I news WEEK ENDING NOVEMBER 15, 2009 www.kentnews.co.uk for all the news and sport ADVERTISING � 01892 61610314
AN EXPERT on female sex offend-
ers has warned against parents
becoming "hyper-vigilant" in
response to recent high-profile
child abuse cases.
Dr Theresa Gannon � senior lecturer in
forensic psychology at the University of Kent �
says society risks coming to a standstill if
people become so cautious they feel unable
to trust anybody with their children.
Her comments follow the recent conviction of
nursery worker Vanessa George, and revela-
tions from ChildLine that the number of calls
received about female abusers had shot up by
132 per cent in four years.
Dr Gannon said: "I think it's hard for most
people in society, including professionals in the
field, to understand why women sexually abuse
ferences. For instance, more than half of the
women I spoke to worked in unison with a
male offender. You rarely have men working
with other men in this way.
"That was interesting because people think
that if you leave a child with a male you should
be extra vigilant, but less so if there is also a
woman present. Obviously having a woman
there does not necessarily mean a child is safe,
so it's just about being aware.
"Knowing these key differences is crucial
for raising public awareness of female-perpe-
trated sexual abuse so it can be reported to the
appropriate authorities."
A recent high-profile woman offender was
Vanessa George who, along with two co-defen-
dants, abused up to 30 babies and toddlers at
a nursery in Plymouth, and is due to be sen-
tenced on December 15.
The 39-year-old initially refused to give the
names of the youngsters involved, but has
since passed some on to detectives.
Dr Gannon said: "It was totally up to the
women who took part in my interviews whether
they wanted to speak to me or not, but a lot of
them just wanted to tell someone their story.
"A lot were in denial, others blamed it on a
male who was also involved and others agreed
that they had committed an awful crime."
children. It comes down to the preconceived
beliefs about how women can behave, like they
can't do awful things whereas men always do.
"They are seen as the nurturers of children
and the gender that looks after them, so
when that is contravened it's difficult for
society to accept. In the past there have been
some cases where children have tried to tell
someone they've been sexually abused by a
woman only to be told it couldn't possibly
have happened.
"I think these high-profile cases do high-
light the need to watch out for people
regardless of gender, but what we don't
want to get into is a situation where both
males and females are vilified, because
hyper-vigilancy like that would bring socie-
ty to a standstill."
The ChildLine figures released this week
show that of 16,094 children who called the
charity last year, 2,142 told of abuse by a
woman.
Men still account for the majority of child
abuse claims, but the NSPCC said female
sex abuse was under-reported.
A contributor of many important publica-
tions about sex offenders, Dr Gannon
recently interviewed 22 female paedophiles
to try to understand how and why they
abuse children.
She said: "We found that although
females hold some key similarities to male
sexual abusers, there are also some key dif-
EXPERT: Theresa Gannon
Child abuse fears
`may bring society
to a total standstill'
By STEVE KNIGHT

Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Page 10Page 11Page 12Page 13Page 14Page 15Page 16Page 17Page 18Page 19Page 20Page 21Page 22Page 23Page 24Page 25Page 26Page 27Page 28Page 29Page 30Page 31Page 32Page 33Page 34Page 35Page 36Page 37Page 38Page 39Page 40Page 41Page 42Page 43Page 44Page 45Page 46Page 47Page 48Page 49Page 50Page 51Page 52Page 53Page 54Page 55Page 56Page 57Page 58Page 59Page 60Page 61Page 62Page 63Page 64Page 65Page 66Page 67Page 68Page 69Page 70Page 71Page 72Page 73Page 74Page 75Page 76Page 77Page 78Page 79Page 80Page 81Page 82Page 83Page 84Page 85Page 86Page 87Page 88 Produced by PageSuite