Distraught parents are demanding answers after their son was injured during an alleged sexual assault by another boy at a Queensland childcare centre.
The four-year-old boy was taken to an emergency department the day after his parents brought him home and found his underpants missing and blood in his spare shorts, and his diagnosis on the hospital admission form stated he had suffered an “anal tear and sexual assault”.
But his mother and father say centre staff only told them their son was “pressured” into an interaction with another boy, said the pair were “playing around” and that he was a “willing participant”, but have not been shown the CCTV and claim the centre has not responded to queries.
“My wife was informed of an incident when she went to pick him up but it was portrayed as normal inquisitive touching by small children but in what world is a 2cms tear of the rectum normal,” the father told The Courier Mail.
“My child was penetrated and the centre incident report says he was found half naked in the outdoor play area. Why were the kids left unsupervised? The kids were also on video but we have not been able to watch it – yet it has been shared with staff.
“Where is the transparency? Following the awful case of paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith’s reign of terror in child care centres I would have thought that every single centre in the state would be going to great lengths to watch children every minute.”
The childcare centre manager said there was no evidence a sexual assault took place, and an incident report made by a worker stated: “When I asked X why he wasn’t wearing a shirt he replied ‘it’s a secret’. X disclosed that the other boy had touched him on the ‘doodle and bum’.”
A different mother had previously lodged an incident report raising concerns about children touching each other and complaining that kids aged two to five lacked supervision.
Queensland Police said they could not confirm whether an offence occurred and could not investigate further as the children were under the age of criminal responsibility. The incident is now being investigated by the Early Childhood Regulatory Authority.
The parents said they were now “worried sick” about how the assault would affect their son, who has been given counselling, and are calling for an independent investigation and formal explanation.
The shocking allegations come after the mother of a boy who was sexually abused by a paedophile Pakistani immigrant childcare worker in Canberra spoke out to warn other parents about the country’s broken childcare system.
There were more than 26,000 serious incidents – including deaths, serious injuries, trauma or illness, missing children and allegations of sexual, physical or emotional abuse – in childcare centres nationwide in 2024, a 27% increase in just three years.
In childcare centres in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia there is an average of one report a day of sexual misconduct or sexual offences, while Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory lack a reportable conduct scheme.
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