Childcare worker Hamish Tait, 35, has been publicly named, after a court order sought by police, aimed at protecting the identification process for victims and their families, was lifted on Monday. He had been taken into custody in July last year and remains in detention.

The charges against him include 162 counts of producing child abuse material and 81 counts of filming a person in a private act without their consent, along with 22 counts of the aggravated sexual exploitation of a child under 14 for the production of abuse material, and 18 counts of intentionally touching a child under 10 in a sexual manner. According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), “every photograph or video captures an actual situation where a child has been abused.”

The AFP, the national policing body responsible for investigating serious and organised crime in Australia, said officers have so far reached 121 of the affected families, though 22 alleged victims have not yet been identified.

AFP Acting Commander Luke Needham described the case as deeply disturbing given the position of trust involved, saying, according to the BBC: “Any form of child sexual abuse is confronting and horrific, even more so when the alleged perpetrator is an individual trusted with the care of our youth.”

Investigators say Tait – worked at or visited – 62 young children’s education sites across Sydney between 2009 and 2025, with most of his employment concentrated in the city’s north-west. The alleged abuse is said to have taken place at five locations, comprising four childcare centres and a private business he ran himself.

Police have released a list of the facilities linked to Tait, along with support information for affected families, as part of an operation named Moonbi. Officers say the case first came to light in June last year, when Tait was connected to illegal online activity; child abuse material was subsequently recovered from devices seized during a search of a property in Glossodia, on Sydney’s outskirts.

The case adds to a series of childcare abuse scandals that have alarmed Australians in recent years. They include that of Ashley Paul Griffith, who admitted in 2024 to 307 offences carried out at centres in Queensland and abroad over two decades, and Joshua Dale Brown, whose charges last year prompted authorities in Victoria to recommend sexually transmitted infection testing for more than 1,200 children.

Source: BBC

Photo: From the Australian Federal Police Press Conference