In the Brisbane District Court on Friday, Judge Smith said Griffith, who the court found suffered from a “pedophilic disorder”, was a high risk of re-offending, imposing a non-parole period of at least 27 years.
Griffith was first arrested in August 2022 by the Australian Federal Police, and a year later he was charged with more than 1,600 child sex offences. Most of them were eventually repealed.
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Investigators found thousands of photos and videos of his abuse that he took and uploaded to the dark web.
Although the faces were cut out of the footage, they were able to trace them to Griffith because of a unique set of sheets seen in the background of the video, which were sold to children’s centers across Queensland.
He pleaded guilty to 28 counts of rape, nearly 200 counts of child abuse, and several counts of creating and distributing child exploitation material.
Four of the victims were under his care at a children’s center in Pisa, Italy, while the other 65 were from 11 locations in Brisbane, Australia.
Ahead of sentencing, the court heard a series of emotional statements from Griffith’s victims and their parents.
Among them were two sisters who had been abused in kindergarten, one of whom recalled that Griffith was her favorite teacher.
“Finding out what he actually did was devastating and mixed emotions to say the least,” she said, according to The Courier Mail.
“I can’t seem to process it even now because there’s a disconnect between what I remember and reality.”
Another of his victims told how his actions robbed her of a normal childhood, speaking of her struggles with mental illness in later years.
“I will never know what my life could have been,” she told Guardian Australia.
“I can never know what it would be like to grow up without being afraid of people.”
Parents, meanwhile, told the court of their horror at learning their children’s crimes, with some saying they found it difficult to forgive themselves for trusting Griffith.
“(My daughter) loved you like an uncle and you used her like a toy,” one said, according to News Corp Australia.
Another explained how she tried to keep the burden of knowledge of the violence from her daughter.
“I can’t undo what you did to her body, but I will do everything I can to limit the damage to her mind,” she said, according to the Courier Mail.
