‘You get him, I got to go’

THE jailed former director of the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Edmonton told educator Dionne Grills to take three-year-old Maliq “Meeky” Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo out of the bus when they arrived back at the centre, hours before he was found dead, a court has heard.

Dionne Batrice Grills, 36, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter over the February 2020 death of Meeky at the start of her trial in Cairns on Tuesday.

Giving evidence, centre director Michael Lewis described a disrupted morning on the day of Meeky’s death – February 18 – where he was running late for an important meeting.

Arriving at the centre from picking up Meeky, Mr Lewis told the court he said to Ms Grills, who was in the passenger seat next to him: “You get him, I got to go.”

Mr Lewis told the court there was no response from Ms Grills. The court heard Mr Lewis ducked into the centre briefly before driving the bus to his meeting. Meeky’s body was not found until that afternoon.

The court heard Mr Lewis in February 2021 pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years imprisonment for causing Meeky’s death.

Under cross examination from Ms Grills’ barrister, Tony Kimmins, Mr Lewis agreed the first time he told authorities about telling Ms Grills to get Meeky off the bus was after he had been sentenced to imprisonment, and that he was aware a magistrate had dismissed Ms Grills’ manslaughter charge after a committal hearing in January 2021.

“So while sitting in the watch-house having just been sentenced, it was quite clear you were very, very upset that Dionne had got off the charge,” Mr Kimmins said.

Mr Lewis replied: “I don’t know that upset is the word I would use. Again, it was quite frustrating because I believe we both shared blame on that day.”

Mr Kimmins suggested the conversation with Ms Grills about getting Meeky off the bus never happened.

“You can suggest it,” Mr Lewis replied.