Parents who positioned their belief within the nursery chain the place paedophile instructor Vincent Chan sexually abused youngsters have known as for a prison prosecution of the corporate.
Chan molested women as younger as three years previous whereas working as a room chief on the Bright Horizons nursery on Finchley Road in London’s West Hampstead.
The 45-year-old was jailed on Thursday for 18 years after admitting 56 offences. They included sexually assaulting nursery youngsters whereas filming the abuse, downloading tens of hundreds of indecent photographs of kids, upskirting women at a major college the place he used to work, and recording ladies utilizing hidden cameras in bogs and bogs.
Chan first got here to the eye of police in 2024 when he was accused of bullying a boy in his nursery class, filming because the teen drifted off to sleep whereas consuming earlier than shouting loudly to startle him awake.
Officers known as in to research youngster cruelty claims carried out a search of Chan’s digital gadgets, and uncovered proof that he was an paedophile.
The dad and mom of the boy within the bullying video say they had been “shocked” and “in disbelief” after they realized concerning the sexual abuse expenses.
They stated that they confronted two weeks of near-silence from Bright Horizons after the video of their son being bullied by Chan was uncovered, and stated the nursery’s preliminary response was “clumsy” and “incompetent”.
After 18 months of looking for solutions, they need the nursery to be the main target of a separate prison investigation, and are calling for a nationwide evaluate of nurseries and youngster security.
“Their safeguarding system has really failed,” stated the mom.
“There were signs – concerns raised internally by parents – and they were not picked up.
“And then when they were, we feel they weren’t taken seriously enough or not acted upon.”
The father recommended Chan is being publicly painted as a “lone wolf”, however dad and mom of kids who went to the nursery consider employees and managers may be culpable.
He stated one other member of employees could be seen going about their work within the video Chan took of his son.
“If he felt comfortable recording that behaviour, and staff members in the room witnessed it and didn’t feel like they should come forward and say something, that really tells me something about the culture and about safeguarding practices we believe weren’t there,” he stated.
“He was able to bully children in plain sight with other people present in the room, and he was able to sexually abuse children in a room full of other kids.
“He felt comfortable recording that behaviour on the nursery iPad.”
The father stated the sexual abuse of a few of the women Chan was speculated to be taking care of occurred in a central room on the nursery, the place mattresses had been laid out for nap time, and it had home windows on two sides in addition to a door with a glass partition.
“There were so many compounding failures that someone needs to be held to account,” he added.
A bunch of oldsters who despatched their youngsters to Bright Horizons have employed attorneys at Leigh Day to pursue a civil declare for damages in opposition to the nursery.
The boy whose dad and mom spoke to a reporter will not be one of many victims of Chan’s sexual abuse.
Chan spent seven years at Bright Horizons, beginning as an artwork instructor earlier than changing into a room chief.
The dad and mom who spoke out described Chan as “introverted”, and stated he was not the sort of nursery employee to talk with dad and mom or say whats up as they handed.
“Some of the children are very close to some of the members of staff, and they would run in and hug them and be very affectionate,” stated the mom.
“I think with him (Chan), he was always a bit more reserved on that front.
“Even though we have seen him over the course of five years, nearly every day, we honestly don’t know a lot about him.”
The father added: “He’s not a person that would look you in the eye.”
They stated they chose Bright Horizons because it supplied wonderful services, together with an app that up to date them on their youngster’s progress with footage.
It was “a brand that we could trust”, they stated, including that the web site detailing security measures and CCTV was a part of the enchantment.
“What’s always in the back of your mind is things do go wrong and occasionally you get stories like this, but it’s often not the well-known chains – it’s the local childminder or a smaller organisation,” stated the daddy.
“So you hope that you pick a place like Bright Horizons, it has these stringent safeguarding measures, effective whistleblowing, and staff training where they are being told what to do if they see something go wrong.”
The dad and mom say they’ve solely obtained an apology from Bright Horizons for the bullying of their youngster by Chan, slightly than an acceptance of wider failings.
They at the moment are dealing with the lasting results on their son.
“We really noticed a drastic change in his behaviour,” stated the mom.
“He began screaming and crying before the nursery, asking anxiously, ‘Is the nursery open today?’ And then get upset if we said it was.
“He would cling to our leg when we walked into the room, really not wanting to let go, and we had to peel him off and then hand him over to a member of staff, sometimes Chan.”
They stated their son has gone from being a “very bright, social, confident boy” to being “inward” and even struggling bodily ill-health.
“We’re starting to see a little bit more of that confidence growing, but he’s really struggled,” she added.
Charges of kid cruelty weren’t pursued in opposition to Chan after the sexual offending got here to mild.
That choice was challenged by dad and mom, and this week they had been informed that the Metropolitan Police will ship a file of proof to the Crown Prosecution Service to determine if additional expenses could possibly be introduced.
After Chan’s sentencing on Thursday, Leigh Day known as on Camden Council to research whether or not Bright Horizons is accountable for well being and security failings, including: “We believe their safeguarding failures created the perfect hunting ground for a predator.”
Bright Horizons issued an announcement saying: “This is a distressing time for families and all those impacted by Vincent Chan’s horrific crimes and our thoughts are first and foremost with them.
“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.
“Chan’s actions came to light because a staff member raised concerns and followed our internal escalation procedures. We then escalated externally to the local authority and Ofsted and worked with the police throughout their investigation. We are increasing awareness of the ways staff can escalate concerns so that they do so quickly and confidentially.
“We have extensive safeguarding practices and training requirements in place designed to keep children safe. All our staff have to go through rigorous recruitment screening and reference checking, as well as regular training.
“We have brought forward several internal safeguarding audits and refresher trainings to ensure staff are fully aware of their obligations. We have also engaged an external expert to carry out a full review of our practices to make sure we meet the most robust standards of safeguarding.
“We are committed to understanding what happened so that we can learn from this terrible episode. We 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.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/vincent-chan-bright-horizons-nursery-b2919220.html