A 22-year-old nursery worker who carried out a “sustained and relentless” campaign of abuse against 21 children has been jailed for eight years for her harrowing crimes.

Families of the children abused by Roksana Lecka recalled the “horrifying” moment they watched CCTV of the assaults, which had left them covered in bruises and scratches.

This had included kicking a little boy four times in the face and toppling children head-first into their cots while working at two nurseries in southwest London.

Her “sadistic” crimes were discovered in June last year after she was caught pinching a number of children at Twickenham Green Montessori, part of the Riverside Nursery group, in Twickenham.

Becoming tearful, one mother told Lecka’s sentencing hearing: “The early days of the trial were the worst two days of my life. Watching how relentless Roksana was in picking out a child and assaulting them again and again was horrifying.”

Sentencing her, Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC said: “At that age, children are vulnerable because they cannot understand, let alone tell anyone of their suffering. Their parents and your employers trusted you to look after each precious and much-loved child. You violated that trust.

“You committed multiple acts of gratuitous violence. You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair and their toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots, you caused bruising and lingering red marks. When you committed these acts of cruelties, you would look at other members of staff.

She added: “Time after time, you calmly watched the pain and suffering you had caused. Your criminal conduct can be properly characterised as sadistic.”

Before the discovery of her crimes, the mother had taken a photo of a bruise on her son’s ear, which she said would have left him “screaming” in pain, and told how the trauma of the case had caused her to move out of the area.

She added: “I cannot get over how an adult could have done that to a child. My biggest worry is that my son will think that’s something adults do to children.

“It will live with me forever knowing that my son and 20 other children had to go through this.”

Looking directly at Lecka as she spoke, another mother 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 to let them know something had happened to them. They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”

Other parents said they had been left feeling “mistrustful” of leaving their children, and some found their toddlers had been left with sleeping issues and separation anxiety.

Several described feeling guilty that they had sent their children to the nursery, and that it had left them “questioning our parenting”.

Lecka, from Hounslow, previously 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.

After being caught pinching the children in her care, detectives from the Metropolitan Police trawled through CCTV from the nursery to discover she had repeatedly abused children under their clothes on their arms, legs and stomachs.

She pinched several children dozens of times over the course of one day, causing them to cry and flinch away from her.

In one incident, she kicked a little boy in the face several times. She was also seen covering a toddler’s mouth when he started to cry, putting her weight on a child’s back, smacking them and dragging children towards her as they attempted to pull away.

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 Twickenham Green Montessori, which has since closed.

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

She was employed and worked at Twickenham Green Montessori between January and June 2024, with a number of parents reporting unusual injuries and bruising in March and May that year.

Other parents accused Lecka of showing “no remorse” throughout the trial, and said her showing up to work after smoking cannabis and vaping showed a “total disregard” for the children in her care.

Taking the witness stand, one mother said: “Her defence at the trial left me speechless. Her excuses were selfish; I found she was only interested in serving herself and had a complete lack of accountability.

“Her personal life left me gobsmacked, how little she cared for the job she was in.”

Describing her as an “absolute danger” to children, one father told the court: “She has shown no remorse throughout this process and the fact she doesn’t accept she has done anything wrong is a clear indication she is a danger to society.”

Several spoke of the financial impact of childcare costs after Twickenham Green Montessori closed, and said they had been forced to take time off work due to the stress of the case.

“As parents, we live with guilt. We know it’s not our fault, but we still feel it, because we were not there to protect him,” the family of one little boy said. “This crime has changed the way we view the world and how we parent.

“We will carry the weight of what was done to him for the rest of his life.”

The court heard that Lecka had been attacked twice in prison and had been placed in a vulnerable prison wing.

Referring to Lecka’s lack of apology to the court, the judge said: “That apology rang hollow. It was an attempt to disassociate and minimise your actions. The footage demonstrates you knew what you were doing, your actions were deliberate and calculated.”

Describing her actions towards one child as “the most egregious acts of cruelty”, the judge said that Lecka should never be allowed to work with children and vulnerable people again.