A nursery worker admitted sexually assaulting children in her care, taking more than 100 images of her victims and sharing the pictures with two other paedophiles she had met on the internet.
Vanessa George, Colin Blanchard and Angela Allen, who claimed they met on Facebook, pleaded guilty to a string of charges of sexual assault at Bristol crown court this morning.
George would take pictures of herself abusing children at the Little Ted's nursery in Plymouth, using a mobile phone to send the images to her fellow defendants.
The trio, who had never met in person until they appeared in the dock together, encouraged each other to abuse children.
Scores of families who sent their toddlers to Little Ted's still do not know if their children were abused because their faces were not shown in the images. Police admit they may never firmly identify any of the victims.
The judge warned the three that they faced substantial prison terms and asked George to help police identify the children involved.
"A lot of people are affected by this case and I would like your help," Justice John Royce said to her, adding that she "must know" who was in the photographs.
Speaking to George's lawyer, the judge said: "Your client must know, it seems to me, who she has abused and who she has not. If I were a parent I would want to know whether my child was abused or not.
"Would it not be decent for her to indicate who she has abused? It is a factor that I have got to take into account."
At the height of the investigation detectives feared more than 300 children may have been abused, although the case later focused on 30 youngsters.
The three were caught by chance after a work colleague of Blanchard's came across explicit images on his computer and reported him to the police.
George, a mother of two who has been married for more than 20 years, began abusing children after meeting businessman Blanchard, from Lancashire, and unemployed mother Allen, from Nottinghamshire, online.
Blanchard was cautioned in 2002 for possessing indecent images of children and placed on the sex offenders' register but was removed, as is routine, five years later.
During the trial, defence lawyers for Allen and George alleged that he had encouraged the two women to commit abuse.
But the judge rejected the suggestions, saying of George: "She is not a child. This is a married woman who can make up her own mind whether she indulges in this sort of activity or not."
Detectives said the three egged each other on to share ever more explicit fantasies, abuse very young children and share the images.
George's job meant she had the easiest access to children. Between the end of December last year and June this year she used the camera on her mobile phone to take 124 indecent pictures of children in her care.
All three claimed they met on Facebook, although some detectives privately suspect they may have come into contact through a site devoted to paedophilia.
Police and child protection experts have not found images that the three made anywhere else on the internet, suggesting they were not part of a wider ring.
George, 39, hung her head as she admitted seven sexual assaults and six counts of distributing and making indecent pictures of children.
Blanchard, 38, of Littleborough, near Rochdale, showed no emotion as he pleaded guilty to 17 child pornography counts and two sexual assaults on children. He also admitted a further charge of possessing extreme pornography.
Allen, 39, of Bulwell, Nottingham, wept as she pleaded guilty to four child sex assaults and one count of distributing an indecent image.
George denied one sexual assault, which was ordered by the judge to lie on file.
The public gallery was packed with about 30 parents who wept as the guilty pleas were entered.
One man pointed at Blanchard and was asked to calm himself by the usher.
The three will be sentenced on 13 November.
A British nursery worker, Vanessa George, and two other people, Angela Allen and Colin Blanchard, have been convicted, in Bristol Crown Court, of sexually abusing minors and sharing the pictures online.

Each person recorded images on their mobile phones, and shared them with each of the other two via email and text. Detective Superintendent Adrian Pearson of Nottinghamshire Police called this behaviour "horrific and devilish", saying, "Those three individuals have shared quite willingly and freely images, texts, fantasies of the most serious level you could imagine."

The three people, who met on social networking website Facebook, had never seen each other in real life until they attended court. Allen wept in the dock, while co-accused George hung her head. Blanchard—who has been on the Sex Offenders Register for five years previously—however, showed no reaction.

Vanessa George pleaded guilty to thirteen charges, including one count of sexual assault. Allen admitted four counts of sexual assault and one of distributing inappropriate images, and Blanchard nineteen charges, including seventeen of sexual assault, and a further charge of possessing    extreme pornography. George refuses to identify which of the children on the police's thirty-strong shortlist she attacked. The three have yet to be sentenced, and the crime carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

George, aged 39, a mother of two teenage daughters from Plymouth, Devon, had worked for Little Ted's Nursery for three years, and in the childcare industry for 10 years. Blanchard, 38, from Smallbridge, Greater Manchester was an IT technician, and had a rocky relationship with his wife of 16 years. Allen, 39, lived in Nottingham, and says she has had an online relationship with Blanchard.