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 Middle
ton, said: "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."
Accompanied by Chief Superintendent Jim Webster, members of the Crown Prosecution Service and local authorities, Mr Middleton said the children in the images "may never be identified".
He said: "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. 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.
"At the moment, there's a small number on a camera phone, but 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 and the images were graded one to four in seriousness, with five being most serious.
He added a caravan in Padstow, Cornwall, was searched as part of the investigation.
George, of Plymouth, was charged earlier yesterday with seven offences including serious sexual assault and further counts of making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children.
Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed their investigation was focused on an alleged exchange of material between George and Colin Blanchard, 38, from Littleborough, near Rochdale.
Blanchard appeared at Trafford Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, charged with possessing and distributing indecent images.
Det Ch Supt Webster said: "This is a significant and disturbing situation.
"The position is made more difficult by the fact that identification of the children is very difficult. There are many that contain the images of torsos.
"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."
Officers and council staff were still speaking to workers at Little Ted's and parents. The nursery has been shut down for the forseeable future.
Around 100 people attended a meeting on Tuesday at St Paul's Church in Plymouth where Mr Webster spoke to parents and those associated with the nursery.
Bronwen Lacey, director of children's services at Plymouth City Council, said that 95 families were connected to the nursery. She said phone calls and visits had been made to some families and a support line had been set up.
Ms Lacey said: "We gave them info that was really quite shocking. But I would have to say they were remarkable in their reaction. Yes, they were shocked and they had a lot of questions that we attempted to answer.
"But they were very measured and mostly concerned by the impact on their children, and whether their children were affected by these images."
Paul O'Sullivan, director of health services for children and families at NHS Plymouth, said they would provide support to children and families involved.
George is in custody and will appear at Plymouth Magistrates' Court today.
