Plymouth nursery worker pleads guilty to child sex abuse

Plymouth nursery worker Vanessa George has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing children and distributing indecent images, alongside two people whom she met on the internet.

George, 39, who worked at the Little Ted’s nursery in the Efford area of Plymouth, where she lived, admitted 13 counts of sexual assault and making and distributing indecent images of children.

Her co-defendants, Angela Allen, from Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, and Colin Blanchard, from Yeo Fold, Littleborough, admitted five and 20 counts of assault and distributing images respectively.

Balls calls for report of serious case review

Following the admissions, children’s secretary Ed Balls said he expected a serious case review by Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board into the case to be completed as soon as possible.

He added: “It is vital that we find out how an adult could abuse their position of trust in such an evil way and do everything we can to prevent this kind of abuse happening in the future.”

Detective Superintendent Michele Slevin, head of major crime for Plymouth, said it was the force’s priority to identify any of George’s victims, but admitted that it may never be possible.

Families being supported

He said throughout the police enquiry, Plymouth Council children’s services and Devon & Cornwall Police had been supporting families whose children were at the nursery and George’s former colleagues, “who have been left traumatised by her actions”.

Slevin added: “Vanessa George’s actions left the community of Plymouth shocked by her crimes. While her victims are, thankfully, too young to understand her crime, the families of children who were left, in good faith, in George’s care have to deal with the effects of her crimes for a lifetime.”

‘Sickening acts’

Detective Superintendent Adrian Pearson, head of Nottinghamshire Police’s public protection unit, said: “Angela Allen, Vanessa George and Colin Blanchard carried out dozens of sickening acts on some of the most helpless and innocent children in our society. Each of them held positions of trust in respect of their victims and abused this trust in a calculated and wicked fashion time-and-time again.”

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