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Clare Mason holds a young girl in the playground at the Gujaga Child Care Centre La Perouse June 18, 2013. Mason earns the minimum wage in Australia that stands officially at A$15.96 per hour. Her duties include feeding, playing and participating in educational activities for the young children who are dropped at the centre by their parents during their work day. She admits that after paying her living expenses for the week that include A$150 for rent, A$80 for food, A$60 for a phone, A$30 for petrol, and A$200 for entertainment, she saves about A$20 a week. Picture taken June 18, 2013. REUTERS/David Gray

A woman, who allegedly caught a childcare worker in Brisbane molesting the two-year-old son of her friend, is being counselled by the police as they probe deeper into the matter. The woman was earlier thought to be the child’s mother. According to police, the child’s family is also being supported by government agencies.

The woman had gone to the childcare centre in Durack in Brisbane's west on Friday afternoon to pick up her friend’s son. But when she could not find him, she looked around the premises.

“In one of the back rooms of the childcare centre, she was confronted with a 20-year-old employee committing a sexual assault on the two-year-old boy,” acting Superintendent Geoff Sheldon told reporters on Monday.

Sheldon said the woman then took the child out of the place and immediately informed his mother and the police.

The man, who has not yet been named, appeared before the Brisbane Magistrate Court on Saturday with charges of attempted rape, deprivation of liberty and entering premises with intent. The man has been released on bail but with conditions that he live with his mother and must not make any kind of contact with any child under the age of 16. The man is due to appear before the court again in October.

The man, who was working at the child care centre for about six months, has also been charged with possessing child exploitation material, after anime files of children were discovered on his personal computer when the police searched his home.

“I can't imagine anything worse, as a parent myself,” AAP quoted acting Superintendent Sheldon as saying. “It's a horrible breach of trust.”

But Sheldon also asked the parents not to allow their faith in the state’s child protection system falter as the incident is an extremely rare case.

“There's free and flowing information between government departments so that anything suspicious gets looked at in a timely fashion and thoroughly investigated,” he said.

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