It was an email no parent ever expects to receive: a message from police revealing that the person entrusted to care for their child had, in fact, committed some of the most appalling crimes imaginable. On Thursday, February 12, 2026, Vincent Chan, a 45-year-old former nursery worker from Finchley, was sentenced to 18 years in prison at Wood Green Crown Court after pleading guilty to more than 50 child sexual offences. The investigation into Chan’s actions has uncovered a scale of abuse that has left families, communities, and authorities reeling—and asking hard questions about how such horrors could go undetected for so long.
According to BBC News, the court heard that Chan’s crimes spanned nearly two decades, with more than one million indecent images and videos of children discovered on 69 digital devices seized from his home and workplace. His offending included sexual assault, voyeurism, upskirting, and the making or taking of indecent images of children. Some of the most harrowing evidence involved videos Chan made of himself abusing children as young as two during naptime at a north London nursery. Investigators also found images of children as young as six months old.
Chan’s trail of abuse began as early as 2007, with police identifying offences that predated his time at the nursery. He had worked in various educational settings since 2006, including as a supply teacher, IT support worker, and nursery assistant. From 2017 to 2024, he was employed at Bright Horizons, the UK’s third-largest nursery chain, which operates nearly 300 nurseries nationwide. It was here that his crimes reached their most devastating extent.
ITV News spoke with two families whose children attended the nursery. One father described his reaction upon learning the truth: “I don’t understand how any human is capable of even thinking about these things, let alone acting upon them. I just don’t believe there’s any place in society for a disgusting individual like that.” Another parent echoed the anguish, saying, “What makes me most upset is that a predator could make your child feel unsafe who would have otherwise felt very safe in their childhood. It robs him of that innocence.”
For many parents, the nightmare began with subtle changes in their children’s behavior. One family noticed their son, once confident and carefree, had become anxious and withdrawn. “He’d cry, cling onto me and not let go; he was very, very clingy. He refused to go and would run to us when we picked him up,” a parent recalled to ITV News. Another described their child’s new fearfulness: “The biggest flag was when we were at home, my husband raised his voice slightly—we were joking—and our child crouched on the ground, put his hands on his ears and said, ‘Please don’t be like Vince. Please don’t yell like Vince.’”
The investigation was set in motion in June 2024, after a co-worker reported Chan for showing her a video he’d made on a nursery iPad of a child in distress—something he found amusing. Police were alerted, and Chan was arrested for child cruelty. What followed was a painstaking forensic investigation, as officers sifted through over 300 hours of footage and more than one million images, all while Chan refused to cooperate or provide passwords for his devices. As the scale of his crimes emerged, detectives prioritized identifying victims and supporting families through what would become a deeply traumatic process.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, the Senior Investigating Officer, described the case as one of the most complicated he and his team had ever worked on. “Chan’s crimes are horrific, but we will not let his name overshadow today,” he said in a statement reported by the Metropolitan Police. “Our foremost responsibility throughout has been to the victims—carrying out a meticulous investigation that established the extent of the offending and ensured Chan was held to account. I want to thank every victim and family who engaged with us during this traumatic process. Their trust enabled us to secure further charges and today’s significant sentence.”
Chan was initially charged on September 9, 2025, and has been in custody since. He pleaded guilty to 26 offences on December 3, 2025—including sexual assault and making indecent images of children—and to a further 30 offences on January 29, 2026. The crimes included sexual assault, voyeurism, upskirting, and outraging public decency. In total, 20 victims have been identified so far, including four young children who suffered direct abuse or were the subject of indecent images. However, as police and parents alike acknowledge, the true number of children affected may never be fully known.
For families, the trauma is ongoing. In a victim impact statement, a representative said: “The impact of Vincent Chan’s actions upon our entire community has been profound. The knowledge that he was not only capable of such acts but committed them against children within the nursery has created a permanent ache in our hearts. The lasting trauma of ‘what if’ is powerfully felt throughout our community because of Vincent Chan’s actions. It offers no closure, no reassurance, no healing and no point at which anxiety can safely end or be meaningfully processed.”
Many parents had raised concerns with Bright Horizons management months before Chan’s suspension, only to feel their worries were dismissed. “They said that they would consider it, that they take these things seriously, but that was the end of it. There was no feedback. There was no follow-up with us and nothing was done. Nothing was escalated. It was like it had been wiped out,” one parent told ITV News. Some parents also discovered disturbing images on Chan’s social media that, in their view, should have raised red flags during vetting. “What vetting processes were in place? Why weren’t they monitoring his social media? I want to know how he was allowed to be with children alone and change their nappies,” a parent questioned.
Bright Horizons, in a statement to ITV News, insisted that child safety is their top priority and outlined steps taken since the incident—including enhanced safeguarding audits, refresher training, and an external review. “Shortly after becoming aware of Chan’s offending, we set up a dedicated support resource for families and are responding to all concerns raised with us directly,” the company said. Still, about 50 families are now planning legal action against Bright Horizons for alleged safeguarding failures, seeking damages for trauma and calling for stricter oversight of early years providers.
The NSPCC has established a dedicated helpline (0800 028 0828) for families, professionals, and anyone affected by Chan’s crimes. Kellie Ann Fitzgerald, NSPCC Assistant Director for London and the South East, emphasized, “With the right support, children who have been abused—and adults who were abused in childhood—can and do recover. Our specialists on the dedicated helpline are here to ensure every child, family and individual affected by Chan’s crimes receives the support they need.”
Chan’s sentencing marks the end of a harrowing chapter but not the end of the pain for those affected. As the community grapples with the fallout, calls for reform in safeguarding and vetting procedures grow louder, with families determined to ensure such a betrayal of trust never happens again.