A female paedophile has been forced to move home after neighbours uncovered her true identity due to a Christmas card.

Tracy Lyons, 46, was living in Southampton under a new identity after her release from a four-year jail term after being convicted for being involved in a paedophile ring.

The mother-of-nine, a former nursery worker in Portsmouth, was jailed in January 2011 after admitting sexually abusing a two-year-old boy and sending video footage of the incident to a man she met over the internet.

After her release she changed her surname but came under suspicion when neighbours saw a Christmas card sent to her by Circles, a charity which helps rehabilitate sex offenders.

Tracy Lyons, pictured, has left her home in Southampton after neighbours discovered she was previously jailed for sexually abusing a two-year-old boy

It was seen by neighbour Richard Hurren, who had become friends with Lyons without knowledge of her past crimes.

He told the Daily Mirror: 'Just before Christmas we were round for coffee and I clocked a card from Circles. I Googled it and I found out it was a support group for sex offenders. At first I thought it was possible she was a victim.

'I Googled the surname she was going by here. I couldn't find anything. Then I put in 'sex offenders Portsmouth' and found 'Tracy Lyons Portsmouth' and her picture. I recognised her straight away.'

Mr Hurren said other neighbours soon found out and that he sent her a message over Facebook telling her they knew of her true identity.

It is understood she was due to spend Christmas Day at a neighbour's house where children would have been present.

But she was said to have left her home on Christmas Eve after locals confronted her over her past.

Lyons was later seen being visited by police and then getting into a taxi with boxes of her belongings.

Lyons was part of a paedophile ring headed by Colin Blanchard, left, and which also included Vanessa George, right, another nursery worker who abused children in her care at a pre-school in Plymouth

Speaking to the Mirror, Mr Hurren added: 'We were friends and would often chat and have coffee. I feel betrayed. People like that should be locked up forever.'

Lyons, who gave birth to her ninth child behind bars, was released from HMP Bronzefield in Surrey just ten months after her sentence was handed down.

She had been in custody since she was first arrested in October 2009 and had served half her sentence at the time of release.

Lyons was released on a five-year licence, which expired last October.

She sent the vile footage to Colin Blanchard, who was at the head of the nationwide virtual paedophile ring which also included Vanessa George, a mother-of-two who was jailed for seven years who abused a string of babies and toddlers in her care.

George, who lived in Plymouth, Devon, before her arrest and imprisonment in 2009, worked at Little Ted's Nursery in Plymouth, where she abused youngsters she was supposed to be looking after.

Lyons briefly worked at Izzie's Neighbourhood Nursery in Portsmouth, pictured

George admitted seven sexual assaults of young children and six counts of distributing and making indecent pictures of children and was given an 'indeterminate' sentence of a minimum seven years - which parents slammed at the time for being 'disgusting'.

Blanchard, 46, from Rochdale, made contact with women on Facebook and demanded horrific images from them in one of Britain’s most depraved child abuse networks.

The twice-married father of two had a ‘Svengali-like’ influence hold over four women in the ring and was described in court as the 'hub of this paedophile wheel'.

He was jailed for a minimum of nine years alongside Lyons at Bristol Crown Court in 2011.

Also jailed was Tracey Dawber, then-girlfriend of Blanchard, who was convicted of six child sex offences and handed a seven-year sentence.