A woman who crashed a Land Rover into a prep school in Wimbledon, killing two 8-year-old girls, will not be prosecuted after it emerged she had suffered from undiagnosed epilepsy.
Selena Lau and Nuria Sajjad were killed when Claire Freemantle’s car crashed through the fence surrounding The Study Prep School on July 6, 2023.
On Wednesday the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced the decision not to prosecute and said Ms. Freemantle is believed to have suffered an epileptic seizure at the wheel.
But she had not been diagnosed with epilepsy prior to the accident and was not therefore criminally liable for the accident.
Jaswant Narwal, chief crown prosecutor with oversight of the CPS’s London homicide unit, said, “We have carefully considered this complex and sensitive case, taking into consideration all the material gathered as part of the lengthy and detailed police investigation.”
Prosecution ‘Not in the Public Interest’
Mr. Narwal said, “Because there is nothing to suggest the driver could have done anything to predict or prevent this tragedy, it is not in the public interest to pursue a criminal prosecution.”
Ms. Freemantle said she had “no recollection of what took place” after she lost consciousness.
In a statement, she said: “I can only express my deepest sorrow for the families who have suffered such dreadful loss and injury. As a mother, I understand there can be no words that adequately express the pain and loss resulting from what happened in those horrendous moments while I was unconscious.”
But the parents of the dead girls issued a statement in which they said, “There are questions that remain unanswered.”
In the statement, Nuria’s parents Sajjad Butt and Smera Chohan, and Selena’s parents, Franky Lau and Jessie Deng, said: “We remain unconvinced that the investigation has been conducted thoroughly. We remain unconvinced that the Crown Prosecution Service have reached a decision based on all the facts.”
“Justice has neither been done, nor has been seen to be done today. Nuria and Selena deserved better,” they added.
Clare Pelham, chief executive of the Epilepsy Society, said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times: “Epilepsy can be diagnosed at any stage of a person’s life and a first seizure may happen without warning. As many as one in 20 people will have a one-off epileptic seizure at some time in their life.”
“People with epilepsy whose seizures are not controlled by medications must stop driving and surrender their driving licence. But this tragedy highlights an unimaginable consequence of potentially a first seizure with no warning,” she added.
