Paul Anthony Wilson also admitted a further 45 offences related to grooming young girls on the internet and possessing and distributing indecent images.
Mr Wilson worked at Little Stars Nursery in Birmingham for 18 months before being arrested in January on suspicion of child abuse. The police investigation found that the child he raped had previously attended the setting and that the abuse had taken place within the nursery. He now faces an indeterminate jail sentence when he returns to the court for sentencing on 27 July.
Mr Wilson was arrested at his home in Birmingham in January after a teenage girl he met online complained that he was blackmailing her by threatening to share indecent images of her with friends and family. While he was being questioned a forensic examination of his computer uncovered two recordings taken on a mobile phone of him committing serious sexual offences on a young child and a significant number of other indecent images.
Little Stars Nursery reopened in March after closing temporarily during the police investigation.
The nursery was visited by Ofsted inspectors in March and given ten actions for improvement, including publishing a safeguarding policy that states the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation against a member of staff and implementing an effective whistleblowing policy and staff code of conduct.
A report published by Ofsted in February said that the setting has addressed each of the actions and has demonstrated that it is able to meet its legal requirements.
Chief inspector Garry Booth, of West Midlands Police, said, ‘Our thoughts remain with those victims and their families who have suffered at Wilson’s hands. Their courage, demonstrated by their willingness to act as witnesses, has undoubtedly helped prevent further offences.’