A "sadistic" nursery worker who abused 21 babies while high on drugs is now living abroad free from prison despite only serving 14 months of an eight-year sentence. Authorities in Poland admitted Roksana Lecka, 23, was not detained after she was deported under the UK Government's Early Removal Scheme.
Details of the Abuse
Lecka was jailed in September 2025 for pinching, punching and kicking babies as young as 10 months old at two nurseries in west London over several months. Her crimes included kicking a child in the face repeatedly during months of "gratuitous" and "sadistic" violence which took place between 2023 and 2024. She admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted of a further 14. Lecka is also banned from returning to the UK.
Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC said during sentencing that Lecka "pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked" children, "pulled their ears, hair and their toes", and toppled them "headfirst into cots" causing bruising and lingering red marks. She stated: "Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain, causing the child to cry, arch, try to get away or writhe in distress. Time after time you calmly watched the pain and suffering you have caused. Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic."
Deportation and Lack of Detention
In February, Lecka was deported to Poland as part of the Early Removal Scheme. But officials in her home country claim they were powerless to detain her when she landed. According to reports in Poland, Lecka was not entered into the relevant criminal databases or international alert systems in a way that would have allowed officers to detain her. As there was no official documentation from the UK and no corresponding entries in national or international law-enforcement systems, border guards in Poland were forced to process her under normal entry procedures.
Major Dagmara Bielec, of the Nadwislanski Border Guard Unit, reportedly told local media: "A Polish citizen expelled from Great Britain has returned to the country, but her arrival did not take place under any of the formal international co-operation procedures in force between Poland and Great Britain." Lecka's current whereabouts are unknown but she is understood to have landed in Warsaw on February 5.
Impact on Victims' Families
Parents of her victims later told a court of their feelings of heartbreak, guilt and distrust and described Lecka as the "worst kind of human". The fiend, who was living in Hounslow, South West London, attempted to defend her actions, carried out at Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, which is now closed, and Little Munchkins in Hounslow, by claiming she was sleep-deprived and hooked on cannabis and vapes.
One father whose son was physically abused by Lecka said her deportation after serving just 14 months, which included time on remand, was "completely inappropriate" and "really hard to swallow". He told the BBC: "We felt it undermined all that time and emotion that had gone into the trial. Preparing our witness statements and our victim-impact statements, going through the trauma of that whole investigation and trial, to get a sentence brought a sense of closure and we could all move on from it. But then for that sentence not to be served, it was a bit of a hollow feeling." The victim's father claimed there is "too much focus on cost savings, rather than upholding the principles of the system".
Another parent reportedly added: "The expectation obviously was that that sentence would be served. And it now appears it's not going to be. The reasoning behind custodial sentences, theoretically, is punishment for the offender, some form of rehabilitation and a deterrent to it happening again. In this case, the punishment hasn't been served. It's unclear if there's been any rehabilitation. And in terms of a deterrent, if foreign nationals know that effectively they won't even have to serve that sentence, then I don't think that deterrent is there either. It just makes the process feel slightly pointless."
Political and Government Response
Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson raised the issue in Parliament saying that Lecka's victims' parents had not been told whether Lecka would continue to serve the rest of her eight-year sentence or go free. She called for information regarding Lecka's release terms. She also wrote to the Home Office but Ms Wilson was told by ministers that, due to time on remand before her trial, Lecka had become eligible for deportation on 7 October 2025 – less than a fortnight after receiving her eight-year sentence.
Alex Norris, minister for border security and asylum said in a letter to the MP: "Whilst Lecka is not required to serve the remainder of her sentence in Poland, we have made Polish law enforcement aware of her convictions so that appropriate safeguarding actions can be taken by the Polish authorities." However, according to reports in Poland, the authorities there are unable to monitor her movements or warn childcare institutions about her past convictions and there are even fears she could find a new job working with children.
Last month, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "These were appalling crimes, and our thoughts remain with the victims and their families. This Government is deporting foreign national offenders at pace, with more than 5,000 deported last year - a 14 per cent increase on the previous year."
