‘I need to get home’: Mother accused of daycare hit-and-run death granted bail to be with kids

A mother accused of the “disturbing” hit-and-run murder of her partner’s ex-girlfriend outside a Logan childcare centre has been granted bail.

The victim, Kiesha Thompson, was walking home on the footpath after dropping her young daughter at daycare in Daisy Hill, south of Brisbane, when she was struck by a Toyota Prado four-wheel-drive with false licence plates in July.

The 23-year-old mother died in hospital later that night.

Police allege it was deliberate.

The alleged driver was 24-year-old Larissa Rita Mae-Leigh Sant.

Sant and her partner Tyler Scott William James were later charged with murder.

James and Thompson were in an intimate relationship in the months before the alleged murder, police said.

Police allege Kiesha Thompson, 23, was deliberately run down on the side of the road after she dropped her daughter at daycare.

Detective Inspector Chris Knight said James was allegedly involved in the planning of the murder, but Sant was behind the wheel of the car.

Sant applied for bail in Brisbane’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, where the prosecution said she had changed the licence plates on the Toyota Prado before the alleged murder.

Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said Sant found a similar model vehicle on Facebook Marketplace and used its plates.

She swapped the plates a couple of days earlier at a Logan shopping centre and changed them back after the alleged murder.

“There is consistency in the way of the modus operandi,” the prosecutor said.

Justice Peter Davis accepted the prosecution’s concession that it would have to prove Sant was the driver and had intent to kill the 23-year-old mother.

“The Crown have evidence which taken on its face may suggest that there was a good deal of planning by Ms Sant and the gentleman involved before the incident where Ms Thompson died,” the judge said.

“There are some disturbing aspects of the case. It seems the Prado was wearing a false number plate and that after the running down the number plate was changed back to its legitimate one.

“There is evidence which certainly links the Prado to the accident.”

Sant’s defence lawyer said the accused was a mother of three children all under the age of six and was a low flight risk.

She had no criminal history or passport and had never left the country, the court heard.

“The submission is that it’s unrealistic to think she is going to pack up three children under six and escape the jurisdiction,” the judge said.

Sant was supported by family at court, with the prosecution reading letters she had written to them while in custody.

“I can’t be away from them for that long ... I need to get home to them,” Sant wrote of her children.

“I don’t want to spend 15 years in here ... I can’t get over the fact that I could very well miss out on the kids’ lives.”

Sant was granted bail on strict conditions and must wear a GPS tracking device.

AAP

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