A nursery worker in London has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for abusing young children in his care
LONDON — A 45-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison for sexually assaulting young children, some as young as two, who were in his care in London.
Vincent Chan had confessed to 56 charges, first at a primary school and then at a nursery, over a period of 15 years. Among his confessions were sexual assault through penetration, sexual assault through touching, and taking indecent photos.
At his sentencing hearing at Wood Green Crown Court, Judge John Dodd cited Chan for his “vicious, depraved and utterly depraved” list of offences. After his prison term ends, Chan will also have to serve an additional eight years in prison, meaning he will return to prison if he commits crimes again.
Police found that Chan took upskirt videos of girls in class when he worked as an IT assistant and teaching assistant at St Mary’s Church of England School in Finchley, north London, for 10 years before he joined Bright Horizons Nursery in 2017.
The judge said Chan’s early offending was largely limited to “looking, watching and recording” but that escalated in 2017 when he joined Bright Horizons Nursery.
“You have become a sexual predator and a person who has clearly lost all sense of moral compass,” the judge said.
The London Metropolitan Police found that the victims ranged from 2 to a female pensioner in her 70s, and the crimes extended from 2008 to 2024.
Hundreds of families who sent their children to the nursery and school where Chan worked received letters explaining his conviction.
Parents of some of Chan’s victims, who sat in court to hear the ruling, are now taking legal action against Bright Horizons and have called for the same custody to be prosecuted for failing to keep their children safe.
Detective Chief Inspector Lewis Basford read a statement from the group of parents, saying they could not look back fondly at pictures of their children growing up.
“What should have been a time of safety and innocence has now become a source of constant distress,” he said.
Chan was first reported to police by the nursery in May 2024 over concerns that he was photographing children in his care.
Bright Horizons, which runs nurseries in and around London, said it was now working to “raise awareness of ways staff can escalate concerns so they can do so quickly and confidentially”.
Chan was first arrested on suspicion of child neglect, but a search of his electronic devices led officers to a sex crime. A million or so photos were found on his devices.
