Nursery worker convicted of abusing 21 babies

A 22-year-old nursery worker has been convicted of abusing 21 babies, including kicking one little boy in the face and stepping on his shoulder.

Roksana Lecka, from Hounslow, west London, 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, the Metropolitan Police said.

Her crimes were discovered in June last year after she was sent home for pinching a number of children and appearing "flustered" at the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, south-west London, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

Solicitor Jemma Till from Irwin Mitchell said the families involved had been "traumatised".

Detectives from the Met Police went through 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 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 headfirst over cots and cover a toddler's mouth when he started to cry.

The Metropolitan 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 the 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 told police she smoked cannabis before her shifts, and at one point was seen vaping a metre away from a young baby.

Det Insp Sian Hutchings said: "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.

"The footage of her offences against defenceless children was disturbing.

"I would like to praise the strength of the victims' families who have had to sit in court and watch footage of the abuse which Lecka inflicted on their children."

Lecka worked at Riverside Nursery between January and June 2024, with a number of parents reporting unusual injuries and bruising in March and May that year.

Senior crown prosecutor Gemma Burns said Lecka had "shown exceptional cruelty" to the babies.

"No parent should have to fear leaving their child in the care of professionals, but the sheer scale of her abuse is staggering," she added.

Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham, said it was "incredibly important that families see justice done and the children get all the support they need to recover from this trauma".

She claimed there was a need for "urgent reforms to make nurseries and early years settings safe for our children".

"Nurseries must be subject to no-notice Ofsted inspections where safeguarding concerns can be raised and CCTV footage is reviewed. I will be working with colleagues to make sure these tragedies never happen again - every parent should know their child is safe when left at nursery," the MP added.

Lecka will be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on 26 September.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]