New date for teacher charged with student’s death

WESTERN BUREAU:

The much-anticipated committal hearing for Kerry-Ann Cunningham, the teacher charged in connection with the death of a student at the Anchovy Primary School in St James, was put off until December 5, when she appeared in the St James Parish Court yesterday.

Cunningham was charged with causing death by dangerous driving after the car she was reversing on the school's compound got out of control and struck down and killed five-year-old student Easton Stapleton in June this year.

It was expected that had the committal hearing occurred yesterday, the case against Cunningham would have been transferred to the St James Circuit Court. However, the new committal date was decided on after Cunningham's attorney, Jacqueline Minto, told the court that she was yet to receive the case's document bundle from the prosecution.

"I have not yet been served with the bundle, and I am told that I will be served today (yesterday)," Minto explained to presiding parish judge Sandria Wong-Small.

"What is the date that is agreed in this matter?" asked Wong-Small.

"December 5," Minto replied.

Wong-Small subsequently set December 5 as the new committal hearing date and extended Cunningham's bail to that time.

Once the committal hearing is held and the case is transferred from the parish court to the circuit court, it is expected that Cunningham will stand trial in relation to the charge against her.

According to reports, at approximately 4 p.m. on June 12, Cunningham was on the compound of the Anchovy Primary School and was reversing her motor car when she lost control of the vehicle. In addition to killing Stapleton, the car also crashed into a wall, which collapsed and injured a vendor.

Cunningham, who was so badly traumatised after the incident that she had to be hospitalised, was subsequently arrested and charged. However, she was offered station bail prior to making her first court appearance on Tuesday, July 10.