Paedophile childcare worker who sexually abused four-year-old boy in Australia set to be deported back to Pakistan

A former childcare worker has been sentenced to two years in prison after he indecently touched a four-year-old boy under his care.

Muhammad Ali, 31, was jailed again by the ACT Supreme Court after a jury found him guilty of touching the boy's genitals following a piggyback ride at Ducklings Early Education in Charnwood in 2022.

In sentencing on Thursday, Justice Berman said the boy's parents were entitled to send their child to the daycare centre and be safe.

'It is hard to imagine a more serious breach of trust than the abuse of a child in a childcare centre,' Justice Berman said.

'Young children are vulnerable in the extreme, they are powerless to resist this type of offending.

'Parents have no choice but to trust their children will be cared for.'

The boy's father told the court in his victim impact statement: 'The hardest part has been the loss of his innocence.

'My son lives under a shadow he should never have had to bear.'

The boy's mother also told the court that Ali's crimes had 'tainted our lives forever'.

She claimed her son had started exhibiting sexualised behaviours towards other children as a result of the abuse.

Justice Berman said the young boy had 'suffered greatly'.

The court also heard that Ali suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and had previously been injected with anti-psychotic medication.

He also abused cannabis, cocaine and OxyContin when his crimes took place, to 'cope with mental health and personal life circumstances relating to visa and his sexuality', The Nightly reported.

Ali has been jailed for two years but will be eligible for parole in 18 months.

He was in Australia on a visa and is expected to be deported to Pakistan once he is released from prison.

Ali was sacked from the childcare centre in 2022 after complaints from parents.

He is already behind bars, having been jailed for 18 months in 2023 for a similar incident involving another boy at the same centre.

The mother of Ali's first victim claims her son's case was 'mishandled' and 'swept under the rug' by the private childcare centre. 

She also questioned how Ali was able to secure work in childcare despite a history of drug use and serious mental health diagnoses including schizophrenia and schizoaffective or bipolar affective disorder.

In the first child the court heard Ali was in a CCTV blind spot when he touched the young boy's genitals.

The boy had asked Ali, 'Why are you pinching me on the doodle?' before biting the offender's arm, the court heard.

The boy moved toward a pole, sat down, hugged his knees tightly, and began to cry. 

The court heard the boy was was seen crying by another educator, who asked what was wrong and then urged him to hug the offender.

That afternoon, the boy told his mother what had happened.

Stunned, she recorded his account on her phone.

She reported the matter to the centre immediately and then to police.

Sexual abuse in childcare centres has been front-page news this year after Victoria man Dale Brown was charged with 70 offences, including alleged sexual penetration of a child and producing child abuse material.

His arrest triggered a public health alert, with Victoria's Chief Health Officer warning that 1,200 children should get STI testing.

Louise Edmonds, a founding member of the Independent Collective of Survivors, said it was time to ban men from working in childcare centres. 

'Look, it is extreme for one. But the thing is, we're now seeing this is the third case of huge amounts of children being exposed to alleged paedophiles and alleged child sex abuses in a childcare centre,' Ms Edmonds said.

'What we're seeing is that less than eight per cent of (workers) actually in the industry (are male).'

Ms Edmonds argued while there are 'good men' that want to be positive role models, the safety of children must come before concerns about gender equality.

'Without staining all the good men who are in there wanting to be positive role models for the young boys who are in daycare centres, there are some measures that can be taken,' Ms Edmonds said. 

'We shouldn't be looking at the equality space in the sector. 

'We actually have to look at the safety first and foremost of our most vulnerable citizens, which are our children, and a lot of them are voiceless.

'So children start communicating well at around two years old. The children under two years old, they cannot speak.'

'The sad reality is there's so much lived experience and evidence and data around child sex offenders, and 97 per cent of them are male.

'And this is a scary topic and, a lot of people, we don't want to talk about it because it's so horrific when it comes to the abuse of children.'