Childcare center in Melbourne fired Joshua Dale Brown in 2021 amid claims of sexual misconduct, prior to him joining another.

Joshua Dale Brown was dismissed from his position at Nido Early School’s Werribee childcare center after just three weeks of employment in July 2021. This was due to allegations of him violating the center’s internal policies relating to the handling of incident reports. Notably, the termination was not related to any allegations of sexual misconduct. The spokesperson for Nido Early School emphasized that the company has a “zero tolerance” policy for non-compliance with internal policies. It was reported that three months later, in October 2021, Brown began working at Creative Garden Early Learning Center in Point Cook, where police later accused him of sexually abusing children in his care between 2022 and 2023. The Creative Garden Early Learning Center, owned by G8 Education, had reported Brown’s conduct to authorities on two separate occasions, though neither involved allegations of sexual abuse. After the first report in April 2023, concerning aggressive behavior towards a child, Brown received a formal written warning and performance improvement plan, followed by a three-month leave. The second report in January 2024 led to Brown’s suspension, and he eventually resigned during the investigation. The health department and police have since identified multiple childcare centers where Brown worked between 2017 and 2025 and recommended that approximately 2,000 children be tested for sexually transmitted infections as a precaution. Establishing Brown’s complete work history proved to be complex due to the lack of centralized records among childcare providers. This incident has highlighted the need for a national registry of childcare workers, with Victoria already committing to developing its database in response to this case.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/17/alleged-sex-offender-joshua-dale-brown-was-sacked-by-melbourne-childcare-centre-in-2021-before-joining-another-ntwnfb