A nursery worker has been sentenced to 24 years in jail for serious sexual assaults of young children. A warning that this report from ITV News West of England Reporter Sangita Lal contains distressing details of the abuse.

As we sat in our seats for the interview, the mother who must to remain anonymous to protect the identity of her young child, seemed more relaxed than I anticipated.

Her attitude was very focused, as if she’d heard the worst evidence now the trial was over and was determined to make people understand the impact of Bennett’s crimes.

The mother, whom we’re calling Sarah, was one of the first people to raise concerns to nursery staff after noticing Nathan Bennet was overly affectionate with her child.

Her child was not one of Bennett’s victims, but they were cared for by Bennett for about five months while at Partou Kings Street Nursery.

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Sarah says: “I immediately noticed that he was extremely affectionate touchy-feely with my child and it really stood out because it was behaviour which was very different to how every other member of staff in the nursery or anywhere had interacted with my child.

"It was bizarre and it really stood out to me because it was more how you would interact with a member of your family you know, if my child's uncles or grandparents had been interacting like that with him, it would be normal and acceptable - it was very odd for someone who was meant to be his key worker at a nursery.”

During the trial the 30 year old was described as an evil predator. A man who obsessed over some children and made them attached to him.

The judge described how one child, known to be very sociable and chatty, changed once under Bennett’s care. The child became quiet and would only want to speak to Bennett and would wait for him to arrive.

Sarah said when she first raised concerns to management at the nursery, she was told that they were investigating Bennett’s behaviour and had spoken to him directly.

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For her it seemed like the issue had been resolved. She didn’t hear from the nursery again. So to then hear of Bennett’s arrest was difficult to digest.

Sarah said: “Despite the fact I had made a complaint, I still didn’t ever think it was going on, and I was completely horrified.

"I mean horrified on behalf of my child who was under Nathan‘s care for five months and because my child had already left the nursery by that point - and there was no CCTV going back that last couple of months - so we will never know exactly what happened.

"We will never know what was happening in that room for those five months so that is horrifying and I will worry about that every day of my life - and I also am horrified on behalf of all of the children who we know were victims - who’ve had to go through that abuse."

Bennett is guilty of 21 sexual offences against five children.

He was only caught because parents raised their concerns motivating management to look into it.

Sarah said: “The nature of the crimes was extremely predatory towards extremely vulnerable children. When I say vulnerable children, all children are vulnerable in that they aren’t particularly verbal, they have innate trust in their caregivers, and that was blown apart by what he did.

"I think personally an important message is for all parents - for anyone who’s looking after your children - to really be a strong advocate for your child to ask about safeguarding policies for anyone who’s looking after your children when you’re not there to trust your gut instincts to speak up and to push for answers."

In a statement today a spokesperson for Partou Kings Street Nursery said: “In the year since these offences first came to light, we have worked with a number of individuals and organisations to consider any ways in which we could strengthen our safeguarding of the children in our care.

"We have acted upon recommendations and as a result have increased training provided about safeguarding, strengthened policies, including with regard to recruitment and whistleblowing, increased the number of personnel in our leadership team who focus on safeguarding and introduced more internal and external auditing.

"We have also committed to expanding the use of CCTV across the Partou estate. We are in consultation with other sector stakeholders and government to support initiatives that strengthen safeguarding across the sector."

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