by matching centres who had bought those blankets with employment records.
Police found Griffith had catalogued video recordings of his offending against dozens of children. He had folders where he “retained enrolment and attendance records and child photographs and … created montages and films of various interactions”.
He pleaded guilty to 15 counts of “repeated sexual contact”, 28 counts of rape, 190 counts of indecent treatment of a child in his care, and 67 counts of making child exploitation material.
Prosecutors have asked for a sentence of life imprisonment, with a delay to the statutory 15-year parole eligibility date.
The court heard that a pre-sentence report and a psychiatric report had found Griffith had a “paedophilic disorder” but “no other disorders or background factors which explained the offending”.
“He was assessed as having a high level of sexual deviance and is a high risk of reoffending,” the prosecutor said.
Despite expressing remorse, those reports found he “lacked empathy to the victims”, engaged in “minimisations and cognitive distortions” and had attempted to justify his actions.
District court judge Paul Smith will hand down his sentence on Friday.
In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. The crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In an emergency, call 000. International helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.
