Warning: This story includes details of child sexual abuse.
Former Canberra childcare worker Muhammad Ali has been sentenced to two years in jail by the ACT Supreme Court, after he was found guilty of indecently touching a four-year-old boy.
Ali, 31, was found guilty by a jury for touching the boy’s genitals, after a piggyback ride.
In sentencing today, Justice Peter Berman said parents were entitled to assume their children would be safe in a childcare centre.
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“It is hard to imagine a more serious breach of trust than the abuse of a child in a childcare centre,” Acting Justice Berman said.
He noted Ali was jailed in 2023 for a similar offence, which made the second charge even more serious, because it was evident it was not an isolated incident.
Acting Justice Berman said Ali had shown no remorse, and he had to impose a sentence that would drive home the consequences of such actions.
Yesterday, the court heard the effect of child abuse on victims ricochets around their families and communities.
“The hardest part has been the loss of his innocence,” the boy’s father told the court in his victim impact statement.
“My son lives under a shadow he should never have had to bear.”
The boy’s mother also told the court that Ali’s offending against her “young and innocent” son just weeks before his fifth birthday had “tainted our lives forever”.
She revealed her son had started displaying sexualised behaviours towards other children as a result of his own trauma.
Today, Acting Justice Berman said it was “apparent the young boy … had suffered greatly”.
He also acknowledged the difficulties experienced by the boy’s parents as a result of the abuse.
Ali was sacked from the childcare centre in 2022 after complaints from parents.
“It is vital that parents and other people have trust in child care centres,” Acting Justice Berman said in sentencing.
Ali has been jailed for two years, but will be eligible for parole in 18 months.
But he is unlikely to be freed, and will instead be sent to immigration detention, pending deportation to Pakistan.