A paedophile who used a work-issued iPad to record him abusing toddlers in a nursery is “every parent’s worst nightmare” and has shattered their trust in childcare, a court heard.
Vincent Chan, 45, operated without detection for almost two decades as he worked as a primary school teaching assistant, before later being hired as a nursery worker.
His horrific crimes were finally exposed after police uncovered a cache of indecent images on his laptop after a colleague at Bright Horizons nursery in West Hampstead, London, raised concerns with managers.
He was initially arrested on suspicion of child neglect after he filmed children in distress – crying, wetting themselves and eating their own mucus – superimposing audio or imagery over the videos in an apparent attempt at humour, prosecutor Philip Stott told Wood Green Crown Court.
But after seizing his devices, officers also discovered footage he had filmed up school children’s skirts as they sat at their desks, pictures of his own genitals taken in a classroom and horrific videos of him sexually abusing four toddlers during nap time at the nursery.
Some of the indecent images are thought to have been taken with his staff-issued nursery iPad, before transferring the material to his personal computer. A number had been organised into folders under the children’s names.
He also used hidden cameras to catch women changing or going to the toilet and sexually assaulted a woman while she was asleep.
In his campaign of abuse and voyeurism, he targeted women and girls who ranged in age from two years old to a woman in her 70s, the court heard.
Reading from a police statement outlining the wider impact of Chan’s offending, Mr Stott said he has caused “enduring distress”.
“Widespread trust in early years care has been damaged”, he said. Hundreds of families who sent their children to the nursery and school where Chan worked have been written to about the abuse.
“It is every parent’s worst nightmare”, added Mr Stott. “Families can’t put into words the distress caused by receiving such a letter out of the blue.”
Many parents whose trusted Chan with the care of their child are experiencing the “lasting trauma of ‘what if’”, adding: “The uncertainty is unbearable.”
Parents of one Chan’s young victims said, at the time of his abuse, “our daughter was too young to understand what was happening”, was “relied on those around her to keep her safe”.
“That trust was profoundly broken,” they added in a statement read by Mr Stott.
The parents now live in constant fear about how this may affect their daughter as she grows up, including her ability to trust others.
The fact that the attack was filmed has added to their distress, he said, adding: “She was harmed at a time when she should have been safest.”
A woman who was sexually assaulted by Chan called for his sentence to reflect the “sheer scale” of his depravity, adding: “Justice in this case can’t be lenient, it must be as heavy and as permanent as the trauma he has forced his victims to carry.”
Another victim who was secretly filmed said Chan’s crimes made her feel “violated and humiliated” and left her “paranoid about using the bathroom”.
A statement from a child who he targeted at the primary school, summarised by Mr Stott, said she was “distraught” and has been left “edgy”, “jumpy” and struggles to walk alone after dark.
However, she insisted “the actions of this disgusting person” will not define her.
He is due to be sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday, having previously pleaded guilty to 56 charges.
Appearing in the dock wearing a grey prison issue tracksuit, he stared straight ahead as details of his depraved crimes were laid out in court.
In December, he appeared admitted to 26 charges: five counts of sexual assault by penetration, four of sexual assault by touching, 11 of taking indecent images of children, and six of making indecent images of children.
In January he admitted 30 new charges: 12 counts of taking indecent photographs of children, six of outraging public decency, sexual assault on a female, and 11 counts of voyeurism.
Nicholas Jones, defending, told the judge in mitigation: “This is a defendant who, unlike others, accepts he has a problem. He doesn’t want to be the person that he is, and he is willing to accept help.”
Chan worked in a primary school in north west London for 10 years from 2007. He worked in IT support and as a high-level teaching assistant, before going on to work as an early years practitioner in a nursery for nearly seven years.
The sentencing hearing continues.
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