‘Nightmare’ paedophile is jailed for 18 years: Families inform how warnings about nursery abuser had been ignored time and again
Families who tried to raise concerns about one of Britain’s worst paedophiles were ignored for two years, they revealed last night.
Vincent Chan was given an 18-year jail sentence yesterday for sexually abusing little girls in his care at the nursery where he worked.
He was described as ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’ in court, yet was only stopped when a colleague raised concerns Chan was making humiliating videos of children asleep.
Chan videoed his depraved actions on iPads provided to staff supposedly to send updates to parents. But British-born Chan, 45, saved the sickening content for his own gratification.
He later pleaded guilty to offending spanning two decades, including sexually abusing little girls as young as two, upskirting, outraging public decency and spying on women and girls. His oldest victim was in her 70s.
A judge castigated him for ‘utterly wicked’ depravity.
But families are furious Chan was able to prey on children for so long – particularly after they raised concerns with bosses at the Bright Horizons daycare centre in Finchley, north London.
One mother last night told the BBC her complaints were dismissed when she told a nursery manager her son had suddenly started showing signs of inexplicable rage.
Families who tried to raise concerns about Vincent Chan, one of Britain’s worst paedophiles, were ignored for two years, they have revealed
Police body-worn footage shows the moment officers arresed suspended nursery worker Chan in his bicycle helmet
The child – who was filmed crying by Chan – said he did not want to go to the nursery because ‘Vincent is angry’.
Yet she says bosses made her feel like a ‘hysterical mum’ who was exaggerating when she raised these concerns.
She told the BBC: ‘We were told that he’s a very good teacher and we were dismissed just like that.’
The Daily Mail has learned several parents came forward independently to report concerns about Chan, unaware that the man deemed ‘part of family life’ to some was secretly abusing and filming those in his care.
And they said he could have been stopped much earlier if bosses had listened to the complaints about his aggressive behaviour and unexplained injuries on their children rather than dismissing them.
Around 50 families are now taking legal action against the international nursery chain for breach of contract and neglect.
Alison Millar, head of abuse claims at law firm Leigh Day which is representing the families, said: ‘There were red flags and they [parents] weren’t taken seriously – they were ‘managed’ rather than listened to and acted on.’
She said these concerns were raised at least a couple of years before Chan was investigated but were told by colleagues he ‘just has a loud voice’.
The 45-year-old British national has worked in childcare settings for the best part of a decade
‘The children were frightened of him but their concerns about that were dismissed,’ she told the Daily Mail.
Parents of some of Chan’s victims came face to face with the predator in court yesterday.
They said their worlds were turned upside down when police began contacting around 1,200 families to break the news that their child might have been abused.
Prosecutor Philip Stott told the hearing Chan was offending right up until the day before he was suspended from work in 2024.
He was only stopped when a whistleblower flagged he had been ‘filming children in his care who were clearly distressed, crying, wetting themselves or eating their own mucus, superimposing audio or imagery over the videos in an apparent attempt at humour’.
It prompted a police investigation and Chan’s arrest, initially on suspicion of child neglect. But detectives were staggered to uncover a sickening cache of 25,000 images, including child abuse and obscene content of girls and women, stored on more than 50 devices.
This library included sexually explicit files of women and girls superimposed with pictures of himself, and a video of a woman in her 70s who Chan secretly filmed undressing on Christmas Day.
He also had around 2,000 images – including sexual content – of one teenage girl with whom he was said to be ‘obsessed’.
Chan pleaded guilty to 56 charges: 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 and 11 charges of voyeurism.
The Metropolitan Police were able to identify 20 of Chan’s victims – 14 girls and six women – but say there may be others who will never know if they were abused.
Judge John Dodd KC, sentencing Chan at Wood Green Crown Court, described his offending as ‘perverse and depraved’.
He said that it ‘escalated’ from upskirting to more serious crimes when he left St Mary’s Church of England School in Finchley, where he was an IT specialist, for the nursery in 2017.
He said: ‘You became a sexual predator and clearly lost all sense of moral compass. You chose to breach the trust placed in you by the parents and your fellow staff members.
‘You did so in the most despicable of ways, violating the trust of your child victims, at the school, and then the bodies of your child victims at the nursery.’
Families said Chan’s offending was made even worse because of how some considered him ‘a part of family life’.
He even drew superhero pictures for the children to take home, it was claimed.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford speaking outside Wood Green Crown Court, after Chan previously admitted a raft of sexual offences
Alison Millar from law firm Leigh Day, representing family members whose children was under Chan’s supervision
Experienced police officers described the case as among ‘the most significant and disturbing’ investigations in recent history, with some victims leaving yesterday’s sentencing hearing visibly upset.
A serious case review is now under way to work out how masters graduate Chan, who passed stringent security checks, was able to go undetected for so long.
His nursery duties included feeding, clothing, cleaning and interacting with the children, tasks that required a high degree of trust and safeguarding.
It is understood he was responsible for photographing and filming events for the primary school website.
The nursery chain said Chan underwent extensive vetting and that it was ‘shocked and appalled by this individual’s horrific crimes’.
In a statement, Bright Horizons refused to comment on parents’ claims their complaints were ignored while a review was ongoing.
But the company said it had ‘extensive safeguarding practices and training requirements in place designed to keep children safe’, with all employees undertaking ‘rigorous recruitment screening and reference checking, as well as regular training’.
The company said Chan ‘abused his position in the most despicable way and deliberately concealed his behaviour to evade detection’.
Families said they welcomed Chan’s sentence but added in a statement: ‘Every family deserves the truth and every child who suffered must see justice done. Chan was able to operate for years in a workplace where safeguarding failures were missed, minimised or ignored.’
They called on Camden Council, the local safeguarding authority, to prosecute Bright Horizons for health and safety breaches.
A Camden Council spokesman said the authority was ‘working closely with NHS partners, Metropolitan Police, central and local government bodies and voluntary and community organisations to coordinate specialist support for families during this extremely difficult time’.
Chan, who had no previous convictions, has been barred from working with children for life and will be subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
