Why is the Wimbledon school crash investigation not getting more attention?

[Eesha]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15731159/Eleven-Met-Officers-probed-Wimbledon-crash-killed-schoolgirls.html

Why isnt this bigger news? This school is similar to mine, and it seems like they have great lawyers who got her off.

Then why on earth pay so much in school fees? The kids will be bullied for being poor!

They aren’t poor. And their kid isn’t bullied. What a weird thing to say. It’s less than the cost of one nursery place a month, some parents just choose to carry that payment on and private school their kids. There is a whole mix. Especially in London where sometimes the state schooling options aren’t so great, depending where you live and what catchment

I’m responding to all your posts since you’re so hell bent on making it out that Freemantle’s wealth has nothing to do with her essentially getting away with this for the moment that is.

A simple google search will tell you she’s married to a high level employee at an international corporate bank. That level of wealth is NOT comparable to two professionals who can afford fees for a private school. Freemantles would have connections and access to plenty of legal and none legal resources to help minimise the consequence for her. Given 11 police officers are now being investigated for gross misconduct suggests that they have cocked up now whether the two are connected will remain to be seen.

I do however agree that this isn’t necessarily rich vs poor and to be honest it is probably the reason why it’s not gone away for Freemantle. Had she ploughed into state primary school and the kids didn’t come from affluent backgrounds it is unlikely they would have re opened the investigation. I think much to the gripe of the Freemantle’s the parents in this matter are most likely well off professionals who have been able to access legal advice plus successfully advocate for this to be re looked at.

Fair enough. It seems like a difficult choice to me, given the vast wealth differential that is likely to exist. I think there are other ways to educate your kids and give them a rounded view. But it’s undeniable that private schooling provides connections and status, which is probably unquantifiable. Which I guess brings us back to the thread. These parents are not without status themselves. One of the mothers was chair of the PTA.

I guess this is the point. Someone with her husbands job title will be bringing in more than a million a year. Massively different to two £100k salaries just trying to provide the best education. Private school is a whole mix of parents and students, and income levels. Plus there are bursaries

Yes thank you, this is the point I was trying to make, but you’ve been so much more articulate

It’s a thread you have to read much of it rather than each post in isolation otherwise you won’t understand what’s being discussed. Your lack of comprehension isn’t my problem, so just move on.

@Allisnotlost1I’m on the PTA 😂 Believe me, that doesn’t bring any special privileges - it’s a thankless task just trying to raise funds for the school and for the children to have more resources

Its not my comprehension that is a problem if someone is assuming they can guess someones overall income based on what school their kids go to and how much it costs. Unfortunately there are a lot of 2+2=5 posts here in the thread, which I have read all of.

By all means do reply - I’m honestly fascinated with the conclusions people are coming to, including that she murdered the children!

Having looked at whatever I can find online, I can’t at this point see any evidence she has ‘got away’ with anything. She may have, she may not have. We simply don’t have enough information to come to that. Her husband is indeed wealthy, though he is no longer employed by MS as far as I can see. And yes, money makes things much easier. Not everyone could up and leave an area for example. But the point is that the parents are also connected and wealthy and have status. Not least as victims of a terrible incident, regardless of whether anyone is at fault. Their status as victims, their willingness to talk to the media (more the case for one family than the other) and the gaps in the facts (plus now the police being investigated themselves) all adds up to a juicy story for the media.

I’ve no doubt the police have ballsed up somewhere - that’s barely even news - but I’m yet to be convinced by all the lurid stories presented here. If the facts change, I’ll change my mind.

I imagine it’s an absolute nightmare! 🤣 But I would guess it also comes with a level of influence and popularity - you may not feel it or want to admit it, but I’m sure plenty of sharp elbowed mummies would like to have a go at it, especially in a lovely private girls prep.

How does a previous poster know the driver got out of the car and said ‘What have I done’? And how does another pp know about the Labrador dogs? I reckon there are neighbours / friends of parents at the school on this thread.

The dog comment especially didn’t come out of nowhere.

@Allisnotlost1I’d actually say it’s the opposite, a lot of stressed parents rushing from work or back from the commute and doing calls in their lunch breaks because they want the children to have the discos, fireworks events, summer fairs, and theatre etc that the PTA puts on. I couldn’t actually tell you the name of the Chair. I doubt a lot of parents even know my name either

Who knows, but it wouldn't rule out the driver having had a seizure anyway. It would be quite a normal reaction whether you'd just roused from a seizure or not, in the circumstances.

Ok. But I have a friend with a £4m house and 2 kids in private school.

he is paid just under a million a year. he bought the house 12 years ago for £1.2m, the mortage is about £400k. Nothing like servicing £17k a month.

he is not powerful or influential. He doesn’t know any police or judges. They’re not the sort of circles he moves in. His large network is mainly other hedge fund managers, bankers and asset managers.

how do you know Dominic freemantle isn’t like him?

There's a whole other thread on MN and someone has discovered this. Whose PR person commissioned this AI gem?
I'll link to the other thread next..

vocal.media/journal/claire-freemantle-overcoming-epilepsy-s-challenges-in-wimbledon-6c9c0qcj

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5517156-school-car-crash-are-the-police-being-thrown-under-the-bus?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I might be wrong, but I didn’t think there was any suggestion of bribery of police or judges etc? I thought what was being suggested is they had a lot of money to throw at extremely expensive law firms and hiring a barrister in the first instance also. Who could come up with the seizure defence after the fact, and scrub her presence and photos online. The police maybe weren’t very thorough in their investigation / had unconscious bias

This sums it up very well for me too, thank you.

We could argue the toss all night long about guessing income, housing costs and disposable income, but fundamentally they don’t matter.

It wouldn’t amount to murder but there are plenty of RTA offences that cover the conduct that she could be charged with.

The victims are victims. Their willingness to talk to the media, affluence, profession, wealth etc doesn’t make them lesser victims … their children were killed after all.

It isn’t lurid at all to deduce that the Freemantles come from a different or ‘offshore’ tax bracket which means they can afford the best minds to compile the best defence. With that sort of wealth comes power and influence.

Then you have this gross misconduct and suggestion that race played a factor too which isn’t unbelievable given the METs horrendous reputation for being institutionally racist.

Now whether the Freemantle’s used their wealth and power to formulate said defence which the police were deliberate/dumb enough to buy WITHOUT following all reasonable lines of enquiry and therefore cutting corners in the investigation that we won’t know yet.

This is exactly what everyone is suggesting they could have done with their wealth. No one is suggesting bribery or buying judges.

The only area I think where it smells like corruption is where the police are concerned because they’ve not bothered to do their jobs properly due to their institutional bias when it comes to race and class. The MET are known for this. Of course the Freemantle’s wealth and connections would have played a role into this if for example they used a very expensive barrister with a plummy accent, who turned up at the police station with the epilepsy defence ready at hand. Lawyers are meant to be persuasive and can be intimidating.

Anyone else think lady Macbeth’s defenders are protesting too much?

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”

This has all been covered in the thread- these people can’t come up with a defence for her- she hasn’t even been charged. She hasn’t had a court case.

even if you’re saying she has legal advice to make up a defence (that isn’t what legal advice is btw) what you’re talking about isn’t even that expensive.

@Itsmetheflamingoshe used one of the best law firms globally, that state on their website they represent high net worth individuals. They can of course give her legal advice as to what would be difficult to prove etc