A “predatory and obsessive” paedophile nursery worker might never have stopped attacking infants but for a complete stroke of luck, police fear as he was jailed for 18 years.
Vincent Chan, 45, molested four girls aged two to four-years-old who were so defenceless they “didn’t have a voice”.
Chan filmed himself carrying out the abuse during naptimes while working at the Bright Horizons nursery in Finchley Road, West Hampstead, north London.
He also recorded up the skirts of other girls as they sat at tables in a school classroom.
When arrested, detectives found over a million indecent images of children downloaded on depraved Chan’s computer hard drives – the youngest just six-months-old.
Police also recovered images showing Chan exposing himself and performing a solo sex act in class.
But his 14-year reign of horror only came to end by chance when he jokingly showed a female colleague videos taken on a school iPad of a child falling asleep in their food which he had set to music.
Fortunately, the staff member was concerned enough to speak to her manager in May 2024 – but still had no idea if it was serious or would unmask arrogant Chan’s dark past.
Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, who led the Central Specialist Crime investigation, said: “He offended against people who don’t have a voice, who can’t talk or aren’t aware.
“In essence, that’s where he’s been able to offend for so long. It was his behaviour near the end that raised suspicion. He went unchecked.”
In a victim impact statement, parents whose toddlers attended the nursery said Chan’s “cruel violation will never dissipate”, adding: “The knowledge that he was not only capable of such acts but committed them against children within the nursery has created a permanent ache in our hearts.
“Ordinary memories from early childhood are now tainted with doubt, anxiety and guilt.”
Describing the whistleblower’s actions, Detective Chief Inspector Jenny Ronan added: “It concerned her because she thought it was inappropriate.
“There is, I think, a sense that this wasn’t the right thing for her colleague to be doing.”
At Wood Green Crown Court on Thurday, Chan was sentenced having admitted 56 offences, including sexual assault by penetration or touching, taking and making indecent images of children, outraging public decency and 11 counts of voyeurism relating to 20 victims.
But police said Chan’s crimes were actually escalating by the time he was finally snared and his jailing “won’t be the end” of their probe as potentially further victims may come forward.
Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor James Bolton Smith, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s organised child sexual abuse unit, told reporters: “The way the offences were committed shows, just on the face of it, they’re predatory and obsessive and against people who were either asleep or too young to talk back. It’s indicative of the pattern of offending.”
Chan, who is of Chinese heritage, was born in the UK but detectives know little about his upbringing.
Between 2006 and 2007, he was a supply teacher across north London.
His first offences have been identified over a ten-year period from October 2007 at an unnamed primary school.
Initially, he worked there as IT support but then started as a teaching assistant who would photograph and film school events, performances and trips for its website.
He then joined Bright Horizons from 2017 where he was as an early years practitioner until his suspension on May 20, 2024 - five days after a referral sparked by the whistleblower to the local authority designated officer.
On June 11, the Met arrested Chan initially on suspicion of child cruelty.
Police seized 69 devices - including mobiles, hard drives, memory cards, CDs and a computer - from Chan’s home. A 15-month forensic review of his laptop uncovered a “substantial cache” of indecent images and videos of children including evidence of him sexually assaulting very young girls.
Chan created “deepfake” images using his or school children’s faces superimposed onto pre-existing illegal imagery.
He also placed hidden cameras around his home in Stanhope Avenue, Finchley to film women getting changed and one being sexually assaulted while she slept.
Chan - described by police as “fixated” - had outward-facing CCTV at his property to secretly record people living nearby.
Eight indecent clips captured one girl in a private setting and 2,000 additional images of the same child recorded her family life between 2009 and 2012.
After his first arrest and when released on bail, Chan “refreshed” himself with further devices to access abuse websites.
Detectives say Chan was a sole offender and no intelligence exists that he was sharing or uploading images. He had no police record, passed an enhanced DBS check and his nursery disciplinary file was “unexceptional” with only minor competency issues raised.
Among colleagues opinions of Chan varied, with some saying they really liked him and an equal number holding negative views.
While HMP Pentonville, Chan provided a prepared statement accepting guilt but gave no explanation for his perversion.
“Only he will know,” Det Ch Supt Ronan told a press conference at New Scotland Yard when asked about motivation.
“There was no smoking gun. There was not acknowledgement from the whole nursery that this was a person who was dangerous to children. It just wasn’t there. There was a sense that some of his behaviour had become inappropriate.”
Families of 700 children who attended Bright Horizons during the time Chan worked there have been contacted and offered specialist support.
Forty-six of them are taking legal action criticising a “consistent culture of brushing concerns aside”.
Alison Millar, the head of legal firm Leigh Day’s abuse team, said: “Families understandably are extremely concerned that a perpetrator was able to work at the nursery for so many years and misuse nursery devices to facilitate his offending.
“They are concerned about apparent lack of knowledge and understanding of safeguarding by managers and staff and a failure by the nursery to implement effective safeguarding policies, procedures and practices, including digital safeguarding.
“They will be seeking full accountability for those failures, initially through the civil courts, but also are looking to Camden Council to investigate the case for prosecution of Bright Horizons as a corporate entity.
“This case has to be treated with the utmost seriousness by state institutions to ensure that similar offending can never be allowed to happen again.”
A spokesman for Bright Horizon previously said: “First and foremost, our thoughts remain with the children and families affected.
“What happened at our former Finchley Road nursery was an appalling breach of trust by one individual and not representative of the thousands of experienced and dedicated staff who work tirelessly each day to look after the children in our care.
“The safety and wellbeing of children entrusted to our care is our highest priority. We are committed to learning any lessons that can be taken from this terrible case.”
Camden Safeguarding Partnership have commissioned an independent practice review on the nursery.
Kellie Ann Fitzgerald, the NSPCC’s assistant director for London and the South East, said: “With the right support, children who have been abused – and adults who were abused in childhood – can and do recover.”
A dedicated NSPCC helpline has been set up for anyone affected by Chan’s offending, on 0800 028 0828, which operates from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-6pm at weekends.
To make a report to police about Chan, contact OpLanark@met.police.uk, or call 101 from within the UK, quoting the reference CAD3697/1DEC.
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