AFP charges Sydney childcare worker over alleged abuse of 136 children

Hamish Tait, a 35-year-old from Glossodia in Sydney’s north-west, can now be publicly named after a suppression order over his identity was lifted on Monday, 13 July 2026. The Australian Federal Police say he faces 329 offences allegedly committed over 16 years, in a case that has pushed scrutiny onto how one worker moved through multiple childcare settings without intervention.

Police allege the offending involved 136 children and was linked to five childcare facilities. AFP officers say they traced Tait’s movements through 62 early childhood education centres between 2009 and 2025, raising questions about screening, supervision and how warning signs may have gone unnoticed across a long paper trail of employers, rosters and complaints.

The investigation, known as Operation Moonbi, began in June 2025 after a report from the United States-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children flagged an online user uploading child abuse material. AFP-reported charges include producing child abuse material and filming a person engaged in a private act without consent. Police say the scale of the file, the length of time involved and the number of locations make the case one of the most serious alleged failures yet seen in the childcare sector.

The AFP has contacted more than 120 impacted families, and 22 alleged victims have still not been identified. In some reporting, the matter has been described as involving 158 victims in total, with 136 identified, underscoring the continuing uncertainty around the full extent of the harm and the number of children who may still need to be traced and supported.

After the naming order was lifted, the AFP established a local contact point for affected families. Some childcare centres have since barred male educators from toileting and bathroom duties, a fast reaction that reflects the immediate pressure on operators to reassess access, supervision and the handling of intimate care tasks. The central issue now is whether the systems meant to protect children in early childhood settings failed at multiple points, from hiring and monitoring to reporting and escalation, allowing alleged abuse to span five facilities and 16 years before police intervened.