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 behavior, 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 offenses 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 offenses 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.

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