A second alleged associate of accused childcare paedophile Joshua Brown has been charged with almost 200 offences, including bestiality and child sex crimes.
In September last year, 29-year-old Matthew Green - who is gender fluid and also uses the name Kayleigh - was arrested and charged with 194 offences.
It is understood Green and Brown are not co-accused and did not allegedly offend together. But police have since found a link between them.
The connection was reportedly in relation to accusations of bestiality, with Green facing no allegations related to the childcare industry, the Herald Sun reports.
The charges against Green include more than a dozen acts of bestiality involving a horse in Leongatha during an almost two-year period from July 2022 to April 2024.
There are also charges against Green relating to allegedly sexually penetrating and touching a child on over a dozen occasions, producing child abuse material and possessing two childlike sex dolls.
An extension of a suppression order on Green had been argued in court in January but it was lifted. He is due to return to court on March 13.
Brown, 27, has remained in custody since May 12 and faces up to 156 offences - 83 of which were confirmed in December, months after his arrest.
Brown worked in more than 20 childcare centres across Melbourne and is accused of sexually abusing babies and toddlers at a centre in the city's west.
He had worked in more than 20 childcare centres across Melbourne and is accused of sexually abusing babies and toddlers at a centre in the city's west between April 2022 and January 2023.
Other claims include six counts of penetrating a child under 12, eight counts of producing child abuse material and 23 counts of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material.
Brown was also charged with 12 counts of bestiality as part of a separate investigation, which is unrelated to the childcare centres.
He was not known to police prior to their investigation and had a Working With Children Check, which has since been revoked.
In July, about 2,000 children were asked to undergo health screening after it was revealed that Brown had been arrested.
The case has plunged Australia's childcare sector into crisis, prompting the top two executives at Affinity Education - which employed Brown - to stand down in October.
Brown was allegedly nabbed by police after 'information' found on another alleged offender's devices led police to him.
Michael Simon Wilson, 36, first faced court in July last year charged with 45 offences including possessing and transmitting child abuse material, rape and bestiality.
Brown was alleged nabbed by police after 'information' found on devices belonging to another alleged offender, Michael Simon Wilson (pictured), led police to him.
The former waste management worker has since been charged in a separate case with multiple counts of rape, stalking and unlawful imprisonment.
Wilson has been behind bars since April after being accused of raping a teenage boy in Hoppers Crossing, in Melbourne's south-west, who police say he met online.
He is not charged with any childcare-related offending.
In October, Wilson's lawyer Heather Anderson said Wilson and Brown were not linked and were not co-accused as she applied to suppress his case from media reporting.
She argued there was a risk Wilson would not receive a fair jury trial if he continued to be tied to Brown.
But Prosecutor Pierce Russell opposed the suppression application, adding there was a link between the two men.
'The link between them is an evidentiary link and forms the basis of certain charges,' he told the earlier October hearing,' Mr Russell said.
'There are discussions between the pair that occur... involving discussions about child abuse material.
'And police investigators... they located those communications and that's effectively what kickstarted their inquiry into Mr Brown.'
The court-imposed gag order on the allegations against Wilson was later lifted.