A second Victorian man has been charged with multiple child sexual abuse offences, including rape and bestiality, as the Allan government announces an urgent review into the childcare sector.
Michael Simon Wilson, 36, is facing charges related to child abuse material, according to documents filed in the magistrates court of Victoria.
Victoria police on Tuesday announced Point Cook resident Joshua Dale Brown, 26, had been charged with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims aged between five months and two years.
The pair are known to each other, according to court documents, which do not say how they are linked. It is understood Wilson’s alleged offending is not connected to childcare facilities or any of the children alleged to be victims in the other case.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Victoria police said detectives from the Sexual Crimes Squad have charged a man in relation to an alleged sexual assault in Hoppers Crossing in April.
“A 36-year-old Hoppers Crossing man has been charged with a range of sexual offences including rape,” the spokesperson said.
The charges relate to an investigation into an incident in Hoppers Crossing on 16 April “where a teenage boy was allegedly sexually assaulted”, they said.
Police said the man is not a childcare worker.
“As the matter is now before the court, we are not able to comment further on this matter,” they said.
Court records show Wilson is set to appear in court in September, the same day as Brown, and will face 45 charges including possessing child abuse material and rape and bestiality.
Neither man has yet to enter a plea.
Parent advocacy groups, politicians and the child protection organisation Bravehearts have called for a national review of child protection protocols and more rigorous screening, monitoring and reporting systems.
Those calls came as the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, announced the government would create a register of childcare workers “as soon as possible” and ban personal devices from childcare centres from 26 September.
After charges were laid against Brown, police said yesterday that more than 1,200 children were being tested for infectious diseases.
Allan told reporters that, while childcare is governed by federal rules, the Victorian government has commissioned an urgent review into childcare safety, which will be due Friday 15 August.
“I want this Victorian review to examine options, for example, of installing CCTV in childcare centres,” she said.
“Also, [to] look at the national framework for childcare to see if we can go even further and act faster, on any of the measures that are currently being considered at a national level.
“I will be adopting the recommendations of the review and looking at how we can implement them as quickly as possible.”
• This article was amended on 3 July 2025. An earlier version included a statement from Victoria police saying an alleged sexual assault occurred in Coburg on 16 April. Police later said they were mistaken and that the location was Hoppers Crossing.
