‘Every parent’s worst nightmare’: Nursery paedophile who used work iPad to record abuse of toddlers jailed for 18 years
In a crime campaign described as “every parent’s worst nightmare”, a pedophile who used a workplace-issued iPad to molest toddlers in a nursery has been jailed for 18 years.
Vincent Chan, 45, operated unnoticed for almost 15 years as he worked as a teacher’s assistant in a primary school, then was hired as a kindergarten worker.
His horrific crimes were finally exposed when police uncovered a cache of a million indecent photos on his laptop after a colleague at Bright Horizons nursery in West Hampstead, London, raised concerns with managers.
He was first arrested on suspicion of child neglect after filming children in distress – crying, wetting the bed and eating their own mucus – then superimposing audio or video over the videos in an apparent attempt at humour, prosecutor Philip Stott told Wood Green Crown Court.
But officers, who seized 69 devices including hard drives and laptops, also discovered images he had taken up the skirts of schoolchildren sitting at their desks, photographs of his own genitals in the classroom and horrific videos of him sexually abusing four young children while they slept in a kindergarten.
Some of the indecent images are thought to have been filmed on the nursery iPad provided by staff before transferring the material to their personal computer. It was arranged in a series of folders under the children’s names.
He also stated that he used hidden cameras while women were changing clothes or going to the toilet, and that he sexually assaulted a woman while she was sleeping.
The court heard he targeted women and girls, ranging in age from two to a woman in her seventies, in a campaign of abuse and voyeurism.
This included placing photographs of the victims over pornographic images and nude photographs of himself. He continued to “collect” social media images of a child from primary school entering puberty.
After reading a police statement outlining the wider impact of Chan’s offending, Mr Stott said he had caused “lasting distress”.
“Widespread confidence in care was damaged in the early years,” he said. Letters about harassment were sent to hundreds of families who sent their children to the nursery and school where Chan worked.
“This is every parent’s worst nightmare,” Mr Stott added. “Families cannot put into words the sadness of suddenly receiving such a letter.”
Stating that many parents who entrust the care of their children to Chan “experience the permanent trauma of ‘What if’,” Chan added: “The uncertainty is unbearable.”
The parents of one of Chan’s teenage victims said “our daughter was too young to understand what was going on” at the time she was abused; “he relied on those around him to keep him safe”.
“That trust has been deeply broken,” they added in a statement read by Mr Stott.
Parents now live in constant fear of how this will affect their daughter as she grows, including her ability to trust others.
The fact that the attack was filmed has added to their distress, he said, adding: “She was harmed at a time when she should have been safest.”
A woman who was sexually assaulted by Chan called for his sentence to reflect the “sheer extent” of his depravity, adding: “Justice in this case cannot be lenient, it must be as severe and lasting as the trauma he forced his victims to bear.”
Another victim, who was secretly filmed, said Chan’s crimes left her feeling “wronged and humiliated” and made her “paranoid about using the toilet”.
The statement of a boy targeted at a primary school, summarized by Mr Stott, said he was “distraught”, left “irritable”, “on edge” and had difficulty walking alone after dark.
However, he stressed that “the actions of this disgusting person” will not define him.
Jailing him for 18 years with eight years’ extended licence, judge John Dodd KC said: “Any sensible person hearing of your crimes would feel disgust and disbelief.
“Your behavior was extremely evil, perverted and immoral. You became a sexual harasser and someone who had clearly lost all moral compass.”
When he stood in the dock in his gray prison tracksuit, he stared straight ahead as the details of his depraved crimes emerged in court.
He pleaded guilty in December to 26 charges: five counts of sexual assault by penetration, four counts of sexual assault by touch, 11 counts of taking indecent photographs of children and six counts of taking indecent photographs of children.
He pleaded guilty in January to 30 new charges: 12 counts of taking indecent photographs of children, 6 counts of outraging public decency, sexual assault on a woman and 11 counts of voyeurism.
Nicholas Jones, defending, told the judge in mitigation: “This is a defendant who, unlike others, has accepted that he has a problem. He doesn’t want to be who he is and is willing to accept help.”
Chan worked at a primary school in north-west London for 10 years from 2007. She worked in IT support and as a senior teacher assistant before working as a pre-school practitioner in a nursery for nearly seven years.
The local child protection practice review of Bright Horizons, Finchley Road, is being carried out by the Camden Safeguarding Partnership.
Police admitted they could not rule out the possibility that Chan had committed other crimes that he did not film.
Families said the fear of “cruel violations” against their children would never go away.
“Ordinary memories from early childhood are now tainted with doubt, anxiety and guilt,” they added in a statement read outside court by Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford.
“We cannot look at our children’s first years with peace, confidence and optimism.
“Instead, memories and photographs of our children when they were at their most innocent, reaching milestones such as walking, talking, reading and writing, would be permanently compounded by doubt, fear and anxiety about Vincent Chan.”
A group of 50 parents at the Bright Horizons branch, which has since closed, reported that legal action was being taken against the nursery. They said they would never know the “full extent” of their crimes and called for the nursery to be prosecuted for failing to protect children.
“Every family deserves the truth, and every suffering child should see justice done,” they said.
“Bright Horizons also needs to be taken into account. We believe conservation failures create the perfect hunting ground for a predator. Chan was not a ‘lone wolf’ and this was not about extraordinary technical skill. He was able to work for years in a workplace where conservation failures were overlooked, minimized or ignored.”
A spokesperson for Bright Horizons said it had hired an outside expert to conduct a full review of protection standards, adding that it was committed to “understanding what happened so we can learn from this horrific event.”
“Keeping children safe is our most important responsibility,” the spokesman said. “Vincent Chan broke that trust. His actions were immoral, deceptive, and contrary to the kindness and care our dedicated professionals provide children every day.”
