Berry Patch Preschool bosses Helen Jacobs, Melinda Brown testify in court

A baby who died after being found unresponsive in her cot at a northwest Sydney childcare centre was not checked for three hours, a court has heard. Find out what the facility’s bosses said in court.

Anet Eyvazians, Jozef Maragol and their daughter Maragol who died four years ago after being found unresponsive at her childcare centre.

A 16-month-old baby was not checked for three hours at The Berry Patch Preschool on the day she died, a court has heard, as the facility’s policies for cot checks faced more scrutiny.

At Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, the Kellyville Ridge centre’s owner, Helen Elizabeth Jacobs, testified.

She is fighting supervision and care charges that were laid after an investigation following the death of Arianna Maragol on August 24, 2018.

Ms Jacobs has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, which include three counts of not adequately supervising children in care of service, and do not relate to responsibility for the baby’s death.

Melinda Mary Brown, who told the court she was responsible for policies, procedures and “everything” at the centre, also testified in the case that the Education Department is prosecuting. She does not face charges and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

During a summary of the preschool’s CCTV footage from August 17, 21 and 24, prosecutor Ken Averre told the court Arianna was not checked in her cot room between 9.01am and 12.05pm on August 24. She was rushed to Westmead Hospital but died shortly after 1.20pm.

Jozef Maragol and his daughter Maragol at her first and only Christmas.

Mr Averre said an educator walked into the room during the three hours but not to physically check on Arianna.

The prosecution told the court how there were inadequate checks on sleeping babies, “significant limitations” on workers to use monitors to supervise children and, on occasions, babies were not visible on CCTV, which was “insufficient”.

The court heard how there were no checks on a baby’s skin colour or rate of breathing.

“The prosecution’s submission is there has to be, at some stage, a check in relation to the colour of the skin of a child, the breathing of a child, and that’s a policy or procedure that ought to have been in place,’’ Mr Averre said.

He said there was “a real conflict about what procedure was for cot checks” among staff and

“each educator had their own view for implementing cot checks”.

Arianna Maragol was 16 months old when she died.

The footage played to the court showed babies went long intervals without being checked in cots, including two hours, 1 hour and 54 minutes and 1 hour and 40 minutes.

The prosecution told the court footage also showed a child pulled at their sheet, which was supposed to be tucked in under Red Nose regulations.

At the time of the tragedy, the childcare centre was implementing a 15-minute trial for cot checks instead of its usual policy of 10 minutes, which was initially set to “strive for excellence”.

The prosecution told the court Ms Brown and Ms Jacobs only followed guidelines from Red Nose, the Education Department and METS Training Services, but they failed to enforce any “real procedures” about cot checks.

When Ms Jacobs was asked by barrister Brendan Searson why the August 17 footage showed it had been two hours since an educator checked on children, she said there was no regulation or law on how cot checks should be done.

“I don’t know why these educators didn’t go in,’’ she said.

Helen Elizabeth Jacobs leaves Downing Centre Local Court on the first day of the hearing.

“They would have made this decision … but I probably would have had to ask that educator specifically.

“There was no expectation from the (Education) department. There was no expectation from Red Nose. There was no expectation from training bodies such as METS.’’

The former primary school teacher said Red Nose guidelines, such as placing babies on their backs and at the bottom of the cot, were implemented to ensure safety and staff would go into rooms to check on children.

“The educators did know the children in their care,’’ she said.

“They knew their stages of development.’’

She said the Education Department visited Berry Patch in 2014, “so under my assumption, that meant we were a low-risk centre’’.

During Ms Brown’s testimony, she said staff received training through Red Nose, and they were equipped to make decisions about checking on babies in cots.

“They all had that information at their disposal, so a cot check for them was using all the information they had, plus their professional training … whether they should go into the room was up to them, and that’s why it was so open for them to make decisions.’’

The court also heard how CCTV was implemented at Berry Patch because there was a “big push” from the Education Department to ensure children were not disturbed and got enough sleep for their developmental age.

The prosecution asked Ms Brown if she was prepared to take any responsibility for her policies.

She responded: “I’m prepared to say our procedures were reviewed by the Department of Education less than eight months after (the death).’’

“The Department of Education waited 1 ½ years to do an investigation because we were a low-risk centre.’’

The hearing continues.