Denise Benn, a 57-year-old babysitter and daycare owner of Lot 14 Railway Line Industry, East Coast Demerara was charged yesterday with manslaughter following the death of a baby who had fallen ill at the facility.
The accused appeared at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court #2 before Magistrate Alisha George where the charge was read to her. She was not required to plead and was remanded to prison until 2023/05/10.
The manslaughter charge relates to the death of seven-month-old Oriya Gravesande who died at the daycare owned by Benn.
Oriya succumbed due to haemorrhage and suffocation by compression of the neck, an autopsy found.
The toddler from Success, East Coast Demerara was rushed to the Ogle Health Centre on March 21st after experiencing shortness of breath and becoming unconscious just after midday.
After being rushed to the health centre, an ambulance was called to transport the toddler to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) due to her serious condition.
The ambulance took Oriya to the GPHC and she was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
The baby’s mother, Shavannie Gravesande had told Stabroek News that her daughter went to the daycare without any issue.
She said that she was told that the child fell at the side of the bed at the daycare, and got caught up in sheets and suffocated.
The mother said that when the incident happened, the daycare official took several hours to contact her about her daughter and she believes that if she was contacted sooner her child would have been alive.
