Smirking Montessori worker who attacked 21 toddlers and VAPED in children's room while high on cannabis at £1,900-a-month nursery is jailed for eight years

A cannabis-smoking worker at a £1,900-a-month Montessori nursery who was caught vaping in an infant sleeping room has been jailed for eight years for attacking 21 toddlers in her care with 'sadistic' violence.

Heartbroken parents tearfully recalled discovering bruises and injuries on their children caused by Roksana Lecka, 22, punching, kicking, throwing, and pinching them.

In victim impact statements, some spoke of their 'overwhelming guilt' at sending their infants to the Riverside Nursery in Twickenham, southwest London, and failing to protect them.

One father said he and his wife believed that Lecka would have gone on to kill a child had she not been caught.

Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC told Lecka she should be barred from ever working with children or vulnerable people again.

She told the defendant, from Hounslow, west London: 'You committed multiple acts of gratuitous violence.

'You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked, and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair, and toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots. You caused bruising and lingering red marks.

'When you committed these acts of cruelty, you would look at the other members of staff to make sure that they were not watching you.

'Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain, causing the child to cry, arch, try to get away, or writhe around in distress.

'Time after time, you calmly watched the pain and suffering you have caused. Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic.'

In harrowing victim impact statements, multiple parents told the court their children remained terrified of adults and continued to pinch their faces – behaviour they fear was learned from their attacker.

And one single mother has moved her family away from the area because she could no longer bear to walk past the Riverside Montessori nursery where her son was abused.

Lecka had tried to justify her behaviour by claiming she was sleep-deprived from smoking cannabis all night with her boyfriend, but she was convicted of child cruelty in June.

Horrified parents began photographing and reporting unexplained injuries on their children's bodies in March last year.

But managers at the nursery failed to identify Lecka as the culprit, and she continued to care for children under two until staff finally became suspicious on June 28 last year, and she was arrested.

Lecka was also found to have abused infants at a second nursery, and was only discovered when she was sent home from Riverside for pinching multiple children.

Footage released by the Met Police today showed Lecka was caught on CCTV vaping while in a room with sleeping infants.

And in excerpts from police interviews, she sat emotionless and simply repeated: 'No comment.'

At one po, in she could be seen playing with her hair, prompting a female officer to ask: 'Am I boring you?'