Notorious paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith could have been ‘detected and disrupted earlier’, damning review finds

14 minutes agoSun 7 Dec 2025 at 11:15pm

Ashley Paul Griffith was sentenced to life in prison last year. (ABC News: Sharon Gordon)

One of Australia’s most notorious paedophiles could have been "detected and disrupted earlier", a damning review into how he was able to offend for so long has found.

Ashley Paul Griffith was sentenced to life in prison last year, with a non-parole period of 27 years, after pleading guilty to more than 300 charges committed in childcare centres in Brisbane and Italy over almost two decades.

Griffith is appealing that sentence.

The Child Death Review Board report was ordered by the Queensland government in January and had been a pre-election commitment from the LNP.

It used Griffith as a case study to review system responses to child sexual abuse, and make recommendations to improve laws and policies across early childhood education, police, and the blue card systems.

The review made eight findings about Griffith’s offending.

Released publicly on Monday, the review found information and "warning signs" about Griffith were raised and recorded across different organisations and agencies, but this was not shared.

It also found Griffith was apprehended only after uploading digital images, rather than in response to any "legitimate concerns" which were previously raised by parents and children.

It found Queensland’s blue card system "functioned as intended" but offered no meaningful protection to children as it did not alert organisations to the risk.

At an organisational level, the report found Griffith was often "moved on", instead of the risks he presented being "systematically addressed".

"These findings demonstrate systemic weaknesses: siloed information, fragmented responsibilities, insufficient thresholds for action, and a lack of coordinated safeguarding architecture," the report read.

Griffith was used as a case study for the review. (Supplied)