Queensland Police are under fire for prosecuting a childcare manager accused of leaking information about Australia’s worst-ever paedophile, while failing to act on complaints about the child sex predator dating back 15 years.
Yolanda Borucki, 60, was last week found not guilty of one count of “using a restricted computer without the consent of the Uniting Church to cause detriment” in Brisbane Magistrates Court, with the verdict raising questions over why she was ever charged in the first place.
Ms Borucki was accused of accessing confidential records about colleague Ashley Paul Griffith, 46 – who was sentenced to life in jail in November after pleading guilty to hundreds of child sex offences against dozens of children in his care – and sending them to a reporter with Channel Nine’s A Current Affair.
She told the program that Griffith was seen kissing a little girl at a Brisbane childcare centre run by the Uniting Church in October 2021, but police dismissed the complaint along with another from a mother in April 2022, and never searched his home or seized his devices.
Griffith was able to return to work where he then raped a little girl at that centre before being made redundant and going on to sexually abuse at least three more little girls after finding work at other daycare centres.
The years of horrific abuse came after police almost instantly dismissed a 2009 complaint that Griffith had sexually abused a little boy at a childcare centre. When he was eventually caught Australian Federal Police officers found thousands of images and videos of him committing unspeakable acts against children in his care.
But after the interview aired the church filed a complaint, and four armed detectives from Queensland Police’s child exploitation squad raided Ms Borucki’s home, seized her devices, and charged and aggressively prosecuted her during a year-and-a-half-long ordeal where she faced the prospect of a maximum sentence of 10 years’ jail.
Last Friday she was cleared when Magistrate Kerrie O’Callaghan dismissed the charge, finding that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Ms Borucki had used the computer, and had failed to prove that she did not have permission to send the emails, or that harm was caused.
After the verdict Ms Borucki’s lawyers called her actions “heroic” and slammed the police and the church, with defence counsel Ron Belahu saying the case should never have been brought, “let alone pursued so vigorously by the church and police”.
“She has suffered immeasurably through the prosecution process and is now obviously very relieved,” he said.
“She looks forward to any inquiry conducted by the authorities to shed light on how Australia’s worst paedophile was permitted to work with children for such a long period and into those who enabled this to occur.”
Police said they laid the charge after a computer hacking complaint from the Uniting Church, but a church spokesperson said it took no action other than reporting a privacy data breach, and claimed it “was not a party to the criminal proceeding”.
Defence lawyer Jason Murakami wrote to police prosecutors ahead of the trial urging them to drop the charges as it was not in the public interest for the case to continue against Ms Borucki, who had no criminal record, The Australian reported.
“The public interest in this matter is understandably remarkable. But not at our client’s conduct. Rather, at how Mr Griffith was able to commit his offending for so long,” he wrote.
After the verdict he said: “Today’s decision vindicates my client. However, it does not vindicate the behaviour of the Uniting Church Queensland and the resulting prosecution.
“My client has had to endure 18 months of emotional stress, psychological torment and extreme financial detriment all because she made the decision to take steps to protect children and those steps embarrassed others.”
Ms Borucki told A Current Affair that she was “relieved” at the outcome and hit back at false accusations she was paid by the program, saying she only wanted to “disclose how broken is the police system in this country”.
“Unfortunately … I don’t feel like a winner, because so many children being hurt and so many families’ lives was destroyed,” she said.
“My heart is going straight to them, and my thinking is always what more should be done to actually stop him earlier.”
Header image: Left, Ashley Paul Griffith. Right, Yolanda Borucki (A Current Affair).
