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Robyn Wuth
One of Australia’s worst paedophiles, childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith, has launched a bid to slash the life sentence he received for abusing dozens of young children.
Lawyers for the notorious predator on Thursday argued in the Queensland Court of Appeal that the 27‑year nonparole period he was handed in 2024 was “manifestly excessive” as they sought leave to appeal.
Griffith is behind bars after a horrifying history of abuse stretching almost two decades was exposed.
He pleaded guilty to 307 child sex offences against 65 victims aged between one and nine.
It included 28 counts of rape against girls mainly aged three to five at Queensland childcare centres between 2007 and 2022.
Griffith used his trusted role to prey on toddlers and preschoolers as they slept or by taking them into isolated corners of childcare centres, often while their parents believed they were safe in his care.
In court, his legal team claimed the sentencing judge went too far, insisting the case could have been dealt with by a fixed term of 25 to 30 years with a much shorter nonparole period.
Barrister Sarah Cartledge conceded Griffith’s crimes were “truly awful” and that he had preyed upon “the most vulnerable” while in a position of trust.
The appeal is tightly focused on the parole eligibility date, with the defence arguing that while a life sentence was open, the minimum term effectively imposed a harsher punishment than in similar cases of extreme child sex offending.
Cartledge said Griffith had cooperated fully and openly since his arrest, giving around 18 hours of interviews.
“This was not a case where the court had to drag the truth from him at trial,” she said.
“His extensive cooperation and guilty plea saved an enormous amount of court time and spared child complainants from giving evidence.
“The cooperation here went well beyond what this court usually sees … he didn’t just admit the allegations put to him — he volunteered further instances of abuse and helped police piece together who some of the children were.”
Justice John Bond, presiding on the appeal panel, suggested it was more accurate to view the sentence as a judicial determination that Griffith should serve no less than 27 years.
He pressed counsel on the broader impact of his offending, suggesting the harm extended well beyond his victims.
“These crimes do not end with the children and their families,” Bond said.
“They corrode trust in childcare institutions, they wound the people who worked alongside this man, and they burden those who had to investigate and respond to his offending.
“The harm accumulated over nearly 20 years must factor into the sentence.”
Throughout two decades of preying on children, Griffith filmed all but one of his victims, building a vast cache of abuse he shared online.
When detectives raided his Gold Coast home in 2022, they seized more than 4000 child abuse images and videos documenting much of his offending.
Prosecutors, led by Ruth O’Gorman KC for the Director of Public Prosecutions, urged the court to reject the appeal, saying the sentence barely reflected the scale and cruelty of the crimes.
“When you weigh the gravity of this offending, the number of victims and the deliberate way it was carried out over nearly 20 years, it cannot seriously be said that this sentence is excessive,” O’Gorman submitted.
“It is a strong sentence, but it is a justified one.”
She said psychiatric evidence showed Griffith would pose a danger of reoffending if released too soon.
Griffith is also wanted in NSW, where he is the subject of an arrest warrant over alleged child sexual offences during his time working there between 2014 and 2018.
The case prompted a wide-ranging review of Queensland’s childcare system, which found repeated red flags and warning signs were raised but ignored.
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