Parents of girls killed in Land Rover crash ‘still waiting for truth'
Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau died while celebrating the last day of the summer term in the grounds of The Study prep school in Wimbledon, southwest London, after the vehicle smashed through a fence in July 2023.
The driver, Claire Freemantle, 48, was arrested after the incident but in June last year the police said she had experienced an epileptic seizure at the wheel and would face no criminal charges. That decision was criticised by the girls' families, who questioned the thoroughness of the investigation.
In October the Metropolitan Police said they would reopen the investigation after identifying 'lines of inquiry which required further examination'. On Sunday, at a remembrance event on Wimbledon Common, near the school, the girls' families expressed dismay at having to wait so long for answers.
Nuria's mother, Smera Chohan, said the families 'have had to fight very hard — harder than any victim should ever have had to', the BBC reported. 'But we remain committed to uncovering the truth about what happened. We still await answers for what happened on that fateful day … and with all your support, we will continue our fight until we have the answers we deserve.'
She added: 'Nothing is going to make our lives the same again … we were parents. I sometimes don't know if I'm a mother, I need to know why I'm not a mother and Nuria deserved a thorough investigation.'
Lau's father, Franky Lau, said: 'We are still waiting, we want a version of events that adds up.'
Helen Lowe, who was the school's head teacher at the time of the crash, said: 'There are still no answers to what happened on that day, and in that two-year period there have been a number of events which involved awful tragedy for children.
'But the people who perpetrated those events have had to be answerable — and we don't have that, which makes it, for the parents and for us, impossible to move on.'
Sharon Maher, the school's head teacher, said the quality of the new police investigation, which was launched in October, had 'a very different feel'. She added: 'They've taken our questions seriously … it's more thorough, it's detailed, that's all we've ever asked for.'
Freemantle was rearrested in January on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. She has expressed her 'deepest sorrow for the families who have suffered such dreadful loss and injury'. Last summer prosecutors said Freemantle had not previously had an epileptic seizure and was in good health before the crash. She is understood to have surrendered her driving licence.
Freemantle was driving away from Wimbledon Common when the £80,000, 3.5-tonne black-and-gold Land Rover mounted a kerb, crashed through a metal fence and collided with a building at the school.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford said: 'Our main priority is to ensure the lines of inquiry identified by the review are progressed. I would urge people to avoid speculation.'
The Met said: 'Our thoughts are with Nuria and Selena's loved ones at this particularly difficult time. Our investigation continues and we remain in regular contact with the families.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
31 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Egyptian asylum seeker dies trying to jump onto ship to Canada
A failed asylum seeker from Egypt drowned after he attempted to jump onto the ramp of a ship at Southampton docks in a bid to travel to Canada, an inquest has heard. Walid Gomaa, who was denied asylum status when he arrived in the UK in 2021, had told a friend he intended to travel across the Atlantic after living illegally in the UK for four years. The 36-year-old Egyptian national was spotted by members of the crew of the 200-metre MV Tannhauser attempting to board the vehicle-transporter ship which was due to sail to Halifax, Canada. Mr Gomaa was said to be trying to reach the ramp's finger-flaps - articulated extensions at the end of the vessel - as it was being raised ahead of sailing, the Winchester inquest was told. The operator paused the raising and saw Mr Gomaa walk away, but as they started lifting up the ramp again, the asylum seeker ran and jumped towards the ramp despite a crew member shouting at him to stop. Mr Gomaa then hit his head and fell into the sea at Empress Dock at the Queen Elizabeth II Terminal, where he drowned before a rescue boat could reach him on April 28 this year, the inquest heard. Coroner Jason Pegg said: 'Mr Gomaa attempted a second time, warnings were shouted to Mr Gomaa but he continued despite the warnings. 'Mr Gomaa jumped off the jetty towards the vessel. On this occasion Mr Gomaa was not able to grab hold of anything and fell towards the water between the jetty and the vessel itself.' The inquest heard a post-mortem examination found the cause of death was drowning, which resulted from a head injury and a fall into the water. Mr Pegg said a friend contacted police after Mr Gomaa had not been in contact and said Mr Gomaa had told him he planned to travel to Canada. The coroner said that when the friend asked how he was going to get there, Mr Gomaa replied: 'Do not worry about it.'
The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Disputed or debunked claims about migration and crime in the UK
Several politicians have got into hot water for promoting and repeating misleading data in recent months, particularly about migration and crime. There have been calls for the government and police forces to be more transparent about the figures to tackle misinformation and hysteria. Here are some of the high-profile claims that have been disputed or debunked. Conservative Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said on Radio 4's Today programme on Monday that 40% of sexual crimes in London last year were committed by foreign nationals. The claim was sourced from the Centre for Migration Control (CMC), a thinktank and blog that describes its purpose as 'controlling and reducing migration to Britain'. It is run by the Reform UK activist Robert Bates. CMC's claims come from the Metropolitan police's response to a freedom of information request. The Met issued a breakdown of the number of people who had been proceeded against – ie brought before a court – for sexual offences by nationality. This does not mean they have been found guilty of committing the offence as Jenrick said. For example, there were 14,242 defendants brought to court for sexual offences at magistrates courts in England and Wales in 2024, but 8,098 convictions, according to Ministry of Justice statistics. 'Some of the data we're seeing is very striking,' Jenrick also said. 'Afghans and Eritrean nationals are 20 times more likely to be convicted of a sexual crime than a British national.' The statistic about Afghans has been repeated by Reform UK's chair, Zia Yusuf. This is a muddled figure that also came from the CMC, after it submitted freedom of information requests to the MoJ. It is based on population statistics from 2021 but data on offences covering the years between 2021 and 2023. That means the statistic is likely to be based on a significant underestimate of the number of Afghan and Eritrean nationals in the UK – meaning the comparison with British rates is unlikely to be 20 times as high. Immigration to the UK from Afghanistan has risen significantly since 2021 because of the Taliban's return to power, while Eritrean migration has also risen due to wars in Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia. The Guardian contacted Jenrick for comment. Nick Timothy, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, deleted a post on X this week that accused the Metropolitan police of 'facilitating illegal working'. He had shared a photo that appeared to show police officers escorting a Deliveroo driver through a crowd of protesters outside a hotel. The original post claimed to depict how 'an illegal Deliveroo worker is literally getting a full police escort'. The Met replied that 'this person was delivering to the hotel, they were not being accommodated there. There is no evidence to suggest they were working illegally. They were surrounded and intimidated by those gathered outside and officers intervened to make sure they got away safely.' The context is that companies including Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats have committed to tighten security checks after reports some asylum seekers were working illegally as couriers. Earlier this year, there was a controversy over a Telegraph front page report that said as many as one in 12 people living in London were illegal immigrants. The story included quotes from Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary, who called the figures 'deeply alarming' and said it was 'totally unacceptable to have these numbers of illegal immigrants in the UK'. The Telegraph and several other newspapers had to issue corrections for misrepresenting the findings in several ways. The one in 12 statistic was based on an unpublished study commissioned by Thames Water to measure the demand for water supply. The study concluded that there could be between 390,355 and 585,533 irregular – not illegal – migrants in and around London. The Telegraph used the higher figure and divided it by the 7 million population living in specific 'water resource zones', rather than the 9 million population of London. Most importantly, the Thames Water study was seeking to estimate the number of people who use water that are not in official statistics so included not just migrants but those with second homes, visitors and tourists. It also included people given indefinite leave to remain, as well as some British-born children of migrants with irregular status. The most recent official estimates for the number of irregular migrants in the UK date from 2017. The Pew Research Center said the number was between 800,000 to 1.2 million, while the Greater London Authority's central estimate for the whole of the UK was 674,000 – going up to 809,000 when including UK-born children of unauthorised migrants. At a press conference on Monday, Nigel Farage told TV crews that he would discuss an open criminal investigation – the alleged rape of a child. But he said there would be nothing in the press conference that would go against contempt of court laws. Two men have been charged in connection with the alleged crime. When an alleged perpetrator has been charged, there are strict rules about what can be reported, to prevent prejudicing and potentially collapsing a trial. However, the leader of Warwickshire county council, George Finch, later made a number of references, including referring to the men as 'criminals' when they have not been found guilty. Farage then defended Finch when questioned as to whether he had broken contempt laws, saying it was 'good' that he had become 'slightly emotional'. The issue of naming the race of alleged perpetrators has been in the public eye since a baseless social media conspiracy theory surrounding Axel Rudakubana, the Southport murderer. After he killed three young children in July 2024, it was purported on social media that authorities were covering up his true place of birth. Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff to Rwandan parents, was falsely portrayed in a variety of social media posts as being a Muslim asylum seeker.
The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Tory and Reform politicians endanger trials with immigration ‘hysteria', say former ministers
Conservative and Reform UK politicians are fuelling 'hysteria and anger' over immigration, with criminal trials put at risk of collapse, former ministers and police have warned. Protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers have spread across the country in recent weeks, while debate about immigration – including instances of misinformation – has intensified. At a Reform press conference on Monday, a man awaiting trial was referred to as 'the criminal' by a Reform council leader despite not yet being convicted of any crime. Questioned on whether contempt laws had been broken, the party's leader, Nigel Farage, said it was 'good' that the council leader had become 'slightly emotional'. Amid growing pressure, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Tuesday that she had asked for a change in official guidance to permit police to release the ethnicity or immigration status of criminal suspects. Dominic Grieve, a former Conservative attorney general, told the Guardian he was concerned about the 'fuelling of hysteria by politicians' and said some were breaking the law by commenting on future trials in serious cases such as rape and abduction. Certain politicians 'seem to have thrown the rulebook in the bonfire', he said. Britain's former top counter-terrorism chief warned that comments from Farage and the Tory shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, risked 'unwittingly' inciting violence, accusing them of copying Donald Trump's techniques by hyping fears over immigration to try to win votes. Neil Basu, a former assistant commissioner with the Metropolitan police, said it was 'appealing to the worst kind of populist sentiment'. Asked if such rhetoric risks contributing to a risk of last summer's violence, Basu said: 'Yes … they should be very careful about the language they use. It is capable, demonstrably, of causing violence.' The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said it was time for the attorney general, Richard Hermer, to issue a formal warning to Farage about comments on live criminal cases. 'Farage and the Conservatives are … openly trying to tear down our justice system, just as the Maga movement has done in the US,' Davey said. 'Irresponsible comments like these put prosecutions at risk and could let dangerous criminals walk free. The attorney general must step in and send a formal warning to Farage that contempt of court will not be tolerated.' Others who appealed for a change in tone included the former justice secretaries Robert Buckland, David Gauke and Charlie Falconer, as well as the former chair of the justice select committee, Sir Bob Neill, who said they were worried about the febrile environment – though several said more transparency from police over the ethnicity of suspects was also now necessary to calm tensions. The row over information withheld by police has been reignited after the 19-year-old Reform leader of Warwickshire county council, George Finch, said police were refusing to confirm details of two suspects charged after an alleged rape. Among other examples cited by critics was data used by Jenrick that 40% of all of the sexual crimes were committed by foreign nationals last year. The number of convictions is significantly lower. Grieve said he was extremely concerned about the consequence of the frenzied atmosphere on contempt of court laws, also citing the trial of two British Pakistani men over a police assault at Manchester airport. 'With social media, contempt of court has gone out of the window,' he said. 'It seems to be that it's a complete free for all, and for politicians who ought to know better to participate in this is actually scandalous. Certainly with some of the recent cases, politicians seem to have thrown the rulebook in the bonfire.' Buckland said he had supported changes to make the nationality of offenders publicly available, but he was concerned about the potential for misinformation. 'Politicians have a responsibility to use objective and tested data rather than distorted or incomplete information,' he said. Neill, a former Tory MP, said he was in favour of more transparency but alarmed at the willingness of politicians to risk undermining the courts. 'I'm afraid some people, including people in elected office, frankly do not understand the importance of the checks and balances in our system, which includes protecting the jury system,' he said. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The former Labour justice secretary Charlie Falconer said: 'The opposition feel the need the whole time to get headlines by constantly describing things in an extremist way, all the time it's saying, 'society will be on the verge of collapse unless something is done,'' he said. 'The language is much, much worse than it ever was five years ago. There's a more angry electorate, and there's too many politicians willing to use lurid language.' A Home Office source said it was vital that there was 'greater clarity on how contempt of court laws work alongside social media and today's communication environment', but stopped short of issuing warnings to politicians. Hermer has so far declined to intervene to warn politicians on the risks of potentially collapsing criminal trials. In a sign of how far misinformation has spread, polling from YouGov found the British public 'dramatically overestimate' the number of illegal migrants to the UK. Almost half of Britons – 47% – think there are more migrants staying in the UK illegally rather than legally, including about a third who believe it is 'much higher'. There are varied estimates of the numbers of those living in the UK without formal status, which is difficult to calculate, but the Migration Observatory's most recent figures said it was up to 1.3 million. But legal migration is far higher – about 10.7 million people in the UK were born in a different country. Attitudes to migration have significantly hardened. About 45% of Britons say they would support 'admitting no more new migrants, and requiring large numbers of migrants who came to the UK in recent years to leave'. Rights groups including Amnesty International have cautioned against releasing suspects' ethnicities, accusing the government of 'choosing to pour fuel on the fire of dangerous narratives, instead of taking action to address racism and hostility'. Cooper said the government had asked the Law Commission to review the guidance six months ago and expected it to conclude in the autumn. 'We do think the guidance needs to change,' she said, adding that it was already the case that where police deemed it necessary more information on nationality was released.
