INDECENT images of pre-school children discovered on a mobile phone could have been taken in a nursery at the centre of a “disturbing” investigation, detectives said last night.
Vanessa George, an employee at Little Ted’s Nursery, in Plymouth, was yesterday charged with several counts of sexual assault and distributing indecent images.
Head of Devon and Cornwall CID, Assistant Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Middleton said: “It’s safe to say we believe some of the images would have been taken within the nursery – but others it’s impossible to say where those would have been taken.”
Mr Middleton said the children in the images “may never be identified”.
He added: “Our priority is to maintain and build upon our relationship with the families of any potential victims.
“We are also focusing on our attempts to identify the children contained within the images. This is a very difficult task due to the nature of those images.
“At this time, we have been unable to identify any individual children. And it’s right to say that some images may never be identified.
“We’ve got specially trained officers looking at the images. We’ve a large number of images, and the potential is there for many more to be identified.”
“We also have computers, laptops and documentary evidence to look at.
“There’s a small number on a camera phone, but, as you can imagine, we could be talking about hundreds or thousands of images with the other media we are yet to detail.”
Mr Middleton confirmed the children were all under four years old and the images were graded one to four in seriousness, with five being most serious.
He also said a caravan in Padstow, Cornwall, had been searched as part of the investigation.
George, of Douglass Road, Plymouth, was charged with seven offences – four counts of sexual assault, and three further counts of making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children.
Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed their investigation was focused on the alleged exchange of material between George and Colin Blanchard, 38, from Littleborough, near Rochdale.
Blanchard appeared at Trafford Magistrates’ Court charged with possessing and distributing indecent images.
Chief Superintendent Jim Webster, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “This is a significant and disturbing situation.
“As we go through the painstaking task of trying to identify who may be concerned, we will focus our communications to those families we believe may be involved.”
