How One Childcare Worker Evaded Detection Across 62 Centres for 16 Years

Hamish Tait moved through 62 childcare facilities over 16 years, including a remote Indigenous preschool in South Australia, before his July 2025 arrest. He faces 329 charges involving 136 identified victims and 22 unidentified children. His trajectory exposes how working-with-children checks—background screenings meant to protect vulnerable populations—falter when workers move frequently across jurisdictions, particularly in regional settings where oversight gaps widen.