Fatal school accident ‘let down’ by Metropolitan Police investigation

The headteacher of a school where two pupils died when a Land Rover ploughed into an end-of-term tea party has expressed disappointment at the Metropolitan Police investigation.

The Metropolitan Police Department has now launched a review of its investigation into the crash at the Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon, southwest London.

In their first interviews since the students’ deaths, the current headteacher and the former headteacher, who was in charge of the school at the time of the crash, told BBC News that police had failed to answer some of their key questions about the incident.

They say they are “angry, saddened and confused” by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision not to prosecute.

Current director Sharon Maher said they had to wait nearly a year for the decision, which came just 10 days before the anniversary of the girls’ deaths.

“We were both very surprised (by the CPS decision),” Ms Maher said.

Police said their officers had worked tirelessly to investigate every detail of the incident to ensure a thorough investigation, but Ms Maher questioned that.

“It didn’t look that way to us,” she said.

Former headteacher Helen Lowe added: “No, I think the words ‘thorough’ and ‘tireless’ suggest that you have a lot of evidence to pass on… but in some areas there was just a complete lack of knowledge, of basic information.”

Ms Lowe said she still tries to give police the benefit of the doubt and said the issue of their inability to answer questions from grieving families, parents and school staff could be resolved.

“Maybe they (the police) will remember the answers when they look at the evidence. But there were several cases where they weren’t sure if something had been done or they couldn’t remember.”

“At the moment it seems like they have abandoned me.”

Following the CPS decision, the girls’ families issued a statement saying that “no justice has been done, nor is there any evidence today that justice has been done”. They said they were “not convinced” that the investigation had been thorough.

Speaking to BBC News, Ms Lowe recalled the horror of the accident and was surprised that police did not question her as a witness.

“The children were screaming terribly, of course they were totally scared… I ran out and there was complete chaos. The car was so big it felt like a big truck,” she said.

“I saw immediately that Nuria was obviously very badly injured, and her mom was next to her… I just stayed with her until the ambulance came. And I talked to her about how wonderful she was, how much we loved her and how much mom and dad loved her and what a special girl she was.”

She said Nuria was a talented, cheeky and very talkative girl who was proud when her friends did something well. Selena was very capable and talented, she was humble and had a sparkle in her eyes, she added.