The furious parents of babies abused by a nursery worker have blasted the decision to deport her back to Poland after she served just 15 per cent of an eight-year sentence.
Campaign of sadistic abuse
Roksana Lecka, 23, carried out a campaign of 'sadistic abuse' in which she punched, kicked and smacked 21 babies as young as ten-months-old at two London nurseries. She confessed to seven counts of child cruelty, denying 17 other charges, but jurors found her guilty of 14 counts during the six months she worked at Twickenham Green Nursery.
Lecka was jailed for eight years in September 2025 before being deported in February after serving just 14 months behind bars, including time on remand as part of the government's Early-Removal Scheme. She could however face no further consequences back in her native Poland, though the Ministry of Justice confirmed she is 'banned for life from returning to the UK'.
Parents' outrage
The parents of Lecka's victims have now described her deportation as 'really hard to swallow', and are calling on child abusers to be made ineligible for early release. The Labour government introduced its early release scheme in 2024 after prisons across the United Kingdom became severely overcrowded.
The father of a boy physically abused by the nursery worker 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 the whole investigation and trial, to get a sentence brought a sense of closure that we could all move on from it. But then for that sentence to not be served, it was a bit of a hollow feeling'.
The parent also accused the government of focusing 'too much on cost savings, rather than upholding the principles of the system'. One mother of a son Lecka left with heavy bruises said she was 'utterly dumfounded' to hear of her deportation, revealing that her child still suffers with trauma.
The parents were given less than a week's notice about the Polish woman's deportation in February - in a decision Twickenham MP Munira Wilson blasted as 'outrageous'. Whether Lecka faces further consequences back in Poland will be determined by the country's officials.
Trial and evidence
During her trial, the 23-year-old tried to justify her behaviour by claiming she was sleep deprived from smoking cannabis all night with her boyfriend. She told the court: 'I can't remember the things I was doing because I was smoking cannabis that was affecting my memory.'
It was found that Lecka also abused infants at a second nursery, but her acts were only found when she was sent home for pinching multiple children. Devastated parents began reporting unexplained injuries on their children in March 2024. However, managers at the Twickenham nursery did not discover Lecka was the culprit, and she continued to care for toddlers younger than two until she was arrested on June 28, 2024.
CCTV footage shown in court showed Lecka vaping in the darkness in a baby sleeping room, where there was at least one child present. Shocking police interview footage showed how the 23-year-old seemed 'bored' and showed no emotion as the gravity of her criminality was laid bare. One clip showed Lecka appearing to play with her hair while she was asked about a baby 'on a mattress, he seems to be crying'. When Lecka did not respond, a female officer paused to say: 'Sorry am I boring you?'
Additional footage showed the 23-year-old repeatedly responding 'no comment' to every question lodged by police. The vicious nursery worker also showed little to no emotion when pictures of the injuries she caused children in her care were shown to her. Detectives trawled through 300 hours of CCTV footage in the space of just ten days - which laid bare the scale of Lecka's violence against toddlers and babies. There were no issues regarding safeguarding when Lecka was hired, the court was told.
Victim impact
Parents of the victims spoke previously of their 'overwhelming guilt' at sending their infants to the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, southwest London. One father said his wife believed Lecka was capable of killing a child, a statement which appeared to crack the once emotionless defendant. 'As someone who works in safeguarding children, I find the fact that Roksana slipped through the net and was allowed to work with children absolutely criminal,' a father said. 'My wife believes that if she had not been caught she could have gone on to seriously injure or even kill by dropping babies into cots on their heads and kicking them.'
Sentencing and aftermath
Sentencing Lecka, Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC told Lecka in September she should be barred from ever working with children or vulnerable people again. She told the Polish national: 'You committed multiple acts of gratuitous violence. 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. When you committed these acts of cruelty you would look at the other members of staff to make sure that they were not watching you. 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 around in distress. Time after time you calmly watched the pain and suffering you have caused. Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic.'
The Ministry of Justice was approached for comment.
