A former manager of nurseries in Twickenham and Teddington, who said she had an interest in “abusing very small children”, has been put on the sex offenders register.

Alison Whateley, 44, from Farnham, had previously been a senior manager at at Bushy Tails Nursery in Teddington also worked for the same company at Hampton Wick Nursery, as well as at two other nurseries in Teddington and Twickenham, the latter of which has since closed.

On August 29, 2017, Whateley, using the username xxx, was in an online conferencing room when category A and category B child sexual abuse was being streamed and commented on the footage in the chat.

She also made comments about the material to other users.

Investigators traced the xxx account to Whateley’s home.

Whateley was arrested on September 26 that year after investigators traced the account to her home.

She was suspended from work and later dismissed. There was no evidence to suggest any material was made at nurseries Whateley had worked at or that she had been in sexual contact with any children.

She later admitted having two accounts on the website and NCA investigators found an audio recording in which Whateley was heard admitting to being a paedophile and expressing 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 made no notes, passed no offenders’ details to law enforcement and had also deleted nearly all her phone’s contents.

She initially pleaded not guilty, but on the eve of her trial at Guildford Crown Court last month she admitted encouraging the commission of an either-way offence.

She was sentenced this month to a 30-month community order and a 50-day rehabilitation order, as well as being placed on the sex offenders register and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

Graham Ellis, National Crime Agency operations manager, said: “The sharing of both live and recorded child abuse on web based platforms is a growing threat.

“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.”

The NCA, her former employer, and Achieving for Children - which runs the local authority’s children’s services - worked together to address safeguarding concerns and inform parents with children at the nurseries about the operation.