Melbourne Childcare Worker Faces 156 Child Sex Charges

A Melbourne childcare worker accused of serious child sex offenses has been hit with 83 additional charges, bringing the total to 156 counts involving 12 alleged victims across four early learning centers in the city's west and north.

Joshua Dale Brown, 27, faces the new accusations following an ongoing investigation by Victoria Police's Sexual Crimes Squad. Detectives laid the charges on Thursday, alleging offenses against four additional children who attended three centers beyond the site of the initial probe. The new victims were at Nino Early Learning Adventures in Point Cook on March 26, 2019; Only About Children in Williamstown on December 1, 2020, and February 22, 2021; and Aussie Kindies Early Learning Centre in Keilor from February 3 to 11 this year. Nino marked the first childcare center where Brown worked.

The additional charges include six counts of penetration of a child under 12, eight counts each of producing child abuse material for use through a carriage service and sexual assault of a child under 16, and 23 counts of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material. They also encompass offenses such as committing a sexual act in the presence of a child...