Child abuse families move towards judicial review

Families whose children attended a nursery where abuse was carried out have taken steps towards a judicial review over the council's "unwillingness" to investigate whether health and safety rules were broken.

Vincent Chan was jailed in February for 18 years after admitting 56 sexual offences, including abusing children over seven years at the Bright Horizons nursery in north-west London.

In a letter putting Camden Council on legal notice of a potential judicial review claim, three families say they "should not have to beg for an investigation like this to be carried out".

Camden Council said it could not because it was "currently conflicted" by "participating in an ongoing statutory review".

Warning: This article contains distressing details

Chan filmed himself abusing children as young as two and amassed a collection of at least 26,000 indecent images online, including clips of children being raped, Wood Green Crown Court heard.

The 45-year-old used nursery iPads to film himself abusing some children, before transferring the material on to his home computer. A judge described him as having a "deep-seated sexual obsession" with children.

Andy, whose name we have changed to protect the identity of his children who attended the West Hampstead nursery where 20 of Chan's offences were carried out, said action was vital "given children have been exposed to such serious risk".

He said: "What is deeply alarming is that after a case this serious, affecting hundreds of families, no public authority has accepted responsibility for investigating whether the nursery operator's systems failed.

"Parents across the country deserve to know whether nurseries are being properly scrutinised and whether safeguarding failures are being investigated."

Andy said parents wanted to know "how can the safeguarding systems and processes within that nursery chain be working?".

He said: "That needs to be looked at because if it's not looked at, then it can carry on and if it carries on, we'll have several more Vincent Chans, we'll have many more children falling into the hands of these predators.

"We want full accountability, answers, and changes that protect children across the country in the future.

"Most importantly, we want to ensure there is not a safeguarding black hole around nurseries where serious questions get ignored or overlooked."

Andy again urged Camden Council to act, calling on them to "stop pointing fingers elsewhere and carry out its statutory duty".

He added: "We have laws set in this country to protect vulnerable people, to protect all of us.

"If something as catastrophic and awful as this isn't enough to trigger the law and start investigations, it creates a huge black hole, not only around nurseries but around all institutions and public bodies and that's not good enough."

A spokesperson for Camden Council said: "Parents, carers and children are at the heart of everything we do as this Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review progresses.

"The fact we are participating in this ongoing statutory review, and the matters under consideration, means that we are currently conflicted and cannot begin any investigation into Bright Horizons nursery concerning possible breaches of health and safety legislation.

"We appreciate that this is frustrating and upsetting for parents and carers but we will revisit the issue of conflict once the review has completed.

"We also consider that this is an exceptional case that meets the criteria for referral to the Health and Safety Executive, as the national regulator. We did this at the earliest opportunity."

Bright Horizons has not responded to a request for comment but previously said it was committed to understanding what happened so it could "learn from this terrible episode".

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