Self-confessed 'paedophile' nursery manager streamed child abuse in online chat room
Undercover officer caught Alison Whateley saying babies are 'so f***ing sexy'
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A nursery manager who boasted about her sexual interest in children in an internet chatroom where child sexual abuse was shown has been named following sentencing last week.
Alison Whateley, 44, was caught by an undercover officer telling other users in an online conference room that babies were “so f***ing sexy”, Guildford Crown Court heard.
Whateley, who worked at the Bushy Tails Day Nursery and Pre-school in Teddington, southwest London, was arrested on 26 September 2017, suspended from work and later dismissed following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.
The NCA said there was no evidence to suggest any material was made at nurseries where she had worked or that she had abused children there.
Whateley was sentenced for assisting or encouraging the distribution of indecent images.
After she was arrested, Whateley admitted to using an account on an online chat room in which the most serious category of child sexual abuse was being streamed.
Investigators also found a recording on her phone in which she admitted to being a paedophile and expressed an interest in abusing very small children.
Whateley claimed she had been visiting the conference room for six months to entrap paedophiles, but she had not passed offenders’ details to police.
She initially pleaded not guilty, but admitted encouraging the commission of an either way offence on the eve of her trial at Guildford Crown Court last month.
Last Thursday, she was sentenced to a 30-month community order and a 50-day rehabilitation order.
She was also put on the sex offenders register and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order.
Now, the judge has lifted a ban so that she can be named for the first time.
“The sharing of both live and recorded child abuse on web based platforms is a growing threat,” Graham Ellis, NCA operations manager, said.
“Behind every image is a child who has been abused or is still being abused and their protection is at the centre of everything we do.”
Alison Cartmell, specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “We work tirelessly with partners such as the NCA to make sure those involved in child abuse of any kind are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”