Girls’ school groundskeeper charged with sharing child abuse material online

The former groundskeeper of a private girls’ school in Brisbane has been charged with more than 150 child exploitation offences, including allegations of accessing and sharing child abuse materials online.

Queensland police confirmed on Tuesday that officers had executed a search warrant for an Albany Creek address, where they allegedly found “significant quantities of digital child exploitation material”.

Police will allege Nathan John Adamson, 49, distributed the child exploitation material online.

Adamson – who used to work as a groundskeeper at St Rita’s College in Clayfield – was charged with 151 counts of using a carriage service to distribute child abuse material and possessing child exploitation material.

He was taken into custody and will appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court in May.

A statement shared by St Rita’s College acknowledged that “a former member of our non-teaching staff has been charged with serious offences by Queensland Police and is in custody”.

The college said it had been informed that “no members of our community have been identified in the current investigations” and said it “is working closely with investigators”.

“As the investigation is ongoing, we cannot make further comment.

“We recognise the importance of privacy and our clear statutory obligations not to identify any person related to the investigation.

“Our focus is now on the students, staff and families and how we support them during this challenging time.”

The accused came to police attention following an investigation by detectives from Task Force Argos, a branch of the Queensland Police Service responsible for the investigation of online child exploitation and abuse.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.