Roksana Lecka, a 23-year-old nursery worker who admitted to seven child cruelty offences and was found guilty of 14 more, has walked free after an alleged deportation blunder. Despite being sentenced to eight years in prison last September, Lecka's whereabouts are currently unknown after she was reportedly sent back to Poland without the correct documentation.
Deportation Details
Polish Border Guard spokesman Major Dagmara Bielec confirmed that Lecka returned to Poland but not under any formal international cooperation procedures between Poland and Great Britain. She arrived at Warsaw Airport as a regular passenger, and it is alleged that local police could not arrest her because British officials used a unilateral deportation procedure instead of a formal prison transfer. Lecka was not registered with the correct criminal databases, so police could not apprehend her on arrival.
Victims' Families Outraged
The mother of one of Lecka's victims expressed fury, stating: "The simple reality is she is being deported back to Poland, having only served 14 months of her eight-year sentence. We haven't been given much information, but she will not be handed over to serve the rest of her sentence. She will be free to go." She added: "It just makes a mockery of the whole criminal system. No justice is being served, no punishment."
The Abuse
Lecka abused children aged between 10 months and two years old at the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham and the Little Munchkins in Hounslow between October 2023 and June 2024. She targeted children when her colleagues' backs were turned, and was caught after CCTV exposed her abuse. The judge described her behaviour as "gratuitous" and "sadistic" violence against defenceless children. One attack showed her kicking a child to the ground; she also pushed children over cots and pinched and scratched them under their clothes. Gemma Burns of the Crown Prosecution Service said Lecka had "repeatedly shown exceptional cruelty in her treatment of these babies."
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
