Nursery paedophile Vincent Chan has been jailed for 18 years for molesting young children in a campaign of sexual abuse dubbed "every parent's worst nightmare".
The 45-year-old preyed on children as young as two years old when they were left in his care at the Bright Horizons nursery in Finchley Road, West Hampstead, touching them sexually while they were sleeping.
A Metropolitan Police investigation also uncovered that Chan had taken upskirt videos of girls in class when he worked as a teaching assistant at St Mary's Church of England School in Finchley.
He has confessed to spying on girls and women as they got undressed in their bedrooms and used the toilet, as well as sexually assaulting a woman as she slept.
And he also had amassed a collection of at least 26,000 indecent images of children online, including clips of youngsters being raped.
On Thursday, at Wood Green Crown Court, Judge John Dodd KC, the Recorder of Haringey, jailed Chan for 18 years for an "utterly wicked, perverse, and depraved" catalogue of abuse lasting 15 years.
He said the mass of images and videos found by police clearly displays Chan's "deep-seated sexual obsession" with children.
"Every right thinking person hearing about your offending would feel revulsion and disbelief", he said.
"You became a sexual predator and someone who clearly lost all sense of moral compass."
The judge said Chan's early offending had largely been confined to "looking, watching, and recording".
"That all changed in 2017 when you left the primary school and took up your position in a nursery."
"Your offending escalated and became far more serious."
The judge said Chan had clearly planned his offences at the nursery, to avoid being caught, saying: "The breach of trust could hardly be greater."
"The nursery is a place where every parent and guardian expects their child will be safe."
Chan must serve at least two-thirds of the 18-year prison sentence, and will spend an extra eight years on licence once he is released.
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.
"We believe their safeguarding failures created the perfect hunting ground for a predator",
the parents said, in a statement issued through their lawyers Leigh Day.
"Chan was not a 'lone wolf', and this was not about extraordinary technical skill. He was able to operate for years in a workplace where safeguarding failures were missed, minimised or ignored."
The scale of Chan's offending was detailed for the first time in court on Thursday, with victims ranging from two years old up to a pensioner in her 70s and offences spanning from 2008 to 2024.
In impact statements, victims said they have been left devastated and coping with lasting trauma after being told about the abuse, while Chan's offending at the nursery and school - labelled "every parent's worst nightmare" - has shattered the trust of parents in early years care.
Hundreds of families who sent their children to the nursery and school where Chan worked received letters outlining his offending.
The parents of one of the girls Chan abused at the nursery said they had been overwhelmed by the impact of knowing their child was "harmed at a time when she should have been safest".
Her mother added that Chan gave the family a hand-drawn goodbye card when they left the nursery, which they originally thought was "a kind and thoughtful gesture", but it has now turned into "something deeply distressing".
A woman covertly recorded said she felt "violated and humiliated" and is now paranoid about using the bathroom, while the woman who was sexually assaulted as she slept dubbed Chan "a person who shows a total disregard for human dignity".
Chan worked as IT support and as a teaching assistant at the primary school in Finchley for 10 years before he joined the Bright Horizons nursery in 2017.
He was first reported to police by the nursery on May 25 2024, over concerns that he "had been filming children in his care who were clearly distressed, crying, wetting themselves or eating their own mucus, superimposing audio or imagery over the videos in an apparent attempt at humour".
He was arrested on suspicion of child neglect, but searches of his electronic devices led officers to the sexual offending.
Among a mass of at least 26,000 downloaded indecent images of children, police found videos taken at the nursery itself of girls aged two to four years old being sexually abused by Chan.
He had filmed himself carrying out the attacks during naptime, and later organised the clips into folders labelled with the victim's name.
When he was employed at the primary school, Chan used a camera to take pictures up the skirts of girls as they sat at their desks, and he also filmed himself masturbating in the empty classroom.
Also in his collection were covert videos of women and girls as they got undressed in their own homes, as well as a video he had shot of a girl naked in a pool.
Mr Stott outlined how Chan had taken multiple videos showing a teenage girl, spying on her when she was dressed in a towel and half-naked as she got changed in her own bedroom.
Chan had also superimposed images of the girl on to naked pictures of himself, mocking up sexual acts, and on one he wrote the word “jailbait”.
He also filmed the girl and a friend, both in their school uniforms, and he can be heard in the voiceover saying: “You are so sexy.”
In her victim impact statement, she said she has been left “shocked, disgusted, upset, unable to sleep and violated”.
Mr Stott said Chan had amassed around 2,000 images of the girl over the course of three years.
The court heard how Chan had superimposed the images of children on to pornographic images and naked pictures of himself, and with one victim from the primary school he had continued to "harvest" images of her from social media as she entered her teens.
Police gathered evidence on Chan from 51 electronic devices, including iPads from the Bright Horizons nursery.
Nicholas Jones, for Chan, told the judge in mitigation: "He doesn't want to be the person that he is, and he is willing to accept help."
Chan pleaded guilty to 56 charges: five counts of sexual assault by penetration, four of sexual assault by touching, one charge of sexual assault on a female, 23 counts of taking indecent images of children, six charges of making indecent images of children, six counts of outraging public decency, and 11 charges of voyeurism.
"Whether it was at the school, the nursery, inside his home or nearby, Vincent Chan was and is a serious danger to women and girls,"said Helen Reddy, Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service.
"He is a prolific sexual predator,and this sentence will ensure he cannot harm anyone."
In a statement,Bright Horizons said:
"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."
The company,which has nurseries across the country,says Chan's offending came to light after a staff member raised concerns about his behaviour,and it says it is now "increasing awareness of the ways staff can escalate concerns so that they do so quickly and confidentially".
The company added that it has "extensive safeguarding practices and training requirements in place",and it has "brought forward several internal safeguarding audits and refresher trainings to ensure staff are fully aware of their obligations".
A review of the company's systems by an external expert has also been launched.
"We are committed to understanding what happened so that we can learn from this terrible episode."
Leigh Day,which represents 50 affected families,welcomedthe sentence but added:
"We still do not know the full scale of his offending at Bright Horizons,Finchley Road."
"Every family deserves the truth,and every child who suffered must see justice done."
"Bright Horizons must also be held to account."
The families are calling for an investigation by Camden Council into alleged health and safety breaches,as well as pushing for Chan to face further charges over the child neglect videos that sparked the investigation.
A dedicated NSPCC helpline has been set up for anyone affected by Chan's offending,on 0800 028 0828 ,which operates from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am-6pm at weekends .