Britain’s most notorious female paedophile is set to be freed from jail.
Former nursery worker Vanessa George, 49, was locked up for a minimum of seven years in 2009 for a series of sex crimes against small children.
A spokesman for the Parole Board said: “The Parole Board has directed the release of Vanessa George, following a parole review that was concluded in July 2019.
“Parole Board decisions are solely focused on whether a prisoner would represent a significant risk to the public after release. The panel will have carefully looked at a whole range of evidence, including details of the original evidence and any evidence of behaviour change.
“This is done with great care and public safety is the number one priority.”
George has been eligible for release since December 15, 2016 but campaigners have called on her to be kept behind bars.
Harry Fletcher, Director of the Victims’ Rights Campaign, said: “The minimum recommendation of seven years in jail for Vanessa George was very, very low, which explains why the parole authorities have kept her inside.”
The mother of two described herself to her internet lover Colin Blanchard as a “paedo whore mum”.
George worked at Little Teds nursery in Plymouth, until her arrest on June 9, 2009 on suspicion of sexually assaulting a number of pre-school children in her care.
She was part of a paedophile ring and admitted a total of seven sexual assaults of young children and six counts of distributing and making indecent pictures of children.
Sentencing her, Mr Justice Royce said she had “plumbed new depths of depravity” and warned she may spend the rest of her life in prison.
He said at the time: “Parents have to live with the memory of you coming out with a smile on your face to hand back their child, when you may well have been doing unspeakable things to that child.”
Some parents said her sentence was a “joke”, with one lunging towards the dock at Bristol Crown Court and threatening to kill her.
George was sentenced alongside Blanchard, from Greater Manchester, and his other online-lover, Angela Allen of Nottingham, at Bristol Crown Court on December 15, 2009.
She has already changed her name ahead of her release from prison. After divorce from her husband Andrew she has reverted to her maiden name of Vanessa Sylvia Marks.