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A 22-year-old nursery worker has been sentenced to eight years in jail after being convicted of the “sadistic” abuse of 21 babies, including pinching and pushing children and kicking one little boy in the face.
Roksana Lecka, from Hounslow in west London, admitted to seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted of another 14 counts by a jury at Kingston crown court in June.
On Friday, parents spoke about the devastation caused by her “sickening” crimes, calling her the “worst kind of human”.
During a harrowing campaign of abuse in two nurseries in London, Lecka pinched, scratched and pushed children, making them flinch and cry. On one occasion she kicked a little boy in the face several times and stepped on his shoulder.
Looking directly at the abuser, one mother said she had preyed on “innocent and vulnerable” children. “They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves and they couldn’t tell us as parents that something had happened to them,” she said. “They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”
A different mother said that some of the CCTV showed babies reaching back out to Lecka after she had hurt them. “It is objectively shocking that she has been hiding in plain sight in society up until she was arrested,” she said. “I think all of us can agree that only the worst kind of human would assault vulnerable babies.”
One father told the court that he and his wife believed that if Lecka had not been caught “she could have gone on to seriously injure or even kill”.
Lecka’s crimes were discovered in June last year after she was sent home for pinching a number of children and appearing “flustered” at the Montessori Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, south-west London, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Metropolitan police detectives went through CCTV from the nursery that showed her pinching and scratching children, all aged 18 months to two years, under their clothes on their arms, legs and stomachs, sometimes dozens of times a day. She was also seen pushing babies headfirst over cots and on one occasion covered a toddler’s mouth when he started to cry.
There were gasps from jurors and weeping parents in the public gallery as footage of Lecka’s abuse of toddlers was shown during her trial. Judge Plaschkes KC exempted the jury from future service for the next 10 years.
Plaschkes said Lecka had committed acts of “gratuitous violence”, adding: “You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair and their toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots. You caused bruising and lingering red marks.
“Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain … Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic.”
Lecka told police she smoked cannabis before her shifts, and at one point was seen vaping a metre away from a young baby.
The Met said she had abused children at two nurseries between October 2023 and June 2024 – all but one of the counts related to Riverside in Twickenham, which has since closed, with one related to Little Munchkins in Hounslow. Lecka worked at Riverside Nursery between January and June 2024, with a number of parents reporting unusual injuries and bruising in March and May that year. Lecka was suspended on 28 June 2024.
During the trial, Lecka said she would get moody if she could not smoke her vape at work and said that during the week of her suspension she had been “over-prioritising” her boyfriend. “I was with my boyfriend every night. I was addicted to him,” she said.
Lecka had denied assaulting any children at the Riverside Nursery, but changed several pleas to guilty just before her trial began, having been shown enhanced CCTV of her crimes.
When asked in court if she had lied, she said: “I was not lying because I was unaware of what I was doing and the things I was doing, I can’t remember the things I was doing because I was smoking cannabis that was affecting my memory.”
DI Sian Hutchings said: “These families left their children in Lecka’s care, trusting her to protect their children as well as the other staff at the nurseries clearly did. The footage of her offences against defenceless children was disturbing. I would like to praise the strength of the victims’ families who have had to sit in court and watch footage of the abuse which Lecka inflicted on their children.”
The senior crown prosecutor Gemma Burns said: “Lecka repeatedly showed exceptional cruelty in her appalling treatment of these babies. No parent should have to fear leaving their child in the care of professionals, but the sheer scale of her abuse is staggering.
“The CPS put forward compelling evidence that clearly showed her targeting children when colleagues were either out of the room, or had their backs turned. We also called on experts to prove that the injuries Lecka’s victims sustained were consistent with pinch marks.
“Lecka was placed in a position of trust and her job required her to provide safety and protection. Instead, she kicked, scratched and pinched these young children, with this vile abuse of vulnerable victims continuing for many months.”
