source : the age
Notorious Queensland paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith has been extradited to NSW, where he is expected to be charged with hundreds of child sex offences.
Griffith, 48, left a Brisbane prison on Wednesday and will be driven to Sydney to be charged this week with offences related to dozens of alleged victims over several years.
Detectives from NSW Police’s child abuse squad are expected to charge Griffith with 202 offences allegedly committed while he was working in NSW childcare centres. The charges include sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10, indecent assault of a person under 16, and producing child abuse material.
The 48-year-old was in 2024 sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 27 after pleading guilty to 307 child sexual offences. An appeal against the severity of the sentence was dismissed in June, paving the way for Griffith’s transfer to NSW.
His extradition was formally approved by a Brisbane court in early October after attempts by the Queensland government to expedite his transfer to NSW. He was transferred to NSW Corrective Services custody at Tweed Heads, in northern NSW, Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) said.
Griffith will remain in custody in NSW until the completion of any criminal trial, and will serve the remainder of his jail term in whichever state hands down the longest sentence, Queensland Corrective Services said. He was serving his sentence at Wolston Correctional Centre, a high-security prison in Brisbane’s south-west.
“I’m going to say what most Queenslanders are thinking right now: I hope you hit every pothole on the way,” Queensland Corrective Services Minister Laura Gerber said on Wednesday afternoon.
“If you’re a monster and you’ve hurt children, you will face that justice, and there will be zero favours given.”
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732). Anyone affected by sexual, domestic or family violence can also access 24/7, free and confidential trauma-specialist counselling through Full Stop Australia (1800 385 578).
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