Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Wendy Steendam, center, acting Police Commander Janet Stevenson, left, and Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan, appear at a news conference in Melbourne, Australia, July 1, 2025. Reuters/AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

About 1,200 families have been urged by police in Australia to have their children tested for infectious diseases after a child care worker in Melbourne was charged with multiple sexual assault offenses against eight children.

Joshua Brown, 26, was charged with more than 70 offenses, including child rape and attempted rape and possession of child sexual abuse material, the Victoria Police said in a statement Tuesday.

"The most important thing for our investigators was that we needed to identify the victims involved," Acting Commander Janet Stevenson of the Victoria Police's Crime Command said Tuesday. "These are some of the most vulnerable members of our community and the conversations police have had to have with their families were no doubt life changing in the worst possible way."

The charges relate to eight alleged victims from one child care centre in the Melbourne suburb of Point Cook, between April 2022 and January 2023, but authorities fear more children may have been affected. Brown worked at more than 20 child care centers in the region between 2017 and his arrest in May 2025, according to the police.

Detectives are investigating, "as a priority," evidence of possible further offenses by Brown during his time at another child care center in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon.

In total, some 2,600 families whose children attended the two institutions during Brown's employment have been contacted, with authorities recommending 1,200 children be tested for certain diseases due to the "manner of the alleged offending," state health authorities said.

"As a precaution, we are recommending that some children undergo testing for infectious diseases due to a potential exposure risk in that period," Victoria Chief Health Officer Christian McGrath said at a news conference on Tuesday. "We do believe it's a low risk, but we want to offer this to provide assurance to the parents about the health and wellbeing of their children."

McGrath didn't specify which diseases the health department had recommended testing for, but said they could be treated with antibiotics.

The police said they believe Brown acted alone, and only within the state of Victoria. He had a valid certification to work with children in the state, and was not known to police prior to his arrest in May, after detectives discovered he had child abuse material.

Top Victoria state official, Premier Jacinta Allan, said in a statement Tuesday that she was "sickened by these allegations of abuse. They are shocking and distressing."

"My heart breaks for those families who are living every parent's worst nightmare," she added. "As a parent I can only imagine the unbearable pain and distress the affected families are feeling."

Brown, who has been in custody since May and has yet to enter a plea to the charges, is due to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sept. 15.

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