Families say fears over paedophile nursery worker were ‘brushed aside’

Families are taking legal action against a nursery where their children were abused and said their concerns were ‘consistently brushed aside’.

Vincent Chan, 45, is facing years behind bars for molesting girls aged three and four while working at the Bright Horizons nursery in Finchley Road, West Hampstead, north London.

Chan filmed himself carrying out the abuse during naptime at the nursery and also confessed to downloading thousands of indecent images of children.

Initially, 12 families who questioned how Chan was able to carry out his horrific offending were set to take legal action against the nursery, first outlined in a letter to Bright Horizons in December.

By Friday, 46 families were part of the claim, legal firm Leigh Day said, adding: ‘What has happened here is not just about one individual or one nursery.

‘We believe Chan’s crimes raise serious questions about how childcare providers recruit, supervise and safeguard staff, and how warning signs can be overlooked over long periods of time.’

The firm added: ‘In our case, Bright Horizons repeatedly dismissed concerns from parents about Chan’s behaviour, and we believe their consistent culture of brushing concerns aside was key to enabling this catastrophe to happen.

‘They will be seeking full accountability for those failures, initially through the civil courts, and are also urging Camden Council to investigate the case for prosecution of Bright Horizons as a corporate entity.

‘State institutions must treat this case with the utmost seriousness, act to uncover the full extent of offending, ensure accountability and prevent similar harm in the future.’

The 46 families are made up of relatives of the victims of Chan’s sexual abuse and image-based offending, as well as those whose children were mistreated by him in other ways, including when he made videos of children humiliated or in distress.

The sex offender admitted 30 new offences at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Thursday relating to 10 girls and six women that did not take place at Bright Horizons.

Chan will be sentenced on February 12 for the 56 offences to which he has pleaded guilty.

The families taking action say they are ‘seeking accountability’ through claims for breach of contract for Bright Horizons’ safeguarding failures that permitted Chan to commit his crimes, as well as neglect and cruelty.

Camden Safeguarding Partnership is conducting a local child safeguarding practice review on the nursery, the law firm added.

Alison Millar, the head of Leigh Day’s abuse team, said: ‘They will be seeking full accountability for those failures, initially through the civil courts, but also are looking to Camden Council to investigate the case for prosecution of Bright Horizons as a corporate entity.

‘This case has to be treated with the utmost seriousness by state institutions to ensure that similar offending can never be allowed to happen again.’

The families of 700 children who attended the nursery during the time Chan worked there between 2017 and 2024 have been contacted and are receiving specialist support.

A spokesperson for Bright Horizon said: ‘First and foremost, our thoughts remain with the children and families affected. What happened at our former Finchley Road nursery was an appalling breach of trust by one individual and not representative of the thousands of experienced and dedicated staff who work tirelessly each day to look after the children in our care. The safety and well-being of children entrusted to our care is our highest priority. We are committed to learning any lessons that can be taken from this terrible case.

‘We fully 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. It would be premature to comment on any matters relating to our former nursery whilst the CSPR’s process is ongoing. Parents are invited to contribute to this review, and we would encourage them to participate so that information can be obtained and considered.

‘In relation to child injuries, we have policies and procedures in place to ensure they are documented, and information is shared with parents. If this process was not consistently implemented by the Nursery Management Team at our former nursery, this is contrary to our requirements. Equally, it is entirely unacceptable for staff to shout at children, and we do not condone this.

‘As a provider, we welcome and encourage parent feedback and take parent concerns seriously. We have a number of ways to support concerns being raised, including a separate complaints team. If a parent raises a concern at the nursery level and they are not happy with how it has been resolved, we encourage them to escalate in accordance with our complaints procedure. When parents do escalate concerns we are grateful for their time and feedback and seek to work with them to investigate the complaint and resolve it whenever we can.’

Chan, of Stanhope Avenue, Finchley, north London, remains in custody ahead of sentencing.

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