Nursery worker who filmed himself abusing children on iPad jailed for 18 years
A paedophile pre-school worker has been jailed for 18 years for a campaign of abuse against girls and toddlers dubbed ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’.
Vincent Chan, 45, had already pleaded guilty to 56 separate offences from his time working at a primary school, and a now-closed nursery in West Hampstead, London.
The parents of his victims, some as young as two, watched his sentencing at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday.
Chan, who worked at Bright Horizons nursery for almost seven years, filmed himself abusing some of the toddlers while they slept using the nursery’s iPad.
At the north London primary school, he videoed upskirt footage of schoolgirls by installing cameras beneath their desks. He worked there for ten years.
The British national also secretly filmed women getting undressed and using the toilet in his own home using secret cameras.
One piece of footage uncovered by police showed him sexually assaulting a woman who appeared to be asleep.
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, gathered during a fifteen-year reign of deviance.
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In court, he wore a grey prison-issue tracksuit, and was flanked by three guards.
Judge John Dodd KC told him his offences were ‘utterly wicked, perverse, and depraved’.
‘Every right thinking person hearing about your offending would feel revulsion and disbelief,’ he said.
‘You became a sexual predator and someone who clearly lost all sense of moral compass.’
He said that nursery is a place where ‘every parent and guardian expects their child to be safe’.
The judge added: ‘Your breach of trust could hardly be greater, and you recorded the assaults.’
Chan will serve at least two-thirds of the 18-year prison sentence, and will spend an extra eight years on licence after his release.
Vincent Chan’s crimes
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,’ prosecutor Philip 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 the videos into folders labelled with the children’s names.
He would then transfer the sick videos from the nursery’s iPad onto his home computer.
The nursery presented an official report to the local council following his suspension.
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.
Stott told the court that Chan was ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’.
The second set of offences related to his time at the primary school.
He started working there in 2007, employed 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.
Parents: ‘Chan was not a lone wolf’
Outside court, Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford read the parents’ statement saying that their children’s ‘most innocent’ years had been tainted by Chan’s cruelty
Mums and dads said they were ‘still trying to process the sickening discovery that our children were subjected to despicable abuse’.
‘We believe their safeguarding failures created the perfect hunting ground for a predator’, the group of parents said, in a statement issued by their lawyers.
One mother told the Press Association: ‘There were signs – concerns raised internally by parents – and they were not picked up.’
Parents are now alleging that Chan was ‘not a lone wolf’ and that other staff may have been complicit.
In one video that Chan filmed, the convicted sex offender waits for a youngster to fall asleep before shouting loudly to startle him awake.
The son’s parents claim another staff member could be seen going about their work in the video.
The fact that Chan ‘felt comfortable’ recording the video while colleagues were present ‘really tells me something about the culture,’ the father said.
Parents described Chan as ‘introverted’ and ‘reserved’. The father added: ‘He’s not a person that would look you in the eye.’
Bright Horizons has issued a statement saying its ‘thoughts are first and foremost’ with ‘families and all those impacted by Vincent Chan’s horrific crimes’.
Chan’s actions broke their trust, the company said, and were brought to light because a staff member raised the alarm.
‘Keeping children safe is our most important responsibility…His actions were depraved and devious and go against the kindness and care our dedicated professionals provide to children each day,’ the statement said.
The company added that 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.
Camden Council, meanwhile, is participating in an independent child safeguarding practice review into the abuse 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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