A former prison officer took to social media to share a warning with parents after she worked on a specialist dormitory for paedophile inmates.

Randi Burkett, who posts online as @randigaylord_, decided to share her perspective on a viral debate about whether parents should allow their children to go to sleepovers. Having worked in a prison and being assigned to an area specifically for sex offenders, she claims there is one scary thing everyone needs to know.

In a video, which gained more than 2million likes, she explained her manager assigned her to a dorm for inmates who had abused children. Randi said: “I worked in a level five men’s prison for a little while, and my captain didn’t really like me being around inmates.

“He didn’t want any female around inmates, but – these are his words, not mine – especially not a young, attractive one. He would try his hardest to keep me away from them when he put me on post.”

She continued saying there was one night where he assigned her to the “Chomo dorm” or child molester dorm. “They do have to have their own special dorm because if not, they will all be killed,” she added.

But the worst thing she noticed as the inmates were really nice and polite to her. She believes that trait is how they get into a position of trust with their victim and those around them.

She added: “I remember I went in there my first night, I didn’t know what to expect because, like, what do you expect when you’re about to go work with a bunch of kiddie fiddlers? And it was definitely not what I expected, though.

“I say that because they were all so nice and, like, extremely respectful. ‘Yes, ma’am.’ ‘No, ma’am.’ ‘Please.’ ‘Thank you.’ Most inmates, they’re not the nicest, but all of these guys were so incredibly nice, so respectful. They never gave me a hard time. They never harassed me. Probably because I’m not their type, but whatever.

“That was probably the scariest thing was that I think that we think that these monsters look like monsters. They don’t they look like young men or old men, whatever. But they look nice and they have good manners and they’re respectful.

“But that’s part of the charm, right? Because they gotta they gotta get you to trust them. They’re good at it. Like, they’re scary good at it.”

She said the reason why them being so nice to her was scary because of the realisation these seemingly nice people had caused harm to a child and that’s why they were in there. So when it comes to sleepovers, she said it is an “absolute no” for her children.

“You don’t know what goes on at other people’s homes. And also, I don’t think we talk about it enough. But not just men hurt children, not just men hurt children. Sadly, women do too,” she added.

“We are all that our kids have. We are it. We are their protector. We are their provider. We are their advocate. We are their voice when they don’t have one. And I’m not shaming anybody for having sleepovers to eat your own.

“Personally, it’s an absolute heck no for me because I have seen what these monsters look like and they don’t. It’s not what you would think, and I think that is just freaking terrifying. And you have to look out for your kid no matter what.”

At the end of the TikTok video, she concluded that “monsters don’t look like monsters” they “look like really nice guys.”