Parents of abused babies call deportation of nursery worker after short sentence horrendous

The parents of babies abused by a nursery worker in west London say the decision to deport her after serving less than 15% of her prison sentence is horrendous.

Lecka, 23, was jailed for eight years last September but was deported to Poland in February after serving 14 months as part of an Early Release Scheme.

She may face no further consequences in Poland. The Ministry of Justice said she is banned for life from returning to the UK. The Polish government has been asked to comment.

Twenty babies were abused at the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, which is now closed, and one was abused at Little Munchkins in Hounslow.

Parents told the BBC they are now calling for child abusers and other serious offenders to be ineligible for early release.

One father said the early release undermined the time and emotion that had gone into the trial. Preparing witness statements and victim impact statements and going through the trauma of the investigation and trial brought a sense of closure, he said. But then for that sentence not to be served left a hollow feeling.

He said there was a swathe of cases where the scheme was completely inappropriate and that it was having an undermining effect on the judicial system.

Lecka's future is now in the hands of Polish authorities and she is not expected to spend any further time behind bars, the BBC understands. While UK officials have informed their Polish counterparts of Lecka's convictions, there is still a chance that she will work with children again.

One mother said her child still has to sleep in her bed two years later because of the trauma. She asked how someone could commit a crime against vulnerable children in this country and then be returned home with no duty of care to ensure they do not offend again.

The police investigation, trial and sentencing took more than a year. The mother believes that time was in part wasted. She said the 21 babies in the case, all of the nursery workers involved in the investigation, the police time to look at the CCTV footage, the court system, the prison service, and the time, energy, resource and heartache that families went through had been disregarded.

She said the fact that parents heard from the police, not the Home Office, was also unacceptable. She called for victims to be put first and for the Home Office to make sure they know as early as possible when someone is due to be deported.