Roksana Lecka tortured young children at the well-regarded Montessori Riverside Nursery, with harrowing footage showing how she attempted to conceal her sickening crimes
Child abuser Roksana Lecka lived a double life. She posed for happy photos on social media with her family, alongside baby siblings she helped her mother raise.
She potty trained them and bottle fed them, with her “‘proud” mother praising her “wonderful” daughter in one TikTok video, reports Mail on Sunday. The 22-year-old, who had previously worked as a pub barmaid, came to the UK from Poland aged three, and turned her hand to helping to look after other people’s children. Last year, she landed a job at a high-end nursery in a south-west London suburb.
It was here that the real, twisted Lecka was exposed, shocking and disgusting parents who had trusted Riverside Nursery at Twickenham Green to care for their loved ones. Charging almost £2,000 a month, the nursery promised parents ‘a bespoke and individualised education, delivered with nurturing, loving care’.
Within the five months that Lecka worked there, she subjected babies to a sickening campaign of abuse. The former nursery worker abused 21 babies – she admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was found guilty of another 14 following a trial at Kingston Crown Court, where shocking footage was shown of her kicking a little boy four times in the face before stepping on his shoulder and kicking him in the face again.
In another video, Lecka, from Hounslow, could be seen pinching the legs, back and underarm of a crying girl. A third damning clip shows her grabbing a baby out of their crib, before pinching and punching them. Prosecutors remarked that Lecka could be seen “looking around” at other staff members to see who was “watching these assaults occur.”
However, although it appears she took steps to conceal her evil behaviour from colleagues, Lecka’s crimes eventually caught up with her. Parents and staff noticed that their children had been bruised and scratched, and Lecka was suspended on June 28 last year.
The parents of more than half of the affected children are now suing Dukes Education, which runs more than 50 independent schools, colleges and nurseries in the UK. Some spoke to the Mail on Sunday about their astonishment that the abuse went on for as long as it did.
One parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the “evil” worker had shattered her trust. Their child is now in another nursery, but this hasn’t stopped the parent from taking photos of everything, any scratch or mark. “‘If you see your child upset, you immediately think someone is hurting them. It has created a sense of mistrust,’ they said.
When the MoS asked Lecka’s own mother about what had happened, she allegedly responded: ‘It’s not that bad. She didn’t kill anyone.”
Concerns were reportedly first raised last March when parents started to notice scratches and bruises on their children. Lecka continually tried to deceive colleagues and conceal her actions – no one pointed the finger at Lecka until she was finally caught red-handed by a colleague. Once CCTV was reviewed, the evidence was clear.
After being charged with 24 counts of child cruelty, Lecka admitted to seven of the charges, but denied a further 17, claiming her cannabis habit had affected her memory to the point where she couldn’t remember her own actions.
In a prepared statement, Lecka said: “I deny assaulting any children at the Riverside Nursery.” When asked in court if this was a lie, Lecka replied: “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.”
She added: “The amount of cannabis I was smoking was still affecting me; in that period of time, it affected my memory.” Lecka said she was also “addicted” to her vape, telling the court: “At that time I was really addicted to vapes, I would smoke two little crystal disposables a day. I was vaping in nursery.
“Because if I did not smoke, I would get agitated and fed up. I couldn’t keep asking to go to the toilet. Any opportunity I would take. I would be really moody and fed up. It would be a couple of puffs and then I’d put it away I would put it in my bra.”
In the week she was suspended, Lecka alleged she had been “over-prioritising” her boyfriend, whom she was “addicted” to. Lecka claimed: “I was with my boyfriend every night. I was addicted to him.”
Irwin Mitchell lawyer Jemma Till, who is leading the civil action, fears there could be more victims, suspecting incidents could have happened before concerns were raised. Neighbours of the child abuser told the MoS that her behaviour changed when she reportedly lost her job in a salon.
“Something happened. She was smoking cannabis and became more distant,” one said. With the encouragement of her mother, Lecka reportedly began looking for work in childcare and enrolled with an agency.
With no qualifications, she started shift work before successfully applying for a permanent job at Riverside Nursery at Twickenham Green in January 2024, providing three references. Addressing the court, she said how much she enjoyed looking after her younger siblings, now aged five and 15.
“We have an inseparable bond. I see them as I would my own children,” she said. One parent said there was an “increase in unusual injuries to our child”.
Addressing jurors, prosecutor Tracy Ayling remarked that smoking cannabis and not being able to vape were “excuses” for the serious allegations faced by Lecka. She continued: “It is clear her actions are deliberate or at the very least careless, but on most occasions, we say deliberate. There are, of course, some clips where Ms Lecka – as we put it – keeps going back for more.”
A spokesperson for the Twickenham Green nursery said: “Situations like this are deeply upsetting and represent a profound breach of trust in a professional. We recognise how difficult this has been, in particular for the children and families directly involved. Creating places in which children are happy, safe and able to thrive is our top priority, and we will do everything in our power to protect that.”
The nursery added that as soon as concerns were raised about Lecka’s behaviour, they were acted upon immediately, ultimately leading to her arrest.
