Vanessa George: UK’s ‘worst female paedophile’ released after 10 years

A paedophile nursery worker who was jailed indefinitely in 2009 has been released after only serving 10 years of her sentence, Sky News understands.

Vanessa George, 49, was sentenced to serve a minimum of seven years after taking photographs on her phone of her abusing toddlers at a nursery in Plymouth.

She is to be banned from Devon and Cornwall when she is released from prison.

Last week, it was revealed the mother of two was expected to be released from prison shortly after the Parole Board concluded she no longer poses a “significant risk to the public”.

George will be subjected to “strict licence conditions” and an “unusually large exclusion zone”.

In an open letter to the people of Plymouth, chief probation officer Sonia Crozier said: “I share the disgust at the crimes committed by Vanessa George and I understand why the prospect of her release is so worrying to so many people, particularly in Plymouth where memories of her abuse are still vivid and frightening.

“The fact she so callously exploited a position of trust to commit these crimes makes them all the more horrifying.”

She will also never be allowed to work with children again and will be on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of her life.”

She added: “She is subject to a number of conditions, including not to have unsupervised contact with any children whatsoever.

“If she breaches any of these conditions or if her probation officer thinks there is an increasing chance she might re-offend – she can be immediately recalled to prison.”

She also said 21 families had taken up the offer of support following George’s crimes.

Following the decision to release George, a local MP said it was a “kick in the teeth” to the victims and wrote to the justice secretary calling for an “urgent review”.

Although she named some victims, George – who referred to herself as “paedo whore mum” – was accused of deliberately hiding information that would properly pinpoint those in the pictures she took.

When she was sentenced in 2009, Mr Justice Royce said it was “difficult to accept that she is genuinely not in a position to provide more information than she has”.

He added: “The photographs of children you were abusing did not show their faces.

“Many parents would like to have known. Some would prefer not to have known. Both positions are entirely understandable.

“I make it clear that the revelation of names is not a mitigating factor.

“It is what anyone with a drop of decency would have done at an early stage, certainly if there was genuine remorse.”

He also told George she had “plumbed new depths of depravity” by abusing children in her care.

Child protection officers visited 180 children thought to have had contact with George, who admitted taking up to eight pictures a day while on duty.

Staff at the nursery George worked at said they felt “betrayed” by her actions and one said that “a lifetime of childcare had been ruined by Vanessa’s actions”.

(c) Sky News 2019: Vanessa George: UK’s ‘worst female paedophile’ released after 10 years