Alleged sex offender Joshua Dale Brown was sacked by Melbourne childcare centre in 2021 before joining another

The Guardian

3 days ago

Alleged sex offender Joshua Dale Brown was sacked from a Melbourne childcare centre in Melbourne's west after working there for just three weeks, it has been revealed.
Nido Early School on Thursday confirmed it terminated Brown from its Werribee childcare service during his probation period in July 2021, after he allegedly breached the company's internal policies around handling of incident reports.
Brown's termination was first reported by the ABC and it is not alleged he engaged in sexual offending at the centre.
'Nido Early School can confirm the individual was terminated during his probation period after working 18 individual days at the Werribee service,' a spokesperson for the childcare provider said.
'This related specifically to unsatisfactory attention by the individual to an incident report concerning a child's behaviour towards another child.
'The action did not relate to any behaviour by the individual towards a child.'
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The spokesperson said Nido Early School has 'zero tolerance for the non-compliance to our internal policies, no matter how trivial they sound to external parties'.
'We supervise all staff closely, with additional attention given to new starters. In this case the breach of internal policy led to termination,' they said.
'Nido has fully cooperated with police and other departments.'
Three months later, in October 2021, Brown started working at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, where police allege he sexually abused children in his care between 2022 and 2023.
Creative Garden Early Learning Centre is owned by G8 Education, which last week confirmed it had twice reported Brown's conduct to authorities between October 2021 and February 2024.
Neither report involved allegations of sexual abuse.
The first was made in April 2023, after allegations Brown 'aggressively picked up and put down' a child and then failed to support them when they became upset.
Victoria police, the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) and the education department were notified but the matter was 'referred back to G8 Education for internal investigation and disciplinary response', the provider said.
The internal investigation resulted in a formal written warning and a performance improvement plan. Brown then took three months' leave.
The second report was made in January 2024 after allegations Brown 'raised his voice during interactions with three children and forcibly grabbed the arm of one child, the leg of another child and forcibly pulled off that child's shoe'.
Police, the CCYP and the department were again notified and the matter was referred back to G8, who suspended Brown.
They said Brown 'resigned from his employment with G8 Education during the investigation and did not return to his employment'.
The company said there was a 'need for national harmonisation of policies, regulations, systems and processes across governments and regulators across Australia'.
In early July, police revealed Brown had been charged with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims, aged between five months and two years old.
Along with the health department, they identified they released a list of childcare centres where Brown worked between January 2017 and May 2025 and his known employment dates, and urged the parents of approximately 1,200 children to be tested for sexually transmitted infections.
'This is obviously a highly distressing situation, and I want to reassure all families being contacted that the potential exposure risk to an infectious disease for their child remains low,' the Victorian chief health officer, Dr Christian McGrath, said.
'Our recommendation for testing is a precaution and the test results we've received to date as part of this investigation reaffirms that the risk is low.'
This week, five more childcare centres were added to Brown's work history by police, bringing the total number of his known childcare workplaces to 23, as well as a children's occupational therapy service. An additional 800 additional children have also been recommended for testing.
Police have warned 'further updates are likely in the coming weeks'. They said establishing Brown's complete work history had been 'extremely complex' as childcare providers do not have centralised records.
The federal education minister, Jason Clare, said the situation highlighted the need for a national registry of childcare workers. The Victorian government had already committed to developing its own database within months, citing the 'frustratingly slow' federal response.