Australia’s worst paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith sentenced for vile child abuse against multiple victims

One of Australia’s worst pedophiles has been jailed for life for hundreds of sex offences he committed over the course of 19 years while working in childcare centres.

Ashley Paul Griffith, 46, returned to the dock in Brisbane District Court on Friday for the completion of his sentencing hearing.

He has pleaded guilty to 28 counts of rape against girls primarily aged three to five at childcare centres in Queensland between 2007 and 2022.

Judge Paul Smith imposed a non-parole period of 27 years and said Griffith was ‘depraved and has a high risk of reoffending’.

‘People except their children will be protected in childcare centres and this will be a concern to every parent in this state,’ he said.

Griffith pleaded guilty to a total of 307 offences including ongoing sexual abuse and making child exploitation material against nearly 70 victims beginning in 2003.

Judge Smith said the youngest victim was a one-year-old and the oldest was aged seven to nine.

Dozens of parents of victims and some of the victims themselves, now young adults, were in court to watch the sentencing.

They sat a short distance behind Griffith, separated from him by a wall of unbreakable glass.

Ashley Paul Griffith pleaded guilty to 307 charges against him.

Judge Smith said Griffith had filmed all but one of the 65 victims as he sexually assaulted them and there was a chance the videos he shared with others would ‘live forever on the internet’.

‘The children were awake or asleep … he frequently gave them an iPad to distract them,’ he said.

Judge Smith said Griffith could be heard in the videos he made mocking victims for saying his abuse was ‘yucky’ and telling him to stop.

Judge Smith said Griffith had initially denied committing any offence but later made admissions during 13 police interviews while still downplaying the number of victims and seriousness of the sexual assaults.

‘There was co-operation in identifying victims and the location of offending … the defendant did not identify any victims not captured on video,’ Judge Smith said. 

Director of Public Prosecutions Todd Fuller previously said Griffith had uploaded videos of himself abusing six children to a dark web in order to gain access to child exploitation material from other members of a website.

Judge Smith said Griffith was made a ‘VIP user’ on the website and wrote comments to other pedophiles advising them on how to sexually assault children.

The judge listened for two hours on Thursday as three victims and 20 parents of victims read their impact statements.

The 47-year-old had been offending since 2003. Picture: Scott Breton / NewsWire

One mother, who cannot be legally identified, said the knowledge of what Griffith’s had done to her daughter would haunt her forever.

‘The only time she was away from me is when I placed her in your hands which is something I’ll regret for the rest of my life,’ she said.

‘The person I knew myself to know had died from the horror of your betrayal.’

Another parent said their daughter’s ‘innocent childhood had been taken away’ because of Griffith’s offending.

‘(You were the) one who was supposed to keep them safe in a childhood centre,’ the parent said.

‘I now look at every male teacher or carer with suspicion. Nowhere is safe.’

One father said he felt ‘grief and anger’ because he felt like he’d failed in his ‘duty to protect my family’.

‘The emotional and psychological toll on our family has been significant,’ he said.

‘Their innocence was stolen and that will never be fully erased.

‘My heart aches that they’re carrying this burden even if it’s in ways they cannot articulate.

‘I fear the event will cast a shadow on their future in ways we will not be able to fully understand yet.

‘The harm inflicted on families will never be erased.’

Judge Smith said: ‘There is no doubt there has been significant effects on many people. There has been significant harm that will continue.’

Judge Smith said Griffith had used ‘a degree of violence and emotional manipulation’ to enable his abuse of children.

Griffith has been in custody for 831 days since his arrest in August 2022, when police searched his Gold Coast home.

He will be eligible for parole in 2049.

Griffith is also subject to an arrest warrant for child sex offences allegedly committed while working in NSW between 2014 and 2018.