Former nursery worker Vincent Chan has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after filming himself sexually abusing children in his care.
His “abhorrent” offending stretches back two decades, first at a Finchley primary school and then at the Bright Horizons nursery in north London where he worked for seven years.
Chan pleaded guilty to 56 sexual offices – including more than 30 against children – and is one of the UK’s worst known sex offenders.
Judge John Dodd KC said his offending was “utterly wicked, perverse, and depraved” and the huge number of images he possessed showed a “deep-seated sexual obsession” with children.
Speaking at sentencing at Wood Green Crown Court, where some parents watched in tears, he said: “Every right thinking person hearing about your offending would feel revulsion and disbelief.
“You became a sexual predator and someone who clearly lost all sense of moral compass.”
One thousand two hundred families have been alerted by the police and told their children may have been in contact with Chan – either at the school or the nursery.
However, just four families have been told with certainty that Chan, 45, abused their child.
At the Bright Horizons nursery in West Hampstead, Chan used iPads issued to staff to film himself abusing children.
Sometimes he would target them during their naptime. His youngest known victim was six months old.
At least 26,000 indecent images of children were found on his devices, with pictures of victims from the nursey arranged into folders under their name.
The judge said 280 videos and 1,204 of the images were in the most serious ‘category A’ classification as they depicted penetrative sex.
Chan also confessed to sexually assaulting a woman as she slept and filming up the skirts of girls in a classroom.
DS Lewis Basford, from the Met Police, described Chan as a “callous and abhorrent individual who needed to be weeded out of society”.
He said: “Whilst we’ve been able to speak to a number of families and provide them with clarity of what happened, I still walk away with the unknown, and being unable to actually speak to all families and provide the clarity that their child was not subject to harm during Vincent Chan’s care.”
DS Basford added: “All of those families that have had children go through that nursery setting or go through the primary school will be asking themselves the question, was my child a victim?”
The question haunts so many of the families involved, some are now campaigning for wide-ranging changes to make UK nurseries safer.
Despite pleading guilty, Chan has not explained his motivation to the police – who believe he was acting alone and not sharing the images with others.
The 56 charges he admitted were: Five counts of sexual assault by penetration; four of sexual assault by touching; one charge of sexual assault on a female; 23 counts of taking indecent images of children, six charges of making indecent images of children; six counts of outraging public decency; 11 charges of voyeurism.
‘Parents’ complaints missed’
One girl’s family, who we can’t name, want the local authority to take further legal action against the Bright Horizons nursery chain.
The mother said: “They had a whistleblowing policy, but no one whistleblew for seven years.
“Complaints from parents were missed… the digital device security didn’t work. I think there were so many missed opportunities.”
Chan was stopped in June 2024 when a complaint was made about him using nursery iPads to create videos of children in distress with music set to them.
Once police were alerted, officers recovered inappropriate images stored across 69 different electronic devices belonging to Chan.
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Alison Millar, from the law firm Leigh Day, is representing many of the families and told Sky News his crimes were “unimaginable”.
She said many parents had felt “dismissed” and “ignored” when they raised concerns about Chan, who worked at the nursery between 2017 and 2024.
“Parents said I’ve overheard this man shouting and berating young children,” said Ms Millar.
“They were just told, ‘oh well, that’s Vincent, he just has a loud voice.'”
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A local child safeguarding review has been set up but families want further accountability, as well as improvements to vetting of staff, monitoring in nurseries and stronger whistleblowing channels.
Bright Horizons is one of the UK’s biggest nursery chains with over 300 centres across the country – the nursery on Finchley Road has since closed.
‘Depraved and devious’
In a statement, Bright Horizons said: “Keeping children safe is our most important responsibility. Vincent Chan broke that trust.
“His actions were depraved and devious and go against the kindness and care our dedicated professionals provide to children each day.”
It said it’s now “increasing awareness of the ways staff can escalate concerns so that they do so quickly and confidentially” and has brought forward safeguarding audits and refresher training for staff.
A review of its systems by an external expert has also been launched.
Helen Reddy, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Whether it was at the school, the nursery, inside his home or nearby, Vincent Chan was and is a serious danger to women and girls.
“He is a prolific sexual predator, and this sentence will ensure he cannot harm anyone.
“The evidence against him was overwhelming and I’m very relieved he admitted his guilt, so victims and their families didn’t have to sit through a trial.”
