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The Guardian
6 days ago
- The Guardian
Alleged sex offender Joshua Dale Brown was sacked by Melbourne childcare centre in 2021 before joining another
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.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 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.
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Accused child sex offender Joshua Dale Brown sacked from former Melbourne childcare employer
Accused sexual abuser Joshua Dale Brown was sacked from a Melbourne childcare centre over his handling of an incident report months before he started working at the centre where his alleged assaults took place. His termination came days after a parent at the centre raised concerns about Mr Brown and asked that he not be allowed near her daughter. Emma*, who has asked the ABC not to use her real name, had previously worked with Mr Brown at another centre in 2017 and was concerned about his behaviour towards children. "He just had absolutely zero understanding of how to conduct himself around children," she said. "He could be really warm and loving to the children, and then really rude and cold. He could be quite horrible to the children." Emma said she never saw Mr Brown hurt the children in his care, but her concerns led her to raise the alarm at her daughter's childcare centre — Nido Early School — when she discovered he had started working there in 2021. "When I was asked what made me feel that way, I couldn't describe it as more than a gut feeling," she said. Nido Early School has confirmed Mr Brown was dismissed from its Werribee childcare centre less than three weeks into his job after breaching the company's internal policies around handling of incident reports. There is no suggestion from authorities that Mr Brown engaged in any sexual abuse at the centre during the 18 days he worked there, and the ABC understands his dismissal was not connected to Emma raising concerns with centre management. "This related specifically to unsatisfactory attention by the individual to an incident report concerning a child's behaviour towards another child," the childcare operator said in a statement. "The action did not relate to any behaviour by the individual towards a child." Nido Early School has declined to provide further details of Mr Brown's conduct, but sources have told the ABC that the matter involved incorrect information being entered on the incident report. No system is 100 per cent secure, but the Signal app can be used to protect your identity by using end-to-end encryption. Please read the terms and conditions of the app to work out if it is the best method of communication for you. "We have zero tolerance for the non-compliance to our internal policies, no matter how trivial they sound to external parties," the Nido Early School statement said. "We supervise all staff closely, with additional attention given to new starters. In this case, the breach of internal policy led to termination." "Nido has fully cooperated with police and other departments" Mr Brown was still in his probationary period when he was dismissed from the centre. Three months later, in October 2021, he started working at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre. Mr Brown has been charged with dozens of offences allegedly committed during this time at Creative Garden between October 2021 and February 2024, including sexual assault and producing child abuse material. Authorities have identified 23 childcare centres around Melbourne that employed Mr Brown between January 2017 and May this year and asked more than 2,000 children who attended the centres and their families to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. Police have also charged Mr Brown with allegedly contaminating food with his bodily fluids. Emma's daughter was among those who had to undergo testing. "It's been traumatic," she said. "She's still little, the world is still a wonderful place to her. To have to tell her that she has to go through testing, it's been really hard." Emma says she first raised concerns about Mr Brown while working with him at another childcare centre, the similarly named Nino Early Learning in Point Cook in 2017. She judged he was not fit to work in the sector. The ABC has asked Nino Early Learning if it has a record of Emma raising concerns about Mr Brown, but the operator has not responded to questions. Emma stopped working at the centre shortly after raising her concerns, while Mr Brown left in June 2019. Emma said she became immediately distressed when she discovered Mr Brown had started working at her daughter's centre, Nido Early School, four years later in 2021. "My stomach dropped. I cried the whole way to work," she said. "I picked her up a little bit earlier that day." She said she immediately raised her concerns with the centre manager and was happy with how Nido Early School responded. "I didn't feel comfortable with him being anywhere near my child, and I remember clearly telling them that he was to be nowhere near her." Emma was relieved when she heard Mr Brown had been dismissed after working at the centre for eight days. "But [I was] also concerned about where he would go to next." Nido Early Learning did not respond to questions about Emma's complaint. The revelation of Mr Brown's sacking from the centre adds to a list of workplace issues during his eight years working in the sector. Last week, the ABC revealed Creative Garden owner G8 Education had twice reported Mr Brown's conduct to authorities, including allegations that he "aggressively" handled a child. Emma, who still works in the childcare sector, says the case should be a wake-up call for operators and regulators. "Because if this person can get through and be able to work across so many services without being detected, what else is out there? Who else is out there?" she said. *Emma's name has been changed at her request
