Parents whose babies were abused by a nursery worker have condemned her “sickening” crimes and branded her the “worst kind of human”.
Roksana Lecka, from Hounslow, west London, admitted 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.
Her crimes were discovered in June last year after she was sent home for pinching a number of children at Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, south-west London, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
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.
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.
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.”
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”.
The defendant requested a break part way through the statements and was seen with her head in her hands before leaving the dock.
She 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.
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.
She was also found not guilty of three counts of child cruelty.
The sentencing hearing continues.
