By Bren Spain
A father of three has told of his anguish after he realised he handed his little girl over to an alleged sex offender. It comes after outrage among hundreds of parents whose infants are now being tested for infectious diseases. The father from Melbourne, Australia , discovered the horrifying connection to the childcare centre his children attended in 2023 after hearing of the news on Wednesday. Joshua Brown, 26, who has been charged with more than 70 offences, worked at a total of 20 childcare centres over an eight-year period between January 2017 and May 2025. The horrified father recognised Brown as a male childcare worker during a police investigation that has since widened to dozens of families. He told AAP : “I dropped off my child into his hands a couple of times.” The troubled father is ‘desperate’ for answers over the care given to his children in 2023 at Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, Melbourne. Authorities ordered infants from more than 20 centres to undergo tests for possible exposure to infectious diseases. He said: “I’m a bit worried, I (need) to find out everything.” He said he saw Brown supervising his children in the classroom, “where I dropped my children”. With two of his kids possibly at risk, he is seeking urgent clarity. Brown was arrested in May after police raided his residence in Melbourne’s south-western suburb of Point Cook and allegedly found child abuse material. He has been charged with crimes including sexual penetration and attempted penetration of children under 12, producing child abuse material, and ‘recklessly contaminating goods to cause alarm or anxiety’. The charges concern eight alleged victims aged between five months and two years, all enrolled at the Point Cook centre from April 2022 to January 2023. Authorities are now urging more than 1,200 affected families to have their infants screened, intensifying public concern about safety and accountability within early childhood settings. Education Minister Jason Clare for the State of Victoria has dismissed calls to ban men from childcare roles, citing separate allegations involving female staff. He told Channel Nine’s Today Show : “I don’t think that’s going to be the solution here.” One parent of a child who attended the Point Cook centre from 2021 to 2023 said the official response was a concern, adding: “There’s a lot of stress, it’s very distressing.” Brown had no prior record with police before this investigation, held a valid working-with-children check, and faced no prior formal complaints. In response to the scandal, the state has launched an urgent child safety review, introduced a national register for early childhood educators, and announced a ban on phones in childcare facilities effective September. Calls are mounting for change, including mandatory CCTV in all early years settings and overhauled background checks for educators.