Paedophile passed vetting to work at London primary school and nursery

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A paedophile passed supposedly strict vetting to gain positions of trust in a primary school and then a nursery where he carried out a campaign of sexual offences in broad daylight against toddlers and young girls.

The extensive offending history of Vincent Chan, 45, spanning over a decade, is emerging bit by bit as detectives go through digital material on his phones and other devices seized after his arrest in June 2024.

Chan on Thursday admitted sexual offences such as upskirting against children, having already admitted a string of offences against toddlers – including during their naptime – when he worked in a nursery.

For over a decade, safeguarding protections failed to stop him committing offences against young children in his care at two separate institutions.

Police said Chan had sought out positions of trust to carry out abuse that was “shocking” in its nature and scale.

His arrest came when he was a nursery worker for the Bright Horizons chain in north London, and last month he admitted 26 sexual offences including the abuse of sleeping children.

On Thursday, Chan admitted at Highbury magistrates court to 30 additional offences, including at a north London primary school where he served as a teaching assistant from 2007 to 2017.

The court heard that one video from Chan, dating from June 2011, showed he had filmed a girl “from under a classroom table with the camera angled directly at her legs”. Sixteen images were identified of a schoolgirl shot “from under a classroom table with the camera angled in a manner designed to capture intimate parts of her body”.

In all on Thursday Chan admitted new offences against a further 16 victims, 10 of whom were children at the time. The offences are 12 counts of taking and making of indecent images of children, one count of sexual assault, 11 counts of voyeurism, and six counts of outraging public decency. Video shows him committing a sexual act in a classroom on his own.

The Metropolitan police said Chan had also placed covert cameras around his own home for voyeurism, such as recording people getting changed, and had recorded himself sexually assaulting a woman while she slept at his home in Finchley.

Chan will be sentenced next month for all 56 offences he has admitted against children, girls and women. He is expected to face a long period in jail and a life sentence is a realistic prospect.

At the nursery some of his victims were as young as two, with Chan sexually assaulting four children on nursery premises in broad daylight. Police have found about 25,000 indecent images of children in his possession, and they believe he also worked as a children’s karate instructor.

Detectives continue to examine images believed to have been recorded by Chan on 69 devices such as phones, tablets and USB sticks.

The extensive offending has led parents from the Bright Horizons nursery to demand answers.

The families said: “We are sickened to learn that Chan committed appalling offences apart from his time at Bright Horizons Finchley Road. Our thoughts are first and foremost with those affected by these new charges.

“Understandably, these further crimes raise deeply troubling questions about how safeguarding systems could have failed so badly that someone who was a prolific and persistent offender was able to secure employment as a nursery worker and offend without intervention for a number of years.

“The harm caused by crimes like these does not end in court; victims and their families live with the consequences every day. Safeguarding is meant to protect children, and when it fails, accountability cannot stop with one individual.

“Organisations and those responsible for enforcing safeguarding standards must answer too. No parent should have to wonder whether the most basic checks, protections and accountability are optional.”

Det Supt Lewis Basford, who is leading the ongoing investigation, said: “Vincent Chan is a dangerous and predatory individual, and the scale of his abhorrent offending is shocking.

“Chan’s history demonstrates to us that he has sought out positions of trust involving contact with young girls, which allowed him to commit his crimes unchecked for so long. He has repeatedly exploited the trust of those around him, proving himself to be a danger to all girls and women.”