Nursery worker in London sentenced to 18 years for abusing young children in his care

LONDON (AP) — A 45-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for sexually abusing young children, some as young as 2 years old, who were under his care in London.

Vincent Chan had admitted to 56 charges, first at an elementary school and then at a nursery, over a period of 15 years. Among his admissions were sexual assault by penetration, sexual assault by touching and making indecent images.

At the sentencing hearing at Wood Green Crown Court, Judge John Dodd cited Chan for an “utterly wicked, perverse, and depraved” catalogue of abuse. Following his prison sentence, Chan will also have to spend an extra eight years on license, meaning he will go back behind bars if he re-offends.

Police found that Chan had taken upskirt videos of girls in class when he worked as IT support and a teaching assistant at St. Mary’s Church of England School in Finchley, north London, for 10 years before he joined the Bright Horizons nursery in 2017.

The judge said Chan’s early offending had largely been confined to “looking, watching, and recording” but that escalated in 2017 when he joined the Bright Horizons nursery.

“You became a sexual predator and someone who clearly lost all sense of moral compass,” the judge said.

London’s Metropolitan Police found that the victims ranged from 2 up to a retiree in her 70s, with the offenses spanning from 2008 to 2024.

Hundreds of families who sent their children to the nursery and school where Chan worked have received letters outlining his offending.

Parents of some of Chan’s victims, who sat in court to hear the sentence, are now taking legal action against Bright Horizons and have called for the nursery itself to be prosecuted for failing to keep their children safe.

Detective Chief Superintendent Lewis Basford read a statement from a parents’ group, saying they cannot look back with fondness at pictures of their children growing up.

“What should have been a time of safety and innocence has now become a source of enduring distress,” he said.

Chan was first reported to police by the nursery in May 2024 over concerns that he had been filming children in his care.

Bright Horizons, which operates nurseries in and around London, said it is now “increasing awareness of the ways staff can escalate concerns so that they do so quickly and confidentially.”

Chan was first arrested on suspicion of child neglect, but searches of his electronic devices led officers to the sexual offending. A million or so images were found on his devices.