A mother has told a court of the crushing and inescapable guilt of learning she had left her son with out-of-school-hours care worker David William James, who has admitted to creating child abuse material while working at six Sydney centres.
James pleaded guilty late last year to 11 charges over his creation and possession of child abuse material and is facing sentence proceedings.
In a victim statement, the mother recalled how it seemed “surreal” to be asked by Australian Federal Police (AFP) to identify items of clothing in photographs, and said there was a mix of “horror and fear” when they were informed about what James had done.
The mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, described the ongoing mental toll that has “irreversibly changed” her family.
“I lie awake and wonder if my son will recall something one day and what that will do to him,” she said in the statement.
Mother living with ‘constant fear’
James was arrested in October 2024 over the charges, which relate to children aged five and six across centres in Sydney’s northern suburbs and the CBD.
Police previously released a list of 58 centres where he had worked between 2018 and 2024 and said the offending occurred at six of the facilities.
The 27-year-old appeared via a video link from custody as the mother’s statement was read out in the Downing Centre District Court by a Crown solicitor.
The judge heard that she no longer trusts out-of-school services with her child, who she described as an innocent little boy who deserved to feel safe and cared for.
She wrote of the guilt she feels about placing him into the care of James.
“What is worse than knowing what this man has done is feeling responsible for his actions,”
she said.
“I do not think I will ever be able to escape that guilt.”
The mother also spoke of her daily torment, everyday encountering “another trigger, another reminder.”
She said every small decision she makes about the care of her child now “feels weighted”, reflecting that she no longer considers “any person or place safe”.
“There is a constant fear resonating in the background that something else will happen,” she said.
James’s defence counsel Jeremy Etkind tendered a handwritten apology letter from his client among other material to be considered by the judge.
James is set to be sentenced next month, which the victim’s mother wrote will hopefully bring “some small reprieve”.
Last year, he also pleaded guilty to one charge that was laid as a result of his refusal to give officers access to his phone.
The court heard he remains in segregation in custody and is in his cell for 23 and a half hours each day.
