Ex-childcare worker found guilty of sexually abusing four-year-old boy

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.

A jury has found an ex-childcare worker guilty of sexually abusing a four-year-old boy.

However, it also acquitted him of allegations involving a second boy and could not decide on an alleged offence against a young girl.

Muhammad Ali faced an ACT Supreme Court trial this month, in which he was accused of touching the genitalia of one three-year-old girl and two four-year-old boys at a childcare centre in 2022.

The 12 jurors began deliberating on Friday afternoon (16 June) before returning to court about four days later, at close to 3 pm on Thursday (22 June), with two of their verdicts.

Ali was found guilty of committing an act of indecency on the first four-year-old boy.

After the trial ended, this boy’s parents told media: “We are happy that our son got the justice he deserved”.

“He should be recognised as a little hero in the Canberra community,” his parents said.

“Teaching protective behaviours is what saved him and we encourage all parents to teach their children.”

Earlier the jurors had, however, found Ali not guilty of an act of indecency charge when it came to the second four-year-old boy and also could not agree on a verdict for the act of indecency charge involving the girl.

Justice Belinda Baker asked them to continue deliberating to see if they could reach an agreement on this undecided charge and to send a note back to the court if they could not.

The jurors returned to the courtroom shortly afterwards and the court heard they still could not reach a verdict on this charge.

Justice Baker discharged them on the charge, thanked them for their service and discharged them from their involvement on the jury, bringing the trial to a close.

She continued Ali’s bail and listed the matter before the Supreme Court registrar on 29 June to begin its next stage.

Ali, who is aged in his late 20s, had denied the allegations and his trial started last week, before ending four days later.

“You’ll know from your own experience of children that they say lots of things, but they don’t say that; they don’t say that they’ve been sexually abused,” prosecutor Trent Hickey told jurors in his closing arguments.

Jurors heard the first boy’s interview with a police officer, in which he was asked about what happened.

“He pinched me on the doodle and it hurted me,” the boy said.

“It made me feel bad so I bited him on the arm.”

Meanwhile, the mother of the three-year-old girl thought her daughter had been acting strangely and thought she saw that her genitals were red and swollen, but at the time the girl told her she’d received these marks when she fell over in the playground.

Later, this mother heard about the allegations made by the first boy and asked her child if anyone had touched her genitals. The girl said yes, alleging it was Ali and claimed he’d told her to say she’d fallen in the playground.

It was the girl who alleged Ali had also touched the second boy, even though this boy denied it.

The jury acquitted Ali of the allegations involving this second boy.

Barrister James Sabharwal claimed the girl was “primed” by her mother, who he said had asked her leading questions, and he argued there were other explanations for the girl’s swollen genitals.

He said none of the other staff at the childcare centre had any complaints about Ali’s behaviour and instead said he was seen acting appropriately with children.

“This case is a little like a snowball rolling down a hill, picking up more snow as it continues to roll down,” he said.