A judge ruled today that a female nursery school manager who watched videos of young children being raped and sexually abused should be named, overturning a previous ban.

Alison Whateley, 44, told other online child porn users that babies were 'f***ing sexy' and asked chatroom members for pictures and video of more, even younger victims.

She egged-on fellow paedophiles in a chatroom where 11 videos of children as young as three being sexually abused an raped were viewed by 40 participants.

Today a judge ruled it was in the public interest to reveal that depraved Whateley worked at the Bushy Tails Day Nursery and Pre-school in Teddington, south-west London. None of her offences involved pupils at the nursery.

Alison Whateley, 44, told other online child porn users that babies were 'f***ing sexy' and asked chatroom members for pictures and video of more, even younger victims

Whateley had been given a Community Order and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order last Thursday but was allowed to walk free anonymously.

The nursery where she was working at the time of the offence said today they were 'saddened' and welcomed the investigation which had exposed Whateley.

The court heard that the nursery manager had shared her fantasies of abuse of young children online with online lovers with whom she watched graphic images of child abuse online.

Like Britain's most notorious woman paedophile, Vanessa George, she had found men who shared her lust for child abuse images purely via the internet and talked lecherously about abusing children to 'get them off.'

Whateley who had previously been responsible for looking after nursery school pupils, had used her iPhone to access online chatroom Zoom in 2017, where anonymous hosts had played videos of children as young as three years old being raped.

After a day of work at the Bushy Tails nursery she returned to her home in Farnham, west Surrey to log on as 'user XXX', under which guise she would encourage other users, potentially up to 100, to share more and more extreme images.

Bushy Tails Day Nursery and Pre-school in Teddington where Whateley worked with children

Whateley had admitted encouraging or assisting in a summary offence and was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on March 7. Judge Peter Moss today lifted the order banning naming her.

Wearing spectacles and a beige scarf with her dark hair tied back, she clutched a spikey blue stress ball as she trudged into the dock, shielding her eyes from the assembled court and could be heard to moan in anguish throughout.

Prosecutor Steven Talbot-Hadley told Judge Peter Ross: 'At the relevant time this defendant worked as a manager at a nursery.

'An undercover investigation was underway by the National Crime Agency focused on the online conferencing platform Zoom, which is otherwise legitimate but known to be used by paedophiles for sharing images of child abuse online.

'An undercover officer was deployed in the meeting. It was in this way that this defendant was discovered. What the court is concerned with is the involvement in a Zoom meeting on August 29 2017. On that occasions the defendant was present for just under an hour under the username XXX.'

The court heard that during this time 40 participants viewed 11 videos showing children as young as three to five being sexually abused and raped.

During this time, Whateley actively participated when she typed into the live chat that 'she liked … boys and girls, the younger the better, and she particularly liked babies, saying they were 'so f***ing sexy'.'

One of the online users had asked to see less young boys and more young girls, and the nursery manager had added 'and younger the better.'

She asked the other users: 'Anybody interested in very tiny children?'

Following the defendant's digital trail had led investigators to Farnham, Surrey where they took her in for an interview, during which her position was that she had been using the online chat to track down and trap paedophiles.

The prosecutor told the court: 'When asked if she had ever provided any names or phone numbers to police of people she had interacted with online, she said she never had and has never given a reason for that.

'She met somebody online with the username JohnUK. She told police she talked with him about having sex with children in order to 'get him off', she said she had his number and thought about giving it to the police.'

Police interrogated Whateley's phone and discovered WhatsApp messages from August to September with another man online between August and September 2017, a man called Joe, with who she discussed abusing children, and telephone records showed she was in contact with a man who was investigated by police for indecent images.

The court also heard an audio recording on her phone was discovered in which a woman could be heard performing a sex act while talking to herself in graphic detail about abusing babies, which Whateley admitted in a later police interview was her own voice.

The prosecutor said: 'She said she made the recording because she wanted to know that she could pass herself off as one of them. When she was confronted with this she did not seek to put forward any positive explanation.'

Whateley was sentenced to a Community Order where she will be under supervision in the community for 30 months and she was ordered to complete a 50 days rehabilitation requirement.

The SHPO will be in place for five years.

Judge Peter Moss said: 'A psychiatrist found that you gave a less than compelling reason for why you were viewing this material, to be seeking to entrap paedophiles as some sort of paedophile hunter.

'You have accepted that is not correct because of your inactivity in doing something about it.'

Defending, Caroline Moonan read out a statement by Whateley, which said: 'I struggle to explain my actions. One day I accidentally found a chatroom with paedophilic material. I didn't really have a plan, I did not really know what I was trying to do.'

Ms Moonan said: 'When she looks back at her actions now she is disgusted with herself. She simply can't understand why she behaved in the way she did. She will never work with children again. She was so good at looking after children and so good at protecting children.

'Her job became very stressful and she couldn't sleep. She started using the internet more and more. She saw a chatroom about children and she thought it was something like MumsNet. When she saw went in, she found it was paedophiles talking about abusing children. She couldn't believe that such a site was allowed to exist.

'She felt compelled to explore the chatrooms to try to explore why people do this. She cannot really explain to this day what she was intending to do.'

The defence lawyer said that following an investigation there had been no evidence that Whateley had ever personally abused any children at the nursery she worked at or elsewhere, but she was deemed a risk to children in psychiatric reports and it was said she would never work with children again.

A spokesman for the Bushy Tails nursery said: 'We recognise the significant impact that events such as this can have on individuals and families. We are saddened by the events and welcome the conclusion of the National Crime Agency's investigation. We will always be supportive of outcomes which protect and ensure the safety, wellbeing and happiness of all children.

'Since the charge does not relate to our nurseries or the children we care for here, we feel it would be inappropriate to comment further.'

An NSPCC spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Knowing this woman harboured such dark and disturbing thoughts about children whilst working in a nursey setting is chilling.

'The images she viewed weren't staged. Those children were abused in the real world in order for them to be produced and by sharing them with other twisted individuals on the net she helped fuel this vile trade.

'To prevent abuse from happening in the first place, the NSPCC's #WildWestWeb campaign is calling on Government to introduce a regulator to force social networks to protect children on their platforms.'