Convicted paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith, 47, labelled the "world's worst paedo," is set to be tried on 202 additional child-abuse offences after his relocation from Queensland to New South Wales.
Griffith, already serving a life sentence for pleading guilty in 2024 to 307 counts involving 69 girls at early-learning centres in Brisbane and Pisa, Italy, will now face new allegations including sexual intercourse with a child under 10, sexual indecent assault of a person under 16 and producing child-abuse material.
The move to New South Wales, approved last month, means he will remain in custody there until the conclusion of the new trial, after which he will serve the remainder of his term in the state that imposes the longest sentence.
During a hearing in Brisbane Magistrates Court, a supporter of a victim shouted, "Rot! Rot! Fire! Brimstone! Burn!" and later yelled, "get f***ed Ashley," calling him a "disgusting piece of feral flesh," Nine News reported.
Griffith has not yet entered a plea on the fresh charges.
Police raids of his Gold Coast home in 2022 uncovered more than 4,000 child-abuse images and videos. Investigators said he filmed all but one of his victims over two decades and shared much of the material online.
Four of the children in the footage were from his tenure at a childcare centre in Pisa, while the remaining 65 victims were abused across 11 locations in Brisbane.
He assaulted children as young as one year old and was convicted of 28 rapes of pre-school-aged girls while working in Queensland childcare facilities; his oldest victim was nine.
During the 2024 trial, victims and their parents gave harrowing statements. One victim said, "I will never know what my life could have been like. I can never know what it would have been to grow up unafraid of people."
A father of a victim shouted outside court, "Parents are walking their children into these centres today with a false sense of security. Their kids are having naps on the same cots other kids were raped on."
Other parents expressed remorse for trusting the childcare worker, with one saying, "(My daughter) loved you like an uncle and you used her like a toy," and another mother stating, "I cannot undo what you did to her body but will do everything I can to limit the damage to her mind."
Queensland District Court Judge Paul Smith described Griffith's conduct as "depraved" and "horrendous," and, in delivering the maximum sentence, said, "The sheer number of victims ... demonstrates the need for a sentence that protects the community."
