Roksana Lecka: Evil nursery worker who attacked 21 babies in drug binge jailed

A twistednursery worker who smirked as she was arrested for attacking 21 babies while high on drugs -including one she kicked in the face - was today jailed for eight years.

Police bodycam footage shows Roksana Lecka being held at her home after CCTV emerged of her abusing the children in her care. She has since been convicted of targeting 21 babies over nine months. Lecka admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was found guilty of another 14 by a jury at Kingston Crown Court. Her youngest victim was just ten months old.

The parents of each child read out emotional victim impact statements to the court on Friday as Leckna was sentenced, condemning her “sickening” crimes and branding her the “worst kind of human”. Jurors were previously shown horrifying footage of Lecka kicking one baby boy in the face. He received four blows in the head before she stepped on his shoulder and kicked him in the face again.

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Several family members of the victims were in the public gallery and audible gasps could be heard as the footage was played during her trial. Lecka smoked cannabis before her shifts, and CCTV footage released today shows her vaping a metre away from a young baby.

In shocking footage of her arrest, Lecka can be seen in the living room of her home, smiling as officers speak to her before one cop tells her she has been accused of assaulting babies. Lecka then callously replies: "Yeah I have heard about that". Further video shows the nursery worker in her police interview answering "no comment" to every question.

She looks bored and plays with her hair as a female detective reads details of the horrendous injuries she inflicted on the children. The officer asks "I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

Lecka replies: "No, I'm listening." But she looks just as disinterested when another officer asks her about kicking the boy in the face. She replies "no comment" when asked if she had "any empathy for those children you've assaulted".

Lecka was caught after parents and staff spotted that their children had been bruised and scratched. Met Police detectives examined CCTV from the nursery that showed her pinching and scratching children under their clothes on their arms, legs and stomachs.

She pinched several children dozens of times during one day, causing them to cry and flinch away from her, the CPS said. Lecka was also seen to push babies head first over cots and cover a toddler's mouth when he started to cry.

Det Insp Sian Hutchings of Met Police’s Public Protection Command said on Friday: “Today’s sentencing concludes a complex and emotional investigation. The victims in this case are just babies, with the youngest being just 10 months at the time of the offences.

“Something which our officers have found shocking throughout this investigation is Roksana’s lack of accountability and her inability to explain her unjustifiable actions. As a result of the hard work from our dedicated investigation team and our partners, this woman will no longer be able to harm children.”

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, west London, with the remainder linked to the Montessori Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, which has since closed.

Det Sgt Geoff Boye said: "Footage showed Lecka carrying out multiple assaults on the children in her care which included repeatedly pinching and grabbing children, dropping babies into their cots and on one occasion, she delivered several kicks to a young boy to the face and stepped on his shoulder."

Lecka admitted to seven counts of child cruelty. It took a jury nine hours and 53 minutes to convict her of 14 of the remaining 17 child cruelty counts, acquitting her of three. She had told the jury: "I can't remember the things I was doing because I was smoking cannabis that was affecting my memory."

Lecka also said she was "addicted" to her vape, saying: "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."

The court further heard that there were no safeguarding issues before she began work at the nursery. In further footage played to the court, Lecka can also be seen pinching the legs, back and underarm of a girl who can be seen crying.

There were also clips of her pinching the side of a girl's face and grabbing her hair. She is seen vaping in another clip before grabbing a baby out of a crib and pinching and punching the baby. It was said that Lecka was "looking around" at other members of staff to see who was "watching these assaults occur".

At today'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.”

Many expressed their fears over what further abuse their children may have endured. One father told the court that his wife “always says” if Lecka had not been caught “she could have gone on to seriously injure or even kill”.