Former nursery worker Joshua Dale Brown, 26, is accused of more than 70 offences against eight alleged victims between five months and two years old in Victoria, Australia
Terrified parents have been issued a new update after a former nursery teacher was accused of horrific child sex offences.
Joshua Dale Brown, was charged in May with more than 70 offences against eight alleged victims between five months and two years old. In the wake of his arrest, authorities in Victoria, Australia warned parents of around 1,200 children to get their children tested for sexually transmitted diseases as a “precaution”, with the 26-year-old having worked at 20 childcare centres in the last eight years. The offences he has been charged with are said to have taken place between April 2022 and January 2023.
Now, families have been told in a new email that Brown had been under investigation by police and the education department for two non-sexual incidents involving children in the two years leading up to his arrest, though no review of his clearances was conducted.
A copy of the email from childcare provider G8 Education seen by the Herald Sun revealed Brown was investigated in 2023 following allegations he “aggressively picked up and put down” a child and did not “uphold” their “dignity and rights”.
The investigation, which followed reports from three of his colleagues, resulted in him being given a formal written warning, issued with a performance improvement plan. He took a period of ‘extended leave’ in response, the email said.
In another incident last year, Brown was reported for having “forcibly grabbed the arm of one child, the leg of another child and forcibly pulled off that child’s shoe”.
Parents were told in the latest email: “We are reaching out to you today as we understand there may be further media stories about Joshua Dale Brown relating to incidents where he was the subject of suspension of employment, investigation and disciplinary action by G8 Education, in matters which are unrelated to the charges he is now facing.”
The second investigation saw him suspended from his role, and he eventually resigned.
It comes after one father whose child had been left in Brown’s care demanded answers over the care they recieved.
The youngster had been enrolled in 2023 at the Creative Garden Early Learning Centre in Point Cook, Melbourne – one of more than 20 centres where parents were later advised to take their child for tests.
The dad told AAP: “I dropped off my child into his hands a couple of times. I’m a bit worried, I (need) to find out everything.”