Community
15 July, 2024
Childcare law suit
THE mother of a three-year-old boy who died after being left on a bus at a Cairns childcare centre is suing the centre for negligence in relation to the permanent psychiatric injuries she now suffers.
Muriel Namok’s son Maliq ‘Meeky’ Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo died after he was left on a minibus by staff at the Goodstart Early Learning Centre at Edmonton on February 18, 2020.
Meeky was collected at home that day by centre director Michael Glenn Lewis and educator Dionee Beatrice Grills. Although he made it to the childcare centre, he was forgotten by the staff and never got off the bus. He was found dead still buckled in his seatbelt at the back of the minibus six hours later.
A statement of claim filed in the Queensland Supreme Court by Slater and Gordon Lawyers alleges that the centre breached its duty of care it owed Meeky and his mother and is vicariously liable for the post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder Ms Namok now suffers due to the death of her youngest child.
It is understood the claim is for $750,000. It alleges his death and the way he died has severely impacted his mother’s earning capacity and will require her to received ongoing medication, medical treatment and counselling.
Mr Lewis pleaded guilty to manslaughter on February 16, 2021 and is serving a six-year prison sentence. Ms Grills was acquitted by a jury in 2022 of the same charge. Goodstart Early Learning was fined $71,000 after pleading guilty in January 2023 to failing to adequately supervise children, failing to protect children from harm/hazard likely to cause injury and failing to take reasonable steps to ensure documentation is accurate.
The legal claim states that a reasonable person would have taken precautions to prevent his death, such as having procedures to ensure that transport services were adequately checked to make sure children were not locked inside, and/or a process whereby staff kept a list of children who entered and exited the transport service upon arrival at the facility.
Ms Namok said she missed her only son terribly and would “never get over his death.”
“No amount of compensation will ever amount to my son’s life, but it may help ease the financial pressure we’re now under because of his death and the impact it has had, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she said.
Ms Namok’s lawyer, Stuart Lester from Slater and Gordon, described Meeky’s death as “tragic” and “preventable”.
