Shocking new details about the final hours of a three-year-old boy who died after he was allegedly left on a daycare minibus for six hours have been revealed in court.
The boy’s body was found at about 3.15pm last Tuesday at Edmonton, near Cairns in Queensland, in a tragedy that has left the local community reeling.
Bus driver and Goodstart Early Learning Centre manager Michael Glenn Lewis, 45, and Goodstart employee Dionne Batrice Grills, 34, are charged with the toddler’s manslaughter.
Cairns Magistrates Court was told on Monday the pair had ‘inexplicably’ forgotten about the child twice, the first occasion during the morning run.
The boy’s mother, Muriel Namok, called Goodstart to reveal her son had not been collected.
When Lewis and Grills returned to take him to daycare, the boy was strapped into a baby chair two spots back from the driver’s seat – and was the only child on the bus.
Dionne Grills 34, faced the Cairns Magistrates Court on Tuesday, charged with manslaughter
Cairns bus driver and child care director Michael Lewis and his colleague Dionne Grills are accused of leaving a three-year-old boy on a daycare centre bus in stifling heat for six hours
Senior Sergeant Maynard Marcum said the pair had somehow forgotten about the boy they had been sent to collect for a second time.
‘It was one child only and somehow in that 3.5km to 4.5km [to his daycare] the child was forgotten,’ Sen-Sgt Marcum told the court, according to The Courier Mail.
‘So when they arrived at the childcare centre the child was forgotten again.’
Sen-Sgt Marcum said Lewis then allegedly drove the bus to a meeting in Bayview Heights for several hours while the child was on board.
The toddler allegedly spent the next six hours sweltering inside the bus as the mercury rose to 36C.
Lewis discovered the boy’s lifeless body at the beginning of his afternoon school run at Hambledon State School at 3pm and immediately called Triple-0.
The court heard the young boy had been put in a child restraint two seats away from the driver of the minibus (pictured) but child carers allegedly neglected to take him out when they exited the vehicle
The boy was found in a bus outside Hambledon State School, just 1.7km from his daycare, Goodstart Early Learning, in Edmonton (pictured)
According to the transcript of the call read out to the court, Lewis told the emergency operator: ‘Oh my God, this kid is dead.
‘The child was left on the bus all day. So sorry, buddy.
‘I’m going to jail. Oh my God, my whole life is over.’
The court also heard allegations Lewis had ‘fraudulently’ signed in the young boy more than two hours before the bus arrived at the daycare centre.
Police allege that the boy had been signed in by Lewis at 7.35am last Tuesday on the Goodstart’s electronic sign-in system.
However, the boy was not collected from his home by the bus until 9.15am, and CCTV footage showed the bus did not arrive at the daycare site until 9.33am.
The shattered family (pictured) of the young boy was in Cairns Magistrates Court and heard the shocking details of their love one’s final moments
Police will allege that Lewis – who was granted bail by the Magistrates Court – was obtaining taxpayer-funded benefits as part of the ‘fraudulent’ sign-in process.
Earlier on Tuesday his colleague Grills – who had worked at the daycare centre for less than a month – also faced court.
Police allege Grills was on the bus with Mr Lewis for the morning run, before the centre manager made the grim discovery when he returned to the vehicle later that afternoon.
Grills was granted strict conditional bail and is forbidden from contacting her ex- colleagues, her co-accused or the dead child’s family, except through her lawyers.
The grim discovery was made on Stokes Street, Edmonton, in Far North Queensland, at 3.15pm on Tuesday. Pictured: the scene where police are investigating
Detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the child’s death
She was ordered to return to court on March 18.
The shattered family of the young boy was in court for the brief hearing.
A relative told the ABC they were ‘distraught’ about what had happened and called the young victim a ‘cheerful little boy’.
‘We’re all distraught at the moment. We just can’t believe this has happened. We just want answers,’ Thomas Namok said.
‘The last few days have just been terrible but everyone [in the family] will continue to support each other.
‘He was just a cheerful little boy … we would always laugh every time he’s around. That’s what I remember of him. It’s going to be sad he’s not going to be around anymore.’
Earlier on Tuesday, Acting Detective Inspector Jason Smith spoke to reporters outside the court, saying the charges should provide answers for the boy’s devastated family.
‘The manslaughter charge refers to an act or a mission which is negligent and has brought about the death of another person,’ he said.
‘The family is suitably distressed and very upset about this. And hopefully, now that the matter is before the court, they’ll get the answers that they need.’
Goodstart has formally stood aside the two workers. It’s pick-up and drop-off services remain suspended nationally, and its Edmonton centre is closed.