Roksana Lecka – who kicked one little boy in the face repeatedly – assaulted babies as young as 10 months, and covered the mouth of one tot when he started to cry
A 22-year-old nursery worker who violently abused 21 babies became “desensitised” to her sickening behaviour as she hid her crimes in plain sight, an expert has warned.
Roksana Lecka, from Hounslow, 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.
She moved to the UK from Poland at the age of three, and appeared to live a double life. Social media shows her beaming for happy family photos, while helping her mother raise her baby siblings, potty training and bottle feeding them.
One TikTok video appears to show Lecka’s “proud” mother praising her “wonderful” daughter. Even after Lecka’s crimes came to light, her mother continued to defend her, reportedly saying: “It’s not that bad. She didn’t kill anyone.”
But now her horrific abuse has caught up with her. Today, she was jailed for eight years at Kingston Crown Court for multiple counts of child cruelty.
Smirking nursery worker who attacked 21 babies says six cold words to police
In January 2024, Lecka, who possesses no qualifications, successfully applied for a permanent job at Riverside Nursery, providing three references. But behind the guise of a helpful daughter was a very different persona, and one that she sought to hide from those around her.
At Lecka’s trial, jurors were shown shocking footage of Lecka kicking a little boy four times in the face before stepping on his shoulder and kicking him in the face once again. This video drew audible gasps from the public gallery, where several family members of the young victims were seated.
In another video, Lecka could be seen pinching the legs, back and underarm of a crying girl. A third clip showed her grabbing a baby out of their crib, before pinching and punching them.
Prosecutors noted that Lecka could be seen “looking around” at other staff members, keeping an eye on who was “watching these assaults occur.”
Lecka was finally caught after parents and staff members began to notice bruises and scratches, and she was suspended on June 28, 2024. Met Police detectives trawled through nursery CCTV, and found the horrific footage of her abuse.
Reacting to Lecka’s sentencing, Dr Dominic Edwards, criminologist & contributor at britishliedetectortest.co.uk, offered an insight into her sickening behaviour, and how her cruel crimes could go unsuspected.
He said: “The key questions are always: why did this happen, and how did it continue for so long without being stopped?
“Offenders in Lecka’s position are rarely driven by a single reason. It is usually a mix of factors: a need to exert control, difficulties regulating emotion, a lack of empathy, and sometimes a darker element of curiosity in how far they can push boundaries.
“Once abusive behaviour begins, it often escalates as the individual becomes desensitised, which appears to have been the case here.”
Although people tend to associate nurturing with women, female offenders do exist, and the perception that they are ‘safe by default’ can shield them from suspicion, he added.
“Stress, unresolved trauma, or personality issues may all play a role, but the wider context is equally important. Nurseries and similar settings rely heavily on trust, and this makes it easier for concerning behaviour to be overlooked.”
The reality is that abusers often exploit gaps in oversight, Dr Edwards explained. “Small acts of cruelty can be hidden behind closed doors, explained away as minor accidents, or dismissed as misunderstandings. In many workplaces colleagues may feel uneasy about raising concerns or worry about getting it wrong.
“Combined with Lecka’s position of authority and the natural assumption of innocence, this allowed the abuse to continue until CCTV and formal reports brought it to light.
“This case highlights how abusers operate not only through their own actions, but by exploiting the blind spots created by trust, cultural assumptions, and weaknesses in safeguarding systems.”
Lecka’s crimes were discovered in June last year after she was sent home for pinching a number of children and appearing “flustered” at Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, south-west London, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Metropolitan Police detectives went through CCTV from the nursery that showed Lecka pinching and scratching children under their clothes on their arms, legs and stomachs.
She pinched several children dozens of times in the course of one day, causing them to cry and flinch away from her, the CPS said.
In one incident she kicked a little boy in the face several times. She was also seen to push babies head-first over cots and cover a toddler’s mouth when he started to cry.
Police said she had abused children at two nurseries between October 2023 and June 2024. One of the counts related to Little Munchkins in Hounslow, with the remainder linked to Riverside, which has since closed.
On Friday, Kingston Crown Court heard victim impact statements from the parents of the 21 babies during Lecka’s sentencing hearing.
One mother, who took to the witness box to read her own statement, looked directly at Lecka as she said: “These children were so innocent and vulnerable.
“They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves and they couldn’t tell us as parents that something had happened to them.
“They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”
Another mother, referencing the CCTV footage, said: “This really highlighted how defenceless all the children were and how sickening Roksana’s crimes were to target such young babies.”
The court heard from a different mother that some of the CCTV showed babies “reach back out to Roksana after she hurt them”.
She said: “I think Roksana is a huge threat to society.
“It is objectively shocking that she has been hiding in plain sight in society up until she was arrested. I think all of us can agree that only the worst kind of human would assault vulnerable babies.”
