Police have launched a full-scale investigation into alleged sexual assaults at a Melbourne child care centre.
A worker at the centre in Point Cook has since been charged with over 70 offences, including child rape.
Press PLAY to hear the latest update from Madelaine Burke
3AW police reporter Madelaine Burke said Victoria Police described the investigation into the 26-year-old alleged offender as “incredibly distressing”.
“It really is horrific,” she told Tom Elliott.
The Police/Media state the man is from Point Cook.
Yes it does say that not that is important but the child care centre we worked at is in Point Cook and there are others he attended.
More than a thousand children will be asked to undergo health screening after police charged a childcare worker with more than 70 offences allegedly linked to a childcare centre in Point Cook, in Melbourne’s south-west.
Detectives from the Sexual Crimes Squad have arrested 26-year-old Point Cook man Joshua Dale Brown in relation to alleged sexual and other offending against eight children between April 2022 and January 2023.
Police said the alleged victims were between five months and two years of age.
Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam joined senior police, the premier and Victoria’s chief health officer in addressing the media about the investigation on Tuesday.
“I will say from the outset that this is an incredibly distressing investigation and the information we are going to provide today is particularly confronting as it involved offences [allegedly] committed against some of our vulnerable people in our community,” she said.
The charges include sexual penetration of a child, producing child abuse material and recklessly contaminating goods to cause alarm or anxiety.
Health authorities say they’ve taken a “cautious” approach in recommending 1,200 children linked to the case be tested for potential infectious diseases.
Tests could take days or even weeks to come back.