A former childcare worker serving a life sentence for the sexual abuse of dozens of young children has failed in a bid to reduce the amount of time he must spend behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.<\/p>\n
Queensland\u2019s Court of Appeal on Friday refused Ashley Paul Griffith\u2019s appeal against the 27-year non-parole period imposed as part of his life sentence.<\/p>\n
Dismissing the appeal, Justice John Bond said Griffith had \u201ccreated a widening gyre of grave hurt and trauma\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe child victims, their parents and the community at large were entitled to be protected from offending of this nature,\u201d Justice Bond said.<\/p>\n
One of the victims\u2019 mothers, standing alongside her daughter, spoke to media outside court after the appeal was dismissed, describing the decision as a \u201cbig relief\u201d and thanking the Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for their work throughout the case. <\/p>\n
She said she had been nervous awaiting the outcome and believed the court had reached the right decision.<\/p>\n
The victims mother said it had been difficult to hear arguments made on Griffith\u2019s behalf, particularly submissions relating to the nature of the offending. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that she was doing her job, but at the same time it cuts very deep trying to hear someone argue that rape is not violent because any rape, any rape of a three-year-old is violent regardless of whether they\u2019ve left physical injuries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still pretty hard to hear and we\u2019re glad it turned out the way it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffith pleaded guilty in 2024 to more than 300 offences, including multiple counts of rape and sexual assault committed against 69 girls over almost two decades.<\/p>\n
The offending occurred at several childcare centres in Brisbane as well as in Italy. The court was previously told many of the crimes were recorded and some images and videos were shared online.<\/p>\n
While Griffith did not challenge his life sentence, he argued the non-parole period set by the sentencing judge was excessive.<\/p>\n
His legal team submitted the sentence failed to adequately account for mitigating factors, including his guilty pleas and co-operation with authorities. <\/p>\n
The appeal court was told those admissions spared dozens of victims from the trauma of giving evidence during what would likely have been a lengthy trial involving a large number of complainants.<\/p>\n
The defence also relied on previous cases in an attempt to demonstrate that offenders convicted of more serious crimes had received shorter periods before becoming eligible for parole.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the Director of Public Prosecutions opposed the appeal, arguing the sentence properly reflected the exceptional scale and seriousness of Griffith\u2019s offending.<\/p>\n
The prosecution submitted the sentencing judge had correctly considered the large number of victims, the prolonged period over which the abuse occurred and the devastating impact on children and their families.<\/p>\n
The court was also told community protection remained a significant consideration. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors pointed to psychiatric evidence indicating Griffith continued to pose a risk to children because of his diagnosed pedophilic disorder and limited insight into his offending.<\/p>\n
They argued the sentence served important purposes beyond punishment, including denunciation and maintaining public confidence, given the profound breach of trust involved in offending against children in childcare settings.<\/p>\n
After considering submissions from both sides, the Court of Appeal dismissed Griffith\u2019s challenge, leaving his sentence unchanged.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is possible, though by no means certain, that some judges may have given (Griffith) a little more benefit than did this sentencing judge, but there is no single correct sentence,\u201d Justice Bond said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my view \u2026 to serve a minimum period of 27 years imprisonment was within the bounds of a proper exercise of the sentencing discretion\u201d.<\/p>\n
Under his sentence, Griffith will not be eligible to apply for parole until 2049, taking into account time already served.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former childcare worker serving a life sentence for the sexual abuse of dozens of young children has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19238,22,23,133,21,99,6990,27320,6364,290,7536,27321,27322,27319,5779,23840,12253,1293,5697,120,27316,27324,212,27323,7535,27317,7232,27318],"class_list":["post-29693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-ashley-paul-griffith","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-austrlia","tag-brisbane","tag-childcare-centres","tag-childcare-settings","tag-childcare-worker","tag-europe","tag-italy","tag-legal-team","tag-legislative-benchmark","tag-lengthy-trial","tag-life-imprisonment","tag-life-sentence","tag-multiple-counts","tag-newswire-court","tag-non-parole-period","tag-oceania","tag-paedophilic-disorder","tag-psychiatric-evidence","tag-queensland","tag-sentencing-judge","tag-southern-europe","tag-told-community-protection","tag-young-children","tag-young-girls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}