Female nursery employee who abused 21 infants in UK is ‘free after paperwork mix-up’
Roksana Lecka, 23, was jailed for eight years for child cruelty after abusing 21 babies at two London nurseries, but is reportedly free in Poland following a UK deportation procedural error
Roksana Lecka is free(Image: Sourced)
A nursery worker who was jailed for eight years for abusing 21 babies in the UK has reportedly been released due to a paperwork mix-up.
Roksana Lecka, 23, was deported back to Poland following her conviction but British officials allegedly failed to send the paper to enable her arrest. Her location is not currently known.
The alleged ‘blunder’ could potentially allow her to secure another job in childcare despite assaulting and neglecting babies while employed at Riverside Nursery in Twickenham and Little Munchkins in Hounslow, London, UK.
She was handed an eight-year prison sentence after confessing to seven child cruelty offences and being found guilty by a jury of an additional 14.
However, her case sparked fury in the UK when she was deported to Poland under early removal procedures before completing her full sentence. Adding to the confusion, Polish reports now suggest she is not in custody because Britain opted for a unilateral deportation procedure rather than a formal prisoner-transfer process.
This meant that Polish authorities had no automatic legal authority to detain her upon her arrival. Major Dagmara Bielec, a spokesperson for the Polish Border Guard, told local media: “A Polish citizen expelled from Great Britain has returned to the country, but her arrival did not take place under any of the formal international cooperation procedures in force between Poland and Great Britain.”
Polish reports also indicate that Lecka was not registered in the relevant criminal databases or international alert systems in a way that would have enabled officers to take immediate action.
Authorities explained that without official documentation from the UK concerning her removal, and no corresponding records in national or international law enforcement databases, border officials were obliged to process her through standard entry procedures.
Major Bielec stated that officers consequently lacked any legal basis to detain her upon arrival and permitted her entry into Poland.
The incident has sparked significant safeguarding worries as Polish authorities are reportedly powerless to track her whereabouts or alert childcare facilities about her previous convictions.
Her present location remains undisclosed, though she is understood to have touched down at Warsaw Airport following her deportation from Britain.
Lecka was apprehended in the UK after a colleague flagged that her conduct had been strange and “flustered” while on duty at the nursery.
She was dismissed for the day, and another staff member subsequently disclosed that she had nipped several children during that same shift.
Metropolitan Police officers examined CCTV material from multiple days in June 2024 which revealed Lecka pinching and scratching youngsters beneath their clothes on their arms, legs and torsos.
Numerous children were observed being pinched scores of times throughout the day, with the majority weeping and recoiling from her afterwards.
The recordings also captured additional incidents, including kicking a child who was lying on the ground, forcing children head-first over cots, shoving another youngster onto a mattress in a rest area, and covering a toddler’s mouth as he began to cry.
Additional footage allegedly showed her vaping inside the nursery and blowing vapour towards the children’s beds.
Gemma Burns, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Lecka repeatedly showed exceptional cruelty in her treatment of these babies.”
