A Pakistani paedophile childcare worker who was already behind bars for indecently assaulting a four-year-old boy has been found guilty of sexually abusing a second boy at the same Canberra centre.
Muhammad Ali, 31, pleaded not guilty to two charges of committing an act of indecency on a four-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl at the centre in Belconnen.
An ACT Supreme Court jury on Thursday found him guilty of the charge relating to the boy, but were unable to come to a majority verdict on the charge relating to the girl, ABC News reported.
Ali was already serving an 18-month prison sentence for indecently assaulting another four-year-old boy in 2022, and the first jury was also unable to reach a verdict about allegations relating to the same three-year-old girl. The ACT Director of Public Prosecutions had sought a retrial of the girl’s case.
A pre-sentence report from his first trial found that Ali, who finished high school in Pakistan before moving to Australia to do a Certificate IV in Project Management and obtaining a Diploma in Early Childhood Education, had a history of drug use, mental health issues and unemployment.
He worked as a security guard before starting casual work in childcare in 2014, and admitted using cannabis, cocaine and oxycodone in 2016 to “cope with mental health and personal life circumstances relating to visa and his sexuality”, The Nightly reported.
The mother of Ali’s first victim said her son’s case had been “mishandled” and “swept under the rug” by the private childcare centre, and said she had “massive concerns regarding other potential victims” as parents had still not been informed.
She also questioned how he was able to gain employment in the childcare industry despite his drug use and mental health problems, which included diagnoses of schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder or bipolar affective disorder.
The second trial heard that the four-year-old boy told police Ali had “squeezed” his penis, and that the girl said he had touched her genitals after her mother had noticed some swelling in the area when she was in the bath.
Ali’s case will return to court next week for a sentencing date to be arranged.
In sentencing Ali to 18 months’ jail with a 12-month non-parole period in late 2023, Justice Belinda Baker found Ali’s offending was sexually motivated, he had not shown any remorse or accepted responsibility, and noted he had been assessed as being at an above average risk of sexual re-offending.
Header image: Ali during a previous court appearance (ABC News).
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