Parents demand prosecution of nursery after paedophile teacher abuse

Parents who placed their trust in the nursery chain where paedophile teacher Vincent Chan sexually abused children have called for a criminal prosecution of the company.

Chan molested girls as young as three years old while working as a room leader at the Bright Horizons nursery on Finchley Road in London’s West Hampstead.

The 45-year-old was jailed on Thursday for 18 years after admitting 56 offences. They included sexually assaulting nursery children while filming the abuse, downloading tens of thousands of indecent images of youngsters, upskirting girls at a primary school where he used to work, and recording women using hidden cameras in toilets and bathrooms.

Chan first came to the attention of police in 2024 when he was accused of bullying a boy in his nursery class, filming as the youngster drifted off to sleep while eating before shouting loudly to startle him awake.

Officers called in to investigate child cruelty claims conducted a search of Chan’s electronic devices, and uncovered evidence that he was an paedophile.

The parents of the boy in the bullying video say they were “shocked” and “in disbelief” when they learned about the sexual abuse charges.

They said that they faced two weeks of near-silence from Bright Horizons after the video of their son being bullied by Chan was uncovered, and said the nursery’s initial response was “clumsy” and “incompetent”.

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After 18 months of searching for answers, they want the nursery to be the focus of a separate criminal investigation, and are calling for a nationwide review of nurseries and child safety.

“Their safeguarding system has really failed,” said the mother.

“There were signs – concerns raised internally by parents – and they were not picked up.

“And then when they were, we feel they weren’t taken seriously enough or not acted upon.”

The father suggested Chan is being publicly painted as a “lone wolf”, but parents of children who went to the nursery believe staff and managers may also be culpable.

He said another member of staff can be seen going about their work in the video Chan took of his son.

“If he felt comfortable recording that behaviour, and staff members in the room witnessed it and didn’t feel like they should come forward and say something, that really tells me something about the culture and about safeguarding practices we believe weren’t there,” he said.

“He was able to bully children in plain sight with other people present in the room, and he was able to sexually abuse children in a room full of other kids.

“He felt comfortable recording that behaviour on the nursery iPad.”

The father said the sexual abuse of some of the girls Chan was supposed to be looking after happened in a central room at the nursery, where mattresses were laid out for nap time, and it had windows on two sides as well as a door with a glass partition.

“There were so many compounding failures that someone needs to be held to account,” he added.

A group of parents who sent their children to Bright Horizons have hired lawyers at Leigh Day to pursue a civil claim for damages against the nursery.

The boy whose parents spoke to a reporter is not one of the victims of Chan’s sexual abuse.

Chan spent seven years at Bright Horizons, starting as an art teacher before becoming a room leader.

The parents who spoke out described Chan as “introverted”, and said he was not the kind of nursery worker to chat with parents or say hello as they passed.

“Some of the children are very close to some of the members of staff, and they would run in and hug them and be very affectionate,” said the mother.

“I think with him (Chan), he was always a bit more reserved on that front.

“Even though we have seen him over the course of five years, nearly every day, we honestly don’t know a lot about him.”

The father added: “He’s not a person that would look you in the eye.”

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They said they selected Bright Horizons as it offered excellent facilities, including an app that updated them on their child’s progress with pictures.

It was “a brand that we could trust”, they said, adding that the website detailing safety measures and CCTV was part of the appeal.

“What’s always in the back of your mind is things do go wrong and occasionally you get stories like this, but it’s often not the well-known chains – it’s the local childminder or a smaller organisation,” said the father.

“So you hope that you pick a place like Bright Horizons, it has these stringent safeguarding measures, effective whistleblowing, and staff training where they are being told what to do if they see something go wrong.”

The parents say they have only received an apology from Bright Horizons for the bullying of their child by Chan, rather than an acceptance of wider failings.

They are now coping with the lasting effects on their son.

“We really noticed a drastic change in his behaviour,” said the mother.

“He began screaming and crying before the nursery, asking anxiously, ‘Is the nursery open today?’ And then get upset if we said it was.

“He would cling to our leg when we walked into the room, really not wanting to let go, and we had to peel him off and then hand him over to a member of staff, sometimes Chan.”

They said their son has gone from being a “very bright, social, confident boy” to being “inward” and even suffering physical ill-health.

“We’re starting to see a little bit more of that confidence growing, but he’s really struggled,” she added.

Charges of child cruelty were not pursued against Chan after the sexual offending came to light.

That decision was challenged by parents, and this week they were told that the Metropolitan Police will send a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if further charges could be brought.

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After Chan’s sentencing on Thursday, Leigh Day called on Camden Council to investigate whether Bright Horizons is responsible for health and safety failings, adding: “We believe their safeguarding failures created the perfect hunting ground for a predator.”

Bright Horizons issued a statement saying: “This is a distressing time for families and all those impacted by Vincent Chan’s horrific crimes and our thoughts are first and foremost with them.

“Keeping children safe is our most important responsibility. Vincent Chan broke that trust. His actions were depraved and devious and go against the kindness and care our dedicated professionals provide to children each day.

“Chan’s actions came to light because a staff member raised concerns and followed our internal escalation procedures. We then escalated externally to the local authority and Ofsted and worked with the police throughout their investigation. We are increasing awareness of the ways staff can escalate concerns so that they do so quickly and confidentially.

“We have extensive safeguarding practices and training requirements in place designed to keep children safe. All our staff have to go through rigorous recruitment screening and reference checking, as well as regular training.

“We have brought forward several internal safeguarding audits and refresher trainings to ensure staff are fully aware of their obligations. We have also engaged an external expert to carry out a full review of our practices to make sure we meet the most robust standards of safeguarding.

“We are committed to understanding what happened so that we can learn from this terrible episode. We support the Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) and hope that it will be beneficial for families, for us as a provider and for the early years industry as a whole.”