One never knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, and women, and what will be the catalyst to bring it forth.
The lives of 4 married women,Vanessa George, Angela Allen, Tracy Lyons and now 43 year-oldTracy Dawber became intertwined with Colin Blanchard, a business man, also married, and a convicted pedophile who fell through the cracks.
Customs and excise officers were investigating him when they came across images of child pornography on his computer. Because he had downloaded the images from the internet rather than made them, he was given a police caution and put on the sex offenders’ register. As is normal he dropped off the register five years later, in 2007.
The 3 women, all mothers have been arrested for participating in an Internet pedophile ring along with Blanchard. Tracy Dawber, a grandmother and a social worker, was only recently arrested and appears to be an associate of Blanchard and not directly involved with the George pedophile ring. Who knows how many more might have been involved.
Vanessa George actually worked at Little Ted’s nursery school for 3 years. 39 year-old Tracy Lyons, mother of 8 and pregnant with her ninth, also worked at a nursery.
No-one seems to know how it all started but it seems George and Blanchard met on-line during the end of the summer or early autumn of 2008, and their sick fascination with child abuse and pornography soon became evident. Since George worked at a nursery she had access to infants and the perverse acts began:
George began to find time alone with children at Little Ted’s, sometimes
when she changed their nappies. She sexually assaulted them and used the camera on her mobile phone to record the abuse. She used objects found at the nursery in the assaults, but also smuggled a sex toy in for at least one attack.
It’s thought that infants from 12 months to 18 months were specifically chosen by George because children that age would be unable to tell. She also made sure no faces were shown, which has made it well nigh impossible to identify which children were abused, though George has since given authorities some names.
Shortly after George and Blanchard met, Blanchard met Allen on the Internet, established an online relationship with her and the pedophile ring was established:
All three shared fantasies ‑ and the photographs of abuse. Detectives
said they seemed to egg each other on, to dare each other to go further.
Though at least 30 children were abused and at least 150 images taken by George, Blanchard and Allen were not just spectators; it turns out they too were guilty of abuse and photographing a child, and Allen was described as
the most graphic of the three. Detective Superintendent Adrian Pearson, of Nottinghamshire police, described her as “sinister and evil”. She talked about rape and sex with animals and after her arrest never shed a tear.
They all claim they met on Facebook, though authorities seem skeptical.
When questioned all three independently said they had met on Facebook. Privately some detectives doubt this. Surely they would have been noticed had they tried to use Facebook to find like-minded people? It may be, some officers believe, that they met in a chatroom and used Facebook after that. They did not use Facebook to move images around: that would have been too risky.
Pearson said he remained “baffled” as to how a supposed “chance internet encounter” led to such crimes. “Somehow they got on to such depraved awful topics of conversation that led to sexual abuse of children, betrayal of trust and deprivation. The sheer unlikeliness of these three people being connected in that way will be a puzzle that will go on.”
Though why it matters where they met to me is a non-issue. The fact that they participated in such perverse acts and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law is what matters most.
