Paedophile Steven Harvey back working at City Chicks petting zoo in Samford Valley
A convicted child sex offender is under renewed investigation after he was spotted working at a family-friendly cafe and a farm popular with young children.
City Chicks Farm and Cafe, in the Samford Valley northwest of Brisbane, bills itself as a “children’s play area” where children can feed and pet the animals, but A Current Event While working there this week I found pedophile Steven James Harvey.
In 2017, Harvey was sentenced to eight years in prison for 15 sexual offences, including four against children, and nine rapes.
Shortly after being released from prison, she started working at City Chicks, promoting its family-friendly events in social media clips.
When Harvey’s sordid past was first revealed by Nine News last November, City Chicks owner Ingrid Dimock announced she was cutting all ties.
“I’m just trying to save my business and reassure all the families that this is a very safe place,” Dimock said at the time, adding: “Steve Harvey has been removed from the building and everything related to the business.”
But this week he returned to work at the cafe. A Current Event The cameras showed up claiming he was given permission by Queensland Police.
“I’m not doing anything wrong. I sent the police here. They know I’m here. They don’t have a problem with me being here. Why do you?” Harvey said.
When asked why a convicted child sex offender would need to work in an area full of children, Harvey stated that “there are over 60,000 sex offenders in Queensland, hanging around in shops and everywhere else”.
This isn’t the first time Harvey has been caught around children after his license to work with children was suspended.
In 2016, he was seen touring a school while running a jumping castle business.
Parent Jen Fleming was one of many local residents shocked to learn Harvey was working again at the child-friendly cafe just outside Brisbane.
“It’s pretty scary to know that this could be allowed to happen,” he said.
“I think a lot of parents will have a problem with this and as a local parent I am really concerned that this is being allowed to happen.”
Lawyer Andrew Carpenter said he was “disgusted” that a registered sex offender could work for a business promoted as a petting zoo.
“Parents shouldn’t have to do detective work to take their kids to pet a goat,” he said, adding that if current law allows Harvey to work there, that should be changed.
“This is not a gray area, it’s a flashing stop sign. Criminals will try to find loopholes to gain access to children, and those loopholes need to be closed immediately.”
Harvey said A Current Event He had more criminal convictions and always maintained his innocence.
“I am not a sick individual, you are making it up,” he said. “You don’t know the history of everything that happened.”
Harvey also claimed that what many locals consider a petting zoo is actually a farm.
“The amount of mental gymnastics he goes through to justify being around children shows that he is still a danger to vulnerable people,” Carpenter said.
Although Harvey claims he now only works in the kitchen, he was recorded talking to a mother and her child in the petting area this week.
Late on Thursday a Queensland Police spokesman said they had “received additional information regarding a man in Samford”.
“As this information is being investigated, it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the spokesman said.
The City Chicks owner had been in a relationship with Harvey for almost two years and told him: A Current Event He notified me via text message that he was allowed to return.
“After carefully reviewing the situation with the authorities, he is contributing lawfully by assuming a fully operational role behind the scenes, without any contact with the children,” Dimock said.
This was a far cry from his stance when his criminal history was first revealed in November, when he told Nine News he did not want people to “walk past him saying bad things”, adding that he was “the victim here”.
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Dan Nolan is senior reporter for A Current Affair in Queensland.
