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Australian police charged a child care worker with over 1,623 offenses related to sexually abusing 91 young girls over 15 years, labeling the case one of the country’s "most horrific" child sex abuse cases.
"It's beyond the realms of anyone's imagination what this person did to these children," Australian Federal Police (AFP) Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said Tuesday. "You try not to be shocked after a long period of time in the police ... but this is a horrific case."
Police arrested the unnamed 45-year-old man in August 2022 but took a year to fully investigate and identify alleged victims of his crimes, which police said involved 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10, most of which he filmed and distributed online.
Police said they found 4,000 images and videos related to the crimes on his electronic devices. Gough labeled the crime "one of the most horrific" she had seen in her nearly 40-year career as an officer, the BBC reported.
KENTUCKY MOTHER ARRESTED AFTER SEXUALLY-ABUSED TODDLER DIES OF SEVERE INJURIES
Australian Federal Police Northern Command Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough provides an update to the AFP's Operation Tenterfield, an investigation that has led to a former child care worker being charged with 1,623 child abuse offenses against 91 children. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation via Reuters)
The suspect allegedly committed the crimes at 10 child care centers across Queensland, one in New South Wales and one in an unnamed overseas country between 2007 and 2022. Some of his alleged victims are now reaching adulthood.
"The Australian children recorded in the alleged child abuse material have been informed of the investigation," Gough told reporters at the press conference. "Some of the individuals identified in the alleged child abuse material are now aged 18 years and have been informed."
MAINE BECOMES THE FIRST STATE TO PARTIALLY DECRIMINALIZE PROSTITUTION
An exterior view of the AFP Headquarters June 6, 2019, in Canberra, Australia. (Getty Images)
Gough said the process took "time, skill and determination" to build the full case as police originally charged the man with two counts of making child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service for child abuse material, ABC News Australia reported.
The AFP is "highly confident" that all 87 Australian children recorded in the alleged abuse material have been identified, according to Gough.
TEEN SEXTORTION VICTIM FOILS MIDDLE SCHOOL COACH'S SCHEME, UNCOVERS IDENTITY: DOCS
Police patrol at the Sydney Opera House ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations Dec. 31, 2022, in Sydney, Australia. (Roni Bintang/Getty Images)
The review process involved cooperation between the AFP with the Queensland Police Service and the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, which reviewed all the images and videos recovered from the suspect’s device.
"There is not much solace I can give parents and children who have been identified under Operation Tenterfield, but I can tell you we never gave up, and we never will when it comes to protecting children," Gough stressed.
New South Wales Police will seek to extradite the suspect on 180 charges of child sex abuse against 23 children, and his crimes can earn him life imprisonment, according to NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald.
The suspect is scheduled to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court Aug. 21.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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