A 22-year-old former nursery worker, Roksana Lecka, has been convicted of abusing 21 babies whilst they were in her care, including kicking a child in the face and stepping on his shoulder. Lecka was found guilty at Kingston Crown Court this week, following a six-week trial that examined CCTV evidence showing her pinching and scratching helpless children under their clothes on their arms, legs, and stomachs.

The footage showed what Det Insp Sian Hutchings described as Lecka’s “exceptional cruelty”, including her roughly handling toddlers and babies and harshly placing them on the floor, causing them visible distress and tears. The 45 hours of footage that investigators combed through also showed Lecka vaping less than a metre from a small baby on several occasions. Police have stated that her abuse of the children took place at two nurseries between October 2023 and June 2024. one of the 21 counts related to Little Munchkins nursery in Hounslow, with the remainder linked to the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, which has since closed.

Det Sgt Geoff Boye states: “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.”

Det Insp Sian Hutchings added: "These families left their children in Lecka's care, trusting her to protect their children as well as the other staff at the nurseries clearly did.” According to Solicitor Jemma Till, the families and relatives of the children have been understandably “traumatised” by Lecka's crimes. Several of the parents described noticing multiple red marks, bruises and scratches on their children and a number of parents provided pictures of the injuries they found. T

heir trauma has no doubt been amplified by Lecka’s remorseless response, her callousness was also shown as she nonchalantly repeated the words “no comment” during her police interview. The victim’s families continue to receive specialist support. 

Faced with insurmountable evidence, Lecka admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was found guilty of another 14 by a Kingston Crown Court jury. She will be sentenced for what Senior crown prosecutor Gemma Burns called the “staggering” scale of her abuse at Kingston Crown Court on 26 September.