A paedophile nursery worker, Vincent Chan, was cleared by an investigation overseen by a local authority three years before his arrest. Chan was jailed in February 2026 after pleading guilty to 56 offences, including assault by penetration on three-year-old girls at a Bright Horizons nursery on Finchley Road, north-west London.
Concerns about Chan's conduct and behaviour were raised with the nursery in 2021 by the parent of a young girl. Bright Horizons referred the matter to Camden Council, which advised the nursery to investigate. Chan was placed on duties without child contact during the investigation and was subsequently cleared to return to his role.
A year later, in 2022, Chan filmed himself sexually abusing three-year-old girls at the Bright Horizons nursery. He was first arrested in June 2024 after nursery staff discovered videos of distressed children in his care. Police later found tens of thousands of child abuse images on his computer and evidence of sexual offences in a previous job as a teaching assistant.
Camden Council has commissioned an independent local child safeguarding practice review, expected to be published in early 2027, to examine how Chan was able to abuse children. The council stated that its purpose is not to hold individuals or organisations to account.