Muhammad Ali arrives at the ACT Courts in 2023. Photo: Albert McKnight.
CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.
A judge has lashed the horrific behaviour of a former daycare worker who has twice been found guilty of indecently assaulting children in his care, saying it is hard to imagine a greater breach of trust.
On Thursday (23 October), Muhammad Ali was sentenced to two years’ jail for indecently abusing a second four-year-old boy at a childcare centre in northern Canberra.
“Four-year-old children are vulnerable in the extreme,” Acting Justice Peter Berman said.
“They are powerless to resist this type of offending, and they are often incapable of reporting it.”
He said it was a modern necessity of life that parents had to place their children in childcare centres and put their trust in those who worked there.
Parents had to entrust the welfare of their children to people like Ali, who are strangers to them, he said.
Acting Justice Berman said it was hard to imagine a more significant breach of trust than the abuse of a child by a childcare worker in such a centre.
He thought Ali’s case would only add to the publicity given to incidents where children have been abused at other centres.
“Everyone caring for a child must be made aware that if they do what the offender did in this case, then they will go to jail for a significant time,” he said.
The then-31-year-old’s second ACT Supreme Court jury trial ended earlier this year with a majority guilty verdict on a charge of committing an act of indecency on a child.
During the short time Ali was employed as a casual educator at the childcare centre in 2022, he was alleged to have indecently touched four young children.
He was ultimately found guilty of touching the genitals of one four-year-old boy in his first trial, then also of doing the same to another four-year-old boy in the second trial.
He has remained in custody since he was sentenced to 18 months’ jail over the assault on the first boy in 2023, even though this sentence has now finished.
Muhammad Ali will be able to leave custody in 2026. Photo: Albert McKnight.
During his sentencing hearing over his assault on the second boy earlier this week, the boy’s parents said the child abuser “tainted our lives forever”.
“My son lives under a shadow he should never have had to bear,” the boy’s father said.
Acting Justice Berman said both the boy and his family had suffered greatly due to the assault, and it was remarkable that it was not the first time Ali had committed such an offence.
He said the judge in the first trial had sentenced Ali on the basis that he had committed an isolated offence, but as he had been convicted over a second boy, the court now knew this was not the case.
Ali went to school in Pakistan, moved to Australia, obtained a Diploma of Early Childhood Education and first became a casual childcare worker in 2014.
He has had issues with his mental health, as he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was unemployed twice due to his drug use, but Acting Justice Berman said there was no connection between using drugs and the offending.
The court has already heard Ali’s visa has been cancelled and it is likely he will be deported to Pakistan once he is released from custody.
Acting Justice Berman said Ali hadn’t shown any remorse or acceptance, and he hoped the child abuser would not be able to work in a childcare centre again.
However, he noted that, as he will likely be deported, this raised the possibility that he will work in childcare outside of Australia, so his sentence had to make him understand the consequences of offending in this way in the future.
Ali was given a non-parole period of 18 months’ jail, backdated to account for time served. This means he can apply for parole from February 2026 while his total sentence ends in August 2026.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
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