Disturbing new details have emerged of red flag incidents involving accused child abuser Joshua Dale Brown.
It has come to light that he was once under investigation at a center for forcefully seizing children’s arms and legs, yet he was permitted to continue employment at other locations.
The cases were not advanced by the independent children’s commissioner, enabling the individual now accused of being a pedophile to be employed at an additional ten childcare centers.
Brown is charged with 70 offences relating to eight victims.
The public was initially told the childcare worker was not known to Victoria Police.
However, G8 Education, his previous employer, has acknowledged that two of the incidents were reported to the police, despite Brown’s Working with Children Check never being re-evaluated.
Minister Vicki Ward said it was “absolutely something” the government was investigating to see if system changes needed to be made.
The first investigation in 2023 was after allegations “Mr Brown aggressively picked up and put down … a child in his care by not supporting that child while they were upset”.
The incident was reported by three colleagues.
The claim was proven and the educator was given a formal written warning and took three months leave.
A second investigation was sparked in January last year after a parent and staff complained Brown allegedly “forcibly grabbed the arm of one child, the leg of another” and “forcibly pulled” off their shoe.
He was immediately suspended and eventually resigned before the claims could be substantiated.
Despite the incidents being reported to Victoria Police, the Department of Education and the Commission for Children, Brown’s Working with Children check was not reviewed.
“We have a review that is under way right now. We are waiting for those recommendations,” Ward said.
They’ll be handed down next month.
