A paedophile has pleaded guilty at Highbury Magistrates for sexual offences against young children in his charge at two different institutions.
The defendant, Vincent Chan, 45, admitted offences of upskirting children, after previously pleading guilty to a series of sexual offences against toddlers committed while he was employed at a nursery.
Police said Chan deliberately sought out positions of trust to commit abuse that was “shocking” in both nature and scale.
He was arrested while working as a nursery employee for the Bright Horizons chain in north London, and last month admitted 26 sexual offences, including abusing children while they slept.
On Thursday, at Highbury Magistrates Court, Chan pleaded guilty to a further 30 offences linked to a north London primary school, where he worked as a teaching assistant between 2007 and 2017.
The court heard that in June 2011, Chan filmed a schoolgirl from beneath a classroom table, with the camera positioned to capture her legs and intimate areas. Sixteen similar images of the same child were recovered.
The offences include 12 counts of making indecent images of children, one count of sexual assault, 11 counts of voyeurism, and six counts of outraging public decency. One of the videos showed Chan performing a sexual act alone in a classroom.
The Metropolitan Police said Chan had set up hidden cameras in his home to record people changing and had filmed himself sexually assaulting a woman while she slept.
His victims include children as young as two. The police also discovered about 25,000 obscene images of children in his possession.
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The list of offences has raised concerns among the affected families.
They said: “We are sickened to learn that Chan committed appalling offences apart from his time at Bright Horizons Finchley Road. Our thoughts are first and foremost with those affected by these new charges.
“Understandably, these further crimes raise deeply troubling questions about how safeguarding systems could have failed so badly that someone who was a prolific and persistent offender was able to secure employment as a nursery worker and offend without intervention for a number of years.
“The harm caused by crimes like these does not end in court; victims and their families live with the consequences every day. Safeguarding is meant to protect children, and when it fails, accountability cannot stop with one individual.
“Organisations and those responsible for enforcing safeguarding standards must answer too. No parent should have to wonder whether the most basic checks, protections, and accountability are optional.”
Det Supt Lewis Basford, who is leading the ongoing investigation, said: “Vincent Chan is a dangerous and predatory individual, and the scale of his abhorrent offending is shocking.
“Chan’s history demonstrates to us that he has sought out positions of trust involving contact with young girls, which allowed him to commit his crimes unchecked for so long. He has repeatedly exploited the trust of those around him, proving himself to be a danger to all girls and women.”
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