A grieving mother whose son died after being abandoned in a nursery minibus for six hours in sweltering temperatures is suing the operators of the childcare centre for psychological damages.
Muriel Gail Namok filed a civil claim for psychological trauma against Goodstart Early Learning Limited in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday.
Ms Namok’s three-year-old son, Maliq “Meeky” Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo, died inside a bus parked outside the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in the Edmonton suburb of Cairns on February 18, 2020.
The court has jurisdiction to award Ms. Namok $750,000 or more in civil damages to the national daycare provider, which has yet to file its defense.
Details of the claim have not yet been made public, but a press spokesperson for Ms Namok’s law firm… he told the Courier Mail They did not specify the dollar amount you are seeking.
Maliq ‘Meeky’ Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo died after being abandoned inside a bus parked outside the Goodstart Early Learning Center on February 18, 2020.
Maliq’s mother, Muriel Gail Namok, filed a civil claim for psychological trauma against Goodstart Early Learning Limited in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday.
Maliq had been picked up by the centre’s director, Michael Glenn Thomas Lewis, and another worker, Dionne Batrice Grills, at 9.20am as part of their first round of pick-ups of the day.
Prosecutors allege the two workers had “forgotten” to untie Maliq from his baby seat and only remembered when they found him still dead in the seat at 3:13 p.m.
Temperatures inside the bus that day likely reached 56°C during that time.
Lewis and Grills were tried for murder in the Supreme Court, but Grills was acquitted by a jury in April 2023.
Lewis, who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, was sentenced to six years in prison. He was eligible for parole beginning in August 2022.
Maliq was left on the bus from 9.20am to 3.13pm, with temperatures inside likely reaching 56C.
The Supreme Court has jurisdiction to award Ms. Namok $750,000 or more in civil damages from the national daycare provider, which has yet to file its defense.
Goodstart Early Learning Limited pleaded guilty to failing to adequately supervise children, failing to protect them from harm or danger that could cause them injury and failing to take reasonable steps to ensure documentation is accurate in the Cairns Magistrates Court in 2021.
Was fined $71,000.
No date has been set for Ms. Namok’s civil suit.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Goodstart Early Learning for comment.