Nursery Worker Raised Concerns About Colleague Months Before Arrest for Child Abuse

BBC News reported that a former employee at Partou King Street Nursery in Bristol raised concerns about Nathan Bennett's behaviour for months before his arrest. Bessie Martin said she saw Bennett hold children too long and sit them on his lap out of CCTV view, but managers told her she was imagining it.

Bennett was sentenced to 30 years in prison in February for sexually abusing five boys aged two and three.

Martin filed a whistleblowing report to senior management, after which Bennett was suspended and then allowed to return to work. Two weeks later a CCTV review showed him putting his hands down a boy's trousers, prompting another suspension and notification to the Local Authority Designated Officer.

Parents also reported Bennett's overly physical conduct to nursery management in the months before his arrest, though some concerns were not passed to the LADO and Ofsted.

The nursery closed in December 2025. Partou operates more than 100 sites across England. BBC News found Partou nurseries received Welfare Requirements Notices from Ofsted at twice the national average rate in the four years to March 2025.

That rate rose to more than seven times the average in the 12 months after Bennett's arrest. Ofsted increased inspection activity at Partou sites following the case. A parallel pattern appeared at Bright Horizons, which operates 270 UK nurseries.

Vincent Chan was jailed for 18 years in February after abusing children at its West Hampstead site and elsewhere over seven years. Bright Horizons nurseries received WRNs at more than four times the average rate in the 12 months after his arrest, following increased Ofsted scrutiny. Both nurseries held overall Ofsted ratings of good before the arrests.