A childcare worker has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for the "brazen" sexual abuse of five young girls while he was in looking after them at a centre in Perth's eastern suburbs.
The 25-year-old man, who is not named to protect the identity of the children, pleaded guilty to charges of sexually penetrating one girl and indecently dealing with four others in 2014.
The girls were aged between two and four years old, and some of the offences happened while the man was reading them a book with other children present.
The crimes were discovered after one of the girls complained to her mother.
Police then found a backpack belonging to the man containing five pairs of ladies' underwear and two pairs of young girls' underwear.
A search of his home found a recording of a sixth child, a nine-year-old girl whose parents were acquainted with the man, as she lay sleeping on a bed.
District Court Judge Anette Schoombee described the offences as "brazen" and a "gross breach of trust", saying the man had touched the girls for his own sexual gratification.
"You abused the trust placed in you by the parents and the owner of the centre," she said.
Judge Schoombee highlighted the victim impact statements provided to the court by the parents, which revealed that some had given up work to care for their children because they no longer felt they could trust childcare centres.
The statements also said the parents felt "guilt and shame" for not being able to protect their children.
The man's lawyer Ben Tyers told the court his client was from New Zealand, and at the time he committed the crimes he was immature, lonely, depressed and socially isolated.
Mr Tyers said his client was deeply ashamed and remorseful, and wanted to undergo a sex offender treatment while in prison to be rehabilitated.
Mr Tyers also said his client genuinely and innocently had a desire to help children, and the court heard he had been regarded as a "terrific educator" at the childcare centre, whom the kids loved.
With time already served the man will be eligible for parole in June 2017, but is then likely to be deported.
