A former childcare worker in Australia has admitted to sexually abusing dozens of girls in one of the worst paedophile cases in the country’s history.

Ashley Paul Griffith on Monday pleaded guilty to 307 charges involving children in his care, including 28 counts of rape, 90 counts of indecent treatment and 67 counts of making child exploitation material.

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The offences were carried out against some 60 children, many of them under 12, at childcare centres in Australia and Italy over a span of more than 19 years.

The judge’s associate at the District Court in Brisbane took more than two hours to read out the charges against Griffith, 46, who appeared emotionless as he pleaded guilty to every charge, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Griffith was arrested in 2022 and originally charged with several child exploitation material offences.

Prosecutors later charged the Gold Coast, Queensland man with more than 1,600 offences against 91 girls, but most of those charges were dropped before Monday’s hearing.

New South Wales state police Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald last year described the case as “one of the most horrific cases of alleged child abuse our detectives have seen”.

Police said they had been searching for Griffith since discovering a collection of child exploitation images and videos circulating on the dark web in 2014.

Griffith, who is due to be sentenced at a later date, did not seek bail and was returned to custody after his arraignment.