The Australian Federal Police have contacted 121 families, in Australia and overseas, whose children were positively identified in child abuse material allegedly produced by a former Sydney childcare worker now facing 329 charges The Guardian. The man has been named by police as Hamish Tait, 35 7News.

Tait is accused of offending against 136 victims over a 16-year period. The charge sheet includes 162 counts of producing child abuse material, 24 counts of using a child under 14 for the production of child abuse material, 22 counts of aggravated use of a child under 14 for the same purpose, and 18 counts of intentionally sexually touching a child under 10. The aggravated production charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment The Guardian.

The AFP has established a Local Contact Point to coordinate with victims and their families as identifications continue AFP. Of the 136 alleged victims, 22 remain unidentified as of July 2026, meaning the family-notification count is likely to grow.

The investigation, designated Operation Moonbi, began in June 2025 after a report flagged an online user uploading a file depicting child abuse. Investigators subsequently analysed 2.4 million electronic files across 12 search warrants over a 12-month period, according to acting commander Luke Needham. One of those warrants was executed at a property in Glossodia, in Sydney's north-west. Tait was arrested and charged in July 2025, and his working-with-children accreditation was suspended immediately afterward.

Needham has said all alleged offending occurred in New South Wales, with limited alleged offending in South Australia, and that abuse material was allegedly shared overseas on three occasions during the course of the offending. Police have identified 62 early childhood education facilities where Tait worked or attended, concentrated in Sydney's north-west, and allege he committed multiple offences against children at five of them — four childcare centres plus a private business of his own.

The scale of the facility list is what distinguishes this case operationally from most childcare-abuse prosecutions in Australia: 62 sites over 16 years means the AFP's notification task extends well beyond the five locations where multiple offences are alleged, since any child who passed through any of those centres during Tait's tenure falls within the scope of the inquiry. That is the practical reason the family-contact number sits at 121 rather than a figure tied more narrowly to the five high-alleged-offence sites — cross-referencing enrolment records against a 16-year employment history across dozens of centres is a slower, more exhaustive process than confirming abuse at a single site would be.

For law enforcement, Operation Moonbi's file-analysis volume — 2.4 million records — sits at the upper end of what AFP child exploitation taskforces have processed in a single operation, reflecting both the extended offending period and the multi-jurisdictional reach of the alleged material-sharing. The involvement of international families also puts the case within the AFP's existing cooperation channels with foreign law enforcement on child exploitation material, channels that typically operate through INTERPOL's image-comparison databases and bilateral agencies once material is positively matched to identified children.

The unresolved element is the 22 still-unidentified victims. Positive identification in cases involving historical abuse material typically slows as an investigation matures, since the most readily identifiable victims — often those with clearer imagery, more distinctive settings, or existing links to reported missing or known children — tend to surface earlier. The remaining unidentified cohort may include victims whose material offers fewer identifying cues, a pattern the AFP has encountered in prior large-scale operations.

The case now moves toward committal proceedings in the NSW court system, where the volume of charges — 329 in total — is likely to make for a lengthy prosecution. Whether additional charges emerge as the remaining 22 victims are identified, or as further review of the 2.4 million files continues, has not been indicated by police. The AFP has not said when it expects the identification process to conclude.