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Police will today begin a renewed effort to persuade nursery paedophile Vanessa George to confess the names of her victims to end the anguish faced by dozens of parents.
The 39-year-old classroom assistant has so far refused to say who she sexually assaulted during a succession of devilish” attacks on the infants in her care.
Detectives now hope that she will finally respond to their questioning and confess following her conviction yesterday and a plea by the judge for her to ease the suffering of the hundreds of families affected by her crimes.
The new attempt to obtain the children's names came as lawyers said that George - who send photos of her victims being abused to fellow paedophiles Angela Allen and Colin Blanchard - could seek a new identity at taxpayers' expense when she is released.
The aim would be to protect her from vigilante attacks after threats of revenge - including a pledge from one angry relation to strip her skin and cook her in salt - if she is allowed to return to the streets.
The crimes carried out by George, Allen and Blanchard, all 39, began last September after they met on Facebook.
George carried out a succession of sexual assaults - described by police as “horrific and devilish” at the Plymouth nursery where she worked and, after recording the attacks on mobile phones, shared the images with her fellow paedophiles, whom she never met, via email and text message.
The trio, who will be sentenced next month, were arrested in June and pleaded guilty to a string offences yesterday as they appeared at Bristol Crown Court.
Police have since narrowed down the number of her victims from a possible 313 to girls and boys from 30 families, but George has so far maintained a cruel silence which means that the infants' families continue to face a disturbing uncertainty.
The trial judge yesterday pleaded with her to name the victims to help parents and Detective Inspector Costa Nassaris, from Devon and Cornwall Police, pledged that efforts to persuade George to confess would continue.
“We've made it a priority of ours to ask her about the identification of the victims,” he said. “The judge has done everything he possibly can to make it quite clear to her that he expects her to provide the information which she must have.”
George appears certain to be given a lengthy prison term when she is sentenced next month, but lawyers today suggested that she could be given a new identity when she is eventually freed.
Niri Shan, of the law firm Taylor Wessing, said: Her lawyers may well try to show her safety is in jeopardy,' he said. These orders may be granted in exceptional circumstances, if there is compelling evidence that her safety is at risk.'
The Ministry of Justice, which would only make a decision close to the time of her release, would, however, only be likely to agree if it concluded at that point that there remained a serious threat to public order.
In in a further development today, it has emerged that police investigated a fourth suspect - a woman from Liverpool who is alleged to have sent child abuse images to Blanchard - but were unable to obtain sufficient evidence to bring a prosecution.
George, who worked at Little Ted's Nursery in Plymouth, admitted seven sexual assaults and six counts of distributing and making indecent pictures of children.
IT worker Blanchard, from Rochdale, 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.
Reader views (5)
PLEASE don't give them new identities and then ship'em off to Australia. We don't want them here after sentence either - got enough numnuts of our own.
- Eve, Melbourne
The Justice in this country is rubbish. It gives protection and is actually on the side of the people guilty. The nursery was also guilty for leaving children unattended in her care and NO one noticed what she was doing! We should spend taxpayer money on saving and looking after law abiding citizens not scum like this.
- Jk, London
New identities and protection should only ever be afforded to victims and witnesses. The pathetically lenient sentences likely in this case will do nothing to rehabilitate the offenders and they justly deserve to be hounded until the end of their days for what they have done.
- Jane Bewick, London
It's a naive plea to her conscience to name the children she abused; these crimes are all about control, and by keeping quiet she 'wins' in her own sick mind. This is yet another case where the courts and the legal system are totally incapable of delivering justice. I trust that severe action will be taken against the management / trustees of the nursery as patently she was left unsupervised with children, which should never happen.
- Philip, London, England
Knowing this gov't, she'll probably only get 2 or 3 years in prison. Then when she's released will be given a new identity, home, car and probably a job with Haringey Council Child Services!
- Rk, London
