Victoria Police and public health officials are grappling with the fallout of one of Australia’s most disturbing childcare abuse cases in recent memory, as 26-year-old childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown faces 70 charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of multiple children.
Authorities say the investigation began in May, after detectives uncovered a cache of child abuse material during a raid on Brown’s home in Point Cook. What followed was a rapid and extensive operation involving police, the Health Department, and government leaders, aimed at identifying victims and informing affected families, News.Az reports, citing The Age.
Eight children, some as young as five months old, have so far been identified as alleged victims, prompting urgent medical testing and public health coordination across Melbourne. Brown, who worked at over 20 childcare centres since 2017, is believed to have filmed the abuse himself.
“We didn’t have a victim for quite some time. We had to make sure we had the right victims,” said Acting Commander Janet Stevenson of Victoria Police Crime Command. “It was difficult enough to go and tell parents this had happened to their child, but imagine if we got the wrong child.
