THE latest horrendous case of nursery ‘care’ child abuse was reported on Monday. Though prosecutors said the scale of Roksana Lecka’s abuse was ‘staggering’ and that she ‘showed exceptional cruelty’ over a six-month period it did not make front page news. Child cruelty no longer does.
In all 21 infant victims are reported. I assume that didn’t include those who escaped her assaults – those tiny traumatised witnesses too young to give evidence, fearing Roksana Lecka’s attacks and hearing screams and crying of the babies and toddlers at the receiving end of her violent aggression. Thankfully the nursery has now been closed.
This is the story as reported by Sky News:
‘A nursery worker has been convicted of mistreating 21 children in her care after she was caught on CCTV pinching, punching and kicking her victims.
‘Prosecutors said the scale of the abuse was “staggering” and Roksana Lecka “showed exceptional cruelty in her appalling treatment” of children over a six-month period at the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, southwest London.
‘The nursery charged parents up to £1,900 a month to look after youngsters, aged between 18 months and two years, and followed the Montessori method of teaching, which involves allowing children to pursue their natural interests and activities.
‘Lecka, 22, admitted seven charges of child cruelty and was found guilty of 14 further counts by a jury after a trial at Kingston Crown Court. She was cleared of three other charges.
‘One conviction related to a child at another nursery that Lecka worked at in Hounslow, west London, in 2023.
‘The jury heard there were no concerns raised when Lecka applied for a job at the Twickenham nursery, which has now closed, with references from another nursery and two families for whom she had babysat.
‘But it was discovered she had “badly treated” children after a CCTV trawl when a colleague raised the alarm, the court heard.
‘There were gasps from parents in the public gallery – some who were watching the footage for the first time – as it was played in court at the start of the trial. Children could be seen crying and flinching as they were repeatedly pinched and scratched on their arms, legs and stomachs by Lecka, with some attacked dozens of times in a day.’
This report raises so many questions about parenting and our attitude to babies and infants today – parents’ routine outsourcing the care of their defenceless little ones into the hands of strangers – that it is hard to know where to begin.
Why would any parent in their right mind – but for their gullible belief in government assurances about safeguarding, child care accreditation and, most of all, that institutionalised ‘other’ care is as good as mother or family care – hand their child over to strangers about whom they know nothing?
Blind trust, except in the most desperate of situations, does not make moral or rational sense, yet today’s parents all act as though it does. Even if the child ‘survives’ in the sense of not being actively harmed, the fact is that parents have no idea what happens to their babies and toddlers in the long hours they are in daycare. Mothers have been persuaded to ignore their instincts to nurture and protect, to deny their guilt and instead hand their six month old baby (or less) to a baby room. The government narrative is that day care is even in the child’s best interests while freeing mum to work. It’s one of the worst of the ‘uniparty’ lies that Governments have repeated for 25 years. It is not. Children were not born to be herded. A grandmother or a known childminder is quite a different kettle of fish.
The second part of the Sky News report brings us to an accompanying issue: the character and quality of people running daycare centres which, in effect, are government subsidised businesses for profit. This comes under Sky’s heading, ‘Defendant addicted to vapes and smoked cannabis’.
‘In one clip, she was seen kicking a child on the floor, while others show her pushing children headfirst over cots, shoving one onto a mattress in the sleep room and aggressively covering a toddler’s mouth as he started to cry. Prosecutors said Lecka could be seen vaping in another clip before taking a baby from a crib, who she was later filmed pinching and punching her side. Giving evidence, the nursery worker said she would regularly smoke cannabis with her boyfriend and was addicted to vapes. Prosecutor Tracy Ayling KC told the jury Lecka was “looking around at other members of staff and who is watching when these assaults occur”.’
How could this have gone on so long without the nursery owner knowing about it? Did he to she not care? Did no one bother to supervise the girl? Is cannabis smoking is so normalised (thank you, Sir Sadiq Khan) that it was not seen as an impediment to employment by her boss or her co-workers? Were the dangers of cannabis, from poor brain functioning to carelessness to psychosis, unknown to or unrecognised by employers and other workers? Of course these things get ‘covered (and covered over)’disguised’ by tick box ‘procedures’, which Lecka’s own statement shines a light on. She told police: ‘We have procedures for the handling of the children, which I adhered to. I am unaware how any injury to these children were caused.’ Yes she had learnt the lesson that all anyone had to do was to be seen to adhere to procedures.
No doubt as a result of this more will be added – there will bemore boxes to tick. But will these make any difference to the wellbeing, let alone the safety of the infants herded into these basements and limited environments. The ‘process culture’ is exactly what allows for the ‘sheer scale of abuse’ that the prosecutor found staggering while still saying at the same time, ‘No parent should have to fear leaving their child in the care of professionals’.
But perhaps that’s exactly what they should do. What is a child care professional after all? A 22-year-old who vapes and smokes cannabis? ‘Professional’ is another word lie giving the (false) reassurance a mother or father needs to let them hand over their child to a disinterested stranger. At best. At worst to a woman like Kate Roughley, the deputy manager of the nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, who was found guilty of manslaughter of nine month old baby Genevieve last year. You can read that horrendous story here if you have the stomach for it. Nothing excuses her brutality but on the day Genevieve died, Roughley was only one of two members of staff looking after 11 babies. The previous weekday there were 16 babies. The nursery had been rated good. Ofsted is only obliged to inspect nurseries in England once every six years.
Lawyer Jemma Till, from Irwin Mitchell, a legal firm representing some of the parents of the Riverside nursery victims, said: ‘The families we represent are not only deeply shocked but also traumatised by what their children have endured. This is sadly yet another devastating case where children have suffered at the hands of someone in a position of trust . . . Nothing can undo what has happened but it’s now vital that lessons are learned, and where appropriate, measures introduced to prevent other children being harmed. No parent should have to fear leaving their child in the care of with this vile abuse of vulnerable victims continuing for many months.’
No doubt genuinely meant, but all platitudes. And fear again. That critical instinct that parents are told they should not need to have. The instinct they absolutely need being socialised out of them- an instinct intrinsic to their ability to protect their offspring. Yes every parent should fear leaving their child vulnerable in an inappropriate setting or centre.
That is the key lesson to be learned; that parents need to rediscover their instincts, protect their infants from the unknown, turn their backs on daycare and take back control.
For one thing is certain, this will not be the last such case. Daycare is a terrible environment for babies and infants. It has to stop.
