Prosecutors in London charged a 49-year-old woman with dangerous driving on Friday, more than two years after her Land Rover plowed into a tea party outside a Wimbledon primary school, killing two 8-year-old girls and injuring at least seven other people.
Claire Freemantle faces two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and seven counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, authorities said. The charges mark a reversal of the original decision not to prosecute, which prosecutors had attributed to Freemantle experiencing an epileptic seizure at the wheel.
The Metropolitan Police apologized for how it initially handled the crash and said it had referred its own officers to a watchdog agency looking into police misconduct. The force reopened its investigation after complaints from the parents of the two girls who were killed: Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau.
The crash occurred on July 6, 2023, the last day of classes at the private Study Preparatory School. Freemantle’s vehicle drove through a fence and struck the side of the school building while children and families were gathered for an end-of-year tea party. More than a dozen people were treated for injuries at the scene, and ten, including several pupils, were taken to the hospital.
Freemantle had previously issued a statement expressing her “deepest sorrow” but said she had no recollection of what occurred. Her defense lawyers said Friday that she will plead not guilty when she makes her first court appearance on June 16 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. They questioned why the Crown Prosecution Service reversed its original decision, saying it was not yet clear what new evidence police had found.
The Metropolitan Police did not disclose details of the new evidence that led to the charges. The force’s apology and the referral of officers to the Independent Office for Police Conduct continue a reckoning over the initial investigation, which the victims’ families had criticized as insufficient.