LONDON – A woman nursery worker and two co-defendants admitted participating in a catalogue of child sex abuse offences yesterday which police said included “some of the most evil acts imaginable”.
Vanessa George, Angela Allen and Colin Blanchard, all aged 39, pleaded guilty to a string of charges of assault and making indecent images.
George, a married mother of two, who worked at worked at Little Ted’s day care unit in Plymouth, admitted seven sexual assaults and six counts of distributing and making indecent pictures of children.
Blanchard, from Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to 17 child pornography counts and two sexual assaults on children.
Allen, from Nottingham, pleaded guilty to four child sex assaults and one count of distributing an indecent image.
They appeared at Bristol Crown Court, where the public gallery was packed with around 30 parents, the Press Association reported.
Police said businessman Blanchard was the instigator of the abuse.
“Colin Blanchard’s sick fantasies were the catalyst for a chain of events that led to the abuse of innocent children on a truly shocking scale,” said Greater Manchester Police Det Constable Andy Pilling.
The judge told the three they faced substantial prison sentences for the abuse, which took place between September 2008 and June this year.
He asked George to co-operate with police to identify those abused in the photos as many parents did not know whether their children had been victims.
Speaking to George’s lawyer, the judge said: “Your client must know . . . who she has abused and who she has not.”
The three, who had teamed up on the internet, recorded the abuse on their mobile phones and then exchanged the pictures via email, never actually meeting in person.
George’s arrest in June sparked public outrage and angry scenes during earlier court appearances.
She had been charged following the arrest of Blanchard who was caught after a colleague found obscene pictures on a work computer.
Nottinghamshire Police Det Supt Adrian Pearson said the trio had conducted “dozens of sickening sexual acts on some of the most helpless and innocent children in our society.
“The three offenders carried out some of the most evil acts imaginable and I hope the sentences they receive reflect the seriousness of offences and the harm and trauma caused to their victims,” Det Supt Pearson added.
Sentencing of the trio was adjourned till a later date.