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A woman who drove a Land Rover into a tea party outside a London primary school in 2023, killing two 8-year-old girls, was charged with dangerous driving, authorities said. Prosecutors said they filed charges against Claire Freemantle, 49, after a reopened police investigation led them to discover new evidence.
According to prosecutors, they charged Freemantle with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and seven counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Freemantle’s defense lawyers said she will plead not guilty when she appears for her first court appearance on June 16 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The charging decision marked a reversal from an earlier decision not to charge Freemantle after prosecutors concluded she had an epileptic seizure. The AP report said Freemantle had issued a statement expressing “deepest sorrow” and saying she had no recollection of what occurred.
The Metropolitan Police said it reopened its investigation after previously referring the matter in a different way, and prosecutors said the investigation surfaced new evidence that changed their assessment. It was not clear what that new evidence was from the account provided.
The AP report said the renewed investigation followed complaints by the parents of Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau, who were killed in the crash outside the private Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon, south London, on July 6, 2023. The crash occurred when the school was holding a tea party celebrating the last day of classes.
At the scene, more than a dozen people were treated for injuries, and 10 were taken to hospital for treatment, the report said. Investigators said the driver plowed through a fence and into the side of the school building.
In a separate development, the Metropolitan Police apologized for how it initially treated the crash and said it referred its own officers to a watchdog agency looking into police misconduct, according to the AP report.