A paedophile pre-school worker has been jailed for 18 years for his campaign of abuse against women, girls and toddlers.
Vincent Chan, 45, had already pleaded guilty to 56 separate offences from his time working at a primary school, as well as a now-closed nursery in West Hampstead, London.
The parents of his victims watched as he was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday.
He was described as ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’ by prosecutor Philip Stott.
Chan, who worked at Bright Horizons for almost seven years, filmed himself abusing some of the toddlers using the nursery’s iPad.
He videoed upskirt footage of schoolgirls at his primary school job, and secretly filmed women getting undressed and using the toilet.
The predator was first arrested in June last year after a nursery staff member sounded the alarm over disturbing behaviour they’d noticed.
He was suspended from the nursery in May 2025 and police launched an investigation into allegations of neglect.
When they searched his Finchley home, they found a 25,000-strong cache of indecent material depicting the most severe abuse.
In court, he wore a grey prison-issue tracksuit, and was flanked by three guards.
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Judge John Dodd KC told him his offences were ‘serious, some extremely so’.
‘You, Mr Chan, had committed a large number of serious and troubling sexual offences between 2011 and 2017 but these were non-contact offences,’ he said.
‘You had limited yourself to looking and watching and recording, but you had not touched your victims, with that one significant exception.
‘That all changed in 2017 when you left the primary school and took up your position at the nursery. Your offending escalated and became far more serious.’
He said that nursery is a place where ‘every parent and guardian expects their child to be safe’.
The judge said: ‘Your breach of trust could hardly be greater, and you recorded the assaults.’
Vincent Chan’s offences
Chan was convicted of two set of offences, the first relating to sexual abuse at Bright Horizons, which he pleaded guilty to in December.
He raised suspicions after sharing strange videos of the young children with other staff members.
‘He had been filming children in his care who were clearly distressed, crying, wetting themselves or eating their own mucus,’ Stott told the court.
This led to a police investigation that ultimately uncovered the true extent of his offending.
Chan would film the horrific sexual abuse clips during naptime, and even sorted them into folders labelled with the children’s names.
The British national transferred the sick videos he filmed on the nursery’s iPad onto his home computer.
The nursery presented an official report to the local council ten days later.
The mother of one child who was abused at the nursery said the youngster was too young to understand or remember what had happened.
But as parents they had been overwhelmed by the impact of knowing their child ‘was harmed without the awareness or ability to protect herself’.
‘She was harmed at a time when she should have been safest,’ the statement read.
The second set of offences – including 12 counts of taking indecent photographs of children and 11 counts of voyeurism – related to his time at a north London primary school.
He started working there in 2007 in IT support and as a high-level teaching assistant.
As well as upskirting pupils at the school, Chan downloaded pictures of girls from social media and manipulated them to create obscene images, prosecutor Stott said.
He would add pictures of his penis to photographs, and superimposed the girls’ face onto pornographic pictures, the court heard.
Investigators also found images of Chan exposing himself in a classroom and performing a solo sex act.
In a video of a girl and her friend, both wearing school uniforms, he could be heard saying: ‘You are so sexy’.
Chan amassed 2,000 images – all of women and girls – over the course of three years, the sentencing hearing heard.
Footage included that of a pensioner getting undressed in her own bedroom, and Chan sexually assaulting a woman who appeared to be sleeping.
One woman who was sexually assaulted by Vincent Chan spoke of his ‘depravity’ and urged the judge to impose a long jail term.
‘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,’ the victim said in a statement.
Chan worked at the nursery after the school, after passing an advance DBS check, and was suspended from his job on May 15, 2024.
Families of children identified in the videos Chan made are receiving specialist support.
Solicitors Leigh Day, representing some of them, said they are ‘still trying to process the sickening discovery that our children were subjected to despicable abuse’.
The group said: ‘We feel that Bright Horizons has failed us and we want answers. How was someone like Vincent Chan employed? Why did safeguarding systems fail completely?’
A spokesperson for the nursery said: ‘We are shocked and appalled by this individual’s horrific crimes.
‘Our thoughts are first and foremost with the children and families affected, and we are committed to offering support to them during this incredibly difficult time.’
The company said it had extensive safeguarding procedures in place, including rigorous vetting and DBS criminal records checks.
Bright Horizons has, however, commissioned a review of its safeguarding procedures.
The company faces legal action by a group of 50 families who had children at the nursery.
Chan pleaded guilty in December to 26 charges including 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 pleaded guilty to 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.
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