Hearing continues into supervision and care charges laid following death of Berry Patch baby

Three days before a baby died after being found unresponsive during a nap, children sleeping in a cot room went two hours without being checked, a court has heard.

Arianna Maragol died when she was 16 months old.

Babies sleeping in one of the cot rooms at a Kellyville Ridge childcare centre were not checked for two hours just a few days before a 16-month-old was found unresponsive, a court has heard.

The Berry Patch Preschool’s owner Helen Elizabeth Jacobs is fighting supervision and care charges that were laid after an investigation following the death of 16-month-old Arianna Maragol in August 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 child’s death four years ago.

At Downing Centre Local Court on Monday, CCTV footage from August 21, 2018 was played.

The footage was just days before the tragic incident and, showed two hours had lapsed from 1.37pm since childcare worker Gabrielle Kahill did not check on the children in the room of the centre.

Ms Kahill was the carer in charge of Arianna when she died three days later after being found unresponsive during a nap at the Keirle Rd centre. Ms Kahill is not accused of any wrongdoing and does not face charges.

Anet Eyvazians and her daughter Arianna.

After viewing the footage on Monday, Magistrate David Price asked the prosecution and defence if his interpretation of the time gap was accurate, and both agreed it was correct.

Last week, the court heard how the childcare centre’s policy was to check on children every 10 minutes but a trial for 15 minutes was being undertaken.

The NSW Education Department is prosecuting the case.

On Monday, the prosecution maintained that Ms Kahill did not physically go into a cot room to check on Arianna on August 24 four years ago. The prosecution also alleged she did not visually check on the baby using an app.

However, the defence maintains that visual checks could have been conducted using the app which allows the baby to be monitored while sleeping.

Berry Patch worker Gabrielle Kahill.

Helen Elizabeth Jacobs court with barrister Brendan Searson (front).

Arianna’s parents Jozef Maragol and Anet Eyvazians have not yet attended court and are not required to attend the hearing.

They remain devastated about the death of their first born child, who came into the world two weeks shy of their 10th wedding anniversary.

“So we waited for so many years just to make sure we provided every opportunity to her,’’ Mr Maragol said.

“She was just a normal kid, just a normal healthy kid.”

Their second child, Samuel, was born on June 18, 2019.

“It’s quite difficult for us,’’ Mr Maragol said.

“We had a normal life but today is everything but normal.

“It seems like everyone else has moved on but we’re stuck on the 24th of August, 2018.’’