4:36pm Friday 16th December 2011
By Tom Porter
CRIMINAL charges are to be brought against a nursery, four years after a toddler died while in its care.
Two-year-old Rhiya Malin suffered a heart attack after her head became trapped in a playhouse at the Eton Manor Children’s Day Nursery in Chigwell.
Rhiya’s parents, Jay and Shatl Malin, of Hainault Road in Chigwell, applied unsuccessfully for a judicial review after the original police investigation led to no charges, and have welcomed the decision by Epping Forest District Council to bring charges over alleged breaches of health and safety legislation.
Mrs Malin, 31, said: “We knew that there were health and safety failings on the part of the nursery and that is something that came out in the inquest last year.
“We felt very strongly from the beginning that there were obviously failings and have waited for a long time for these to be prosecuted.”
The inquest jury heard the toddler had been unsupervised for 20 minutes before she was found, and that staff had broken the nursery’s policy by taking mobile phone calls while at work.
Ofsted apologised to Rhiya’s parents in May this year for taking more than two years to meet them.
Her parents complained that Ofsted had allowed the owners of the nursery - Casterbridge Care and Education - to re-register it under another name.
The change meant that previous concerns about health and safety were wiped from the public record, but the inspectorate has since placed a link on its website connecting to the previous reports.
Cllr John Knapman said: “I believe it is the responsibility of the council to prosecute having taken advise from a leading council.
Conal Walsh of Casterbridge said: “The charges as expressed are not at all clear. After we have had them clarified we will take a position.”
• The first hearing will be held on January 17 at Harlow Magistrates Court.
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