A Bristol nursery was forced to close after CCTV footage captured a worker sexually abusing a child, leading to a police investigation that uncovered attacks on five toddlers in what prosecutors described as “every parent’s nightmare.”
Nathan Bennett, 30, from Corston near Bath, was found guilty at Bristol Crown Court of two charges of raping a child under 13, four of sexual assault of a child under 13, and two charges of assault of a child under 13 by penetration following a trial. He had previously pleaded guilty to 13 other charges relating to four of the five victims.
The investigation began in February 2025 when Partou King Street nursery manager Victoria Tutton reviewed CCTV footage showing Bennett putting his hands down the trousers of a child. Bennett was immediately sent home from the Bristol city centre facility.
Avon and Somerset Police launched an investigation leading to Bennett’s arrest and the nursery’s closure. The 30-year-old had begun working at the facility in July 2024, spending approximately seven months at the premises before the abuse was discovered.
During four days of evidence, the jury heard how staff had observed concerning behaviour from Bennett including sitting children on his lap for lengthy periods, wearing trousers with holes in the crotch area, and appearing “territorial” over certain toddlers and their parents.
One nursery practitioner described Bennett having a “jealous attachment” with five children and would “take control of them.” The observations from colleagues proved crucial in establishing a pattern of inappropriate conduct with specific victims.
Video interviews of two children in the case, referred to as Child A and Child E, were played to the jury during the trial. Child E’s mother gave evidence describing how her son demonstrated the abuse he had suffered at the nursery.
“I got him to stop doing it. I asked him when did that happen. He said it happened at nursery,” the mother told the court. The child identified his abuser as a man wearing a watch, with the mother stating they “immediately” knew he was referring to Bennett as he wore a smart watch which Child E “really liked.”
Bennett gave evidence during the trial, stating he had been exposed to “a lot of sexual activity on myself” when he was a child. Whilst accepting the contact between him and the toddlers was sexual, he denied having a sexual attraction to them.
“As I stated I think already, it was emulating what I had experienced as a child – presuming it was to make them happy and feel better,” Bennett told the court.
Prosecutor Virginia Cornwall described the case as “every parent’s nightmare,” stating: “He has admitted his sexual interest, that the Crown says, he has in pre-school-age boys, toddlers, essentially two and three years of age, by his partial guilty pleas to some of the charges in this case.”
The defendant’s previous guilty pleas covered 13 charges including eight of sexual assault of a child under 13, four of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and one of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.
All five victims were aged two at the time of the offences. The conviction on the additional charges following trial brings the total number of proven offences against the toddlers to 21.
Bennett will be sentenced at a later date at Bristol Crown Court. He faces a mandatory life sentence for the rape convictions, with the judge to determine the minimum term he must serve before being considered for parole.
