A Sydney childcare worker has been charged after an Australian Federal Police investigation allegedly uncovered more than 550,000 unique images of child abuse on electronic devices seized from his home.
Police said several devices were seized on June 20 and forensic analysis identified about 1.4 million files, of which roughly 550,000 were unique images. The man, who is in his 30s and cannot be named because of a court suppression order, was charged on July 10 and is due to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Friday on seven counts of using a child under 14 to make abusive material and one count of transmitting child abuse material.
Detective Superintendent Luke Needham of the AFP said investigators are methodically reviewing the material and that the sheer number of files reflects the workload for specialist teams rather than the scale of alleged offending. "The number of files does not provide any indication of the scale of the alleged offending," he said, noting the AFP's Victim Identification Team is working through the material.
The court order preventing publication of the man's identity and previous places of employment was made to protect alleged victims from psychological harm and to avoid causing undue distress to parents, carers and potential victims not yet identified, police said.
NSW Cabinet Minister Rose Jackson said she was not previously aware of the case but described the allegations as "incredibly problematic" when asked by reporters.
The charges come amid a broader reckoning in Australia's childcare sector following a string of allegations of sexual abuse and other misconduct. In Melbourne, childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with multiple counts of sexual offences against infants, and dozens of separate accusations against childcare workers in other states have prompted public concern and government action.
At the federal level, the government has launched a website designed to highlight early learning centres that breach child safety laws and has passed reforms aimed at stripping funding from providers that fail to meet safety, quality and compliance standards. Many regulatory responsibilities, however, remain with state and territory governments.
On Wednesday, the NSW government announced a suite of measures intended to bolster child safety in early education, including increased penalties for large childcare providers, expanded powers for the sector's regulator and reforms to improve transparency for parents.
Police said their investigation remains ongoing and that officers will continue to review and analyse the seized material as they work to identify and support victims and progress the case through the court system.