Nestling on the edge of south-west London, Wimbledon Common has long been a haven for those seeking respite from the stresses and strains of life in the city.
It was there that this week, after being re-arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and released on bail pending further investigations, Claire Freemantle walked her dogs with her investment banker husband, just a stone’s throw away from their £4 million home.
Few who passed the couple would have known that the 48-year-old mother-of-three was the woman who was behind the wheel of the Land Rover Defender which crashed into a nearby prep school in July 2023, killing two eight-year-old girls and injuring more than a dozen others.
But then information about this tragic case has been in agonisingly short supply ever since that terrible day 18 months ago.
The events of this week are just the latest twist in a tortuous ongoing ordeal for the families of the little girls who died.
Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau were enjoying an end-of-term family tea party at The Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon when Mrs Freemantle’s vehicle smashed through a fence and into the grounds at 9.54am on July 6.
Selena died at the scene, while Nuria died from her injuries in hospital three days later. Ten others were taken to hospital, including Nuria’s mother, who was badly injured.
Plunged into a lifetime of grief, unable to comprehend how their daughters could have died in such horrific circumstances, Selena’s parents, Franky Lau and Jessie Deng, and Nuria’s parents, Sajjad Butt and Smera Chohan, have been searching for answers ever since – a continuing quest which they bravely describe as ‘the pursuit of truth’.
Selena Lau, 8, died at the scene when a Land Rover Defender crashed into her prep school in July 2023 as she enjoyed an end-of-term family tea party
For while the incident which snatched away their beloved daughters’ lives took place in the blink of an eye, the ensuing legal process has, for them, been unbearably slow and, at times, baffling.
An initial year-long investigation, often conducted without any updates for the family, was followed by the news from prosecutors in June last year that Claire Freemantle would face no charges.
Having previously been in good health, she had, they announced, suffered an epileptic seizure for the first time while at the wheel of her £70,000, 2.5-ton vehicle.
The Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘In reaching this decision we have considered the driver’s full medical records, obtained by police, and received evidence from neurological specialists, who agreed that the driver had a seizure and that this was the first such medical episode she had experienced.’
No further details of the specialists or their evidence was revealed, but the CPS did state that Mrs Freemantle ‘had no previously diagnosed medical condition’ before the tragedy.
The statement added: ‘Because there is nothing to suggest the driver could have done anything to predict or prevent this tragedy, it is not in the public interest to pursue a criminal prosecution.’
One source, who spoke to the Wimbledon Guardian after the incident, described Mrs Freemantle as ‘in a delirious condition’ after the accident and said that she had ‘bitten through her tongue’.
Selena and Nuria’s families said they remained ‘unconvinced’ that the investigation had been conducted thoroughly – in part because it seemed several key witnesses had not been interviewed. An internal police review led to the case being reopened last October, and the Metropolitan Police placed one of their most experienced officers in charge.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford is head of the force’s Specialist Crime Review Group and came to prominence during the 2023 search for Mark Gordon and Constance Marten, the couple who went on the run with their newborn infant and later concealed the baby’s body.
Having taken over the Wimbledon school investigation at the end of last year, he is said to have identified ‘lines of inquiry’ which require further examination.
Nuria Sajjad, also 8, died from her injuries in hospital three days later
Claire Freemantle’s Land Rover crashed into a tea party at The Study Preparatory School in Wimbledon
But with a fresh appeal for witnesses who have yet to speak to police – and some who were there that day saying they were never interviewed – serious questions are now being asked about how this case has been handled from the start.
Why, given the extent of this almost unthinkable tragedy, which made headline news across the world, was it initially left to the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command, a unit jointly funded by Transport for London (TfL), to investigate the incident?
And what are we to make of the Met’s claim last year that delays in the investigation were down to a lack of resources and specialist ‘forensic collision investigators’, as well as ‘issues regarding training’?
Above all, how can it be that, 18 months on, police are still looking for witnesses when, on the day in question, there were dozens of parents and staff in the school grounds – and so many police, armed response units and emergency service vehicles descended on the area around Wimbledon’s Camp Road that at first locals and members of the neighbouring Royal Wimbledon Golf Club feared there had been a terrorist attack?
‘When children get killed, you would like to think the police are going to turn over every stone,’ a resident living close to the school told the Mail this week.
‘If I was a parent, I would expect that. I can’t understand why the initial police investigation was closed so quickly.’
On the morning of July 6, 2023, pupils at The Study, a small girls’ prep school on the edge of Wimbledon Common, had been celebrating the final day of term with a concert and a picnic in the playground.
Nuria’s parents, Sajjad Butt and Smera Chohan, have been searching for answers ever since – a continuing quest which they bravely describe as ‘the pursuit of truth’
Moments before Mrs Freemantle’s gold Land Rover Defender came crashing through a wooden fence, Selena’s parents filmed their daughter playing The Entertainer by Scott Joplin on the school piano.
Meanwhile, Nuria, watched by her parents, played the recorder and read out a list of her hopes for the forthcoming summer holiday. Pupils and their parents then went outside into the sunshine for refreshments, unaware of the horror about to unfold.
Less than a minute before the first 999 call was placed, Nuria and her mother, Smera, were posing for a photograph together. Nuria’s father, Sajjad, had stepped away for a moment to get coffee but witnessed what followed.
Teachers, parents and around 40 pupils scattered as Mrs Freemantle’s Land Rover shot across the lawn before colliding with a building. As well as hitting Selena and Nuria, 47-year-old Smera was also left in a critical condition which meant that in hospital, three days later, she was unable to give her dying daughter a hug.
In the aftermath of the incident, police interviewed more than 150 witnesses, scanned CCTV footage, conducted tests on the vehicle and interviewed Mrs Freemantle. She has been represented by Payne Hicks Beach, a high-profile London law firm which has previously represented the likes of Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York, the late Princess Diana and Sir Paul McCartney.
But then came a deafening silence about the investigation, which the families of Nuria and Selena said had left them living in ‘horror’.
Selena’s parents said they had received no update on the investigation in February 2024. Her father Franky told TalkTV that the family did not ‘understand why it’s taking so long for an incident that everyone has seen’.
He said: ‘I like to think I have faith in the police but at this point we don’t have much confidence. We just want answers, we want justice for our daughter.’
Her mother Jessie added: ‘You can’t have two innocent children lose their lives and all the questions not answered.
‘The longer it goes on, the more suspicious it gets in our minds, because we’re always thinking: ‘Why? Why is it taking so long?’ ‘
In response, Detective Chief Superintendent Clair Kelland, in charge of policing for south-west London, said that an ‘extensive investigation’ was being carried out.
She added: ‘Specialist detectives are working tirelessly to establish the circumstances of that day, including analysing CCTV and examining the expert report from forensic collision investigators.’Â
Just two months later in April, however, the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, wrote to Trevor Sterling, the solicitor representing the two girls’ parents, and apologised for the fact that the investigation was ‘not happening as quickly as the families would hope’.
Incredibly, he blamed a backlog of road-death accidents – the force investigates around 100 fatal collisions a year, and these are dealt with in turn – as well as a lack of accredited professionals to analyse them.
‘There is currently only one path to qualify as a forensic collision investigator available in the UK, which is a six-year, part-time course from De Montfort University,’ he wrote in the April 2024 letter. ‘This means there are very few individuals who have the specialist skills needed to progress these investigations.’
Flowers and toys placed outside the small girls’ prep school on the edge of Wimbledon Common
The families’ solicitor Trevor Sterling, a senior partner at Moore Barlow, wrote to the Mayor of London and chairman of TfL, Sadiq Khan, warning that: ‘Delay is the enemy of justice. These processes need to be expedited, especially in cases of public interest where children have died.’
In June last year, nearly a year after the girls’ deaths, came the announcement that Mrs Freemantle would face no charges.
The news was a shock to Helen Lowe, who was the school’s acting headteacher at the time of the crash. She had comforted a dying Nuria and seen Mrs Freemantle get out of her car and yet, extraordinarily, had still not been interviewed by police despite providing them with her contact details.
‘I sort of assumed we would be [contacted] and we haven’t,’ she said at the time.
The mental and physical state of the driver is just one of several areas of concern for the families of the children who died and those who were injured.
After the announcement, Selena and Nuria’s families and the school held meetings with the Met on three different occasions to raise questions about the investigation.
According to Ms Lowe: ‘There were fundamental questions they couldn’t answer. I understand there are questions around the evidence that the police are unable to answer for legal reasons. But I was hoping to come away with a feeling… that no stone has been left unturned. And, for a number of reasons, I didn’t.’
Following these meetings, the Met confirmed that the Specialist Crime Review Group would review the case to identify any signs of ‘insufficiency’ or ‘opportunity for further investigation’.
In October last year the investigation was reopened, resulting in Mrs Freemantle’s rearrest this week.
Det Supt Basford made a fresh appeal for witnesses on Tuesday, saying he ‘believed there were people in the local area who have not been spoken to by police and remain unidentified’.
That statement came as a surprise to those living in the quiet streets around The Study school. As one local mother named Emma put it this week: ‘I don’t understand how the police can do all of their investigation and shut it down and open it up again. It makes a mockery of the original investigation.’
Lisa Denver, who has lived in the area for more than 20 years, said: ‘The crash affected the whole community. Children in my road go to that school. I couldn’t believe that, for months and months, the police didn’t tell the victims’ families anything. I thought that was shocking.’
Another resident said: ‘It felt to us that the initial investigation was closed very quickly. It felt like a bit of a whitewash. It struck us that it was dismissed quite quickly as a medical incident. I think it’s right they reopen the investigation.’
Following Mrs Freemantle’s rearrest, Nuria and Selena’s families released a statement this week.
‘We welcomed the reopening of the investigation in October 2024 by the Metropolitan Police into the death of our beautiful girls and the harm caused to those injured and who witnessed the tragedy on that sunny July day.
‘It is important that this investigation runs its course unhindered and that each step taken is done so in pursuit of truth and the full facts.’
The Study’s headteacher Sharon Maher and former interim head Ms Lowe said they had ‘always wanted a full and thorough investigation to determine what led to the terrible events’.
They added: ‘The new investigation by the Met Police has been very much welcomed and supported by the school and we would like to echo their request for any witnesses with information who are yet to speak to the police to please contact them.’
Mrs Freemantle has been bailed until April. Whether or not she will be charged remains to be seen. She previously expressed her ‘deepest sorrow’ about the deaths of Nuria and Selena but said she had ‘no recollection’ of the accident.
Aside from any criminal investigation, there is still the matter of inquests into the girls’ deaths and potential civil litigation. Given that the parents of Nuria and Selena may never be able to come to terms with the way their lives were destroyed in a matter of seconds, the very least they deserve is answers.
