By Carla Jaeger Chris Vedelago Sherryn Groch
Over two weeks, police and the Health Department grappled with how to reveal the horrifying allegations to the families involved, ready the health system for a large-scale child testing regimen and reassure the wider community.
Families at the affected childcare centres wouldn鈥檛 find out about the investigation until police and the government revealed the allegations on Tuesday morning. Texts and emails arrived in their inboxes shortly after public press releases were sent out.
It was a 鈥減roactive investigation鈥, police Crime Command acting Commander Janet Stevenson said, arising from detective work rather than a complaint. As soon as police discovered the alleged abuse material, Brown was arrested and remanded into custody, she said, and he had been co-operating with police.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have a victim for quite some time,鈥 Stevenson said. 鈥淲e had to make sure we had the right victims. It was difficult enough to go and tell parents this had happened to their child, but imagine if we got the wrong child.鈥