Woman to face court charged with death by dangerous driving after school crash
Claire Freemantle faces nine charges, including counts of causing death by dangerous driving of eight-year-olds Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau.
The driver of a 4×4 that crashed into a south-east London primary school will appear in court charged with causing death by dangerous driving after two eight-year-old girls were killed.
Claire Freemantle, 49, is accused of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and seven counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following the incident at The Study Prep school in Wimbledon in July 2023.
Schoolgirls Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau died in the incident as the school was celebrating the last day of the summer term.
Freemantle will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
Her lawyers previously said she would plead not guilty to the charges.
The charges came in May after the girls’ families criticised the Metropolitan Police for its investigation into the crash, with the force saying in June 2024 that the driver had suffered an epileptic seizure and would face no criminal charges.
Freemantle, of Edge Hill, Wimbledon, was rearrested and released under investigation in January last year.
The Met apologised for the way it initially dealt with the incident and the “impact on those affected”, adding it would be “fundamentally resetting how the Met investigates fatal and serious collisions”.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has been investigating officers for alleged racism in their handling of the case.
The watchdog previously said it was probing allegations that officers provided “false and misleading information” to the families following complaints about the standard of the investigation, with four serving officers, including a commander and a detective chief inspector, being investigated for gross misconduct.