'Wouldn't you want to know if a child died at your kid's nursery?' Mother's anger at 'cover-up' after her daughter's death

  • Rhiya Malin, two, died after becoming trapped in her nursery's Wendy house
  • Nursery worker Kayley Murphey was convicted failing to ensure her safety
  • But Rhiya's parents Jay and Shatl fear a similar incident could happen again
  • Ofsted report has no reference to the death and records have been deleted
  • The nursery re-registered under a different name and wiped the slate clean
Cover-up? An Ofsted report made no reference to the death of Rhiya Malin, two, at her nursery school


It was 11.11 on a November morning in 2007 when Jay Malin received the phone call every parent dreads.

His two-year-old daughter, Rhiya, had had some sort of 'fit' at nursery; she wasn't breathing and had been rushed to hospital. He needed to get there immediately, staff had said.

Just half-an-hour later, Jay and his wife Shatl were cradling their daughter's lifeless body in the family room of Whipps Cross hospital in north-east London, after doctors failed to resuscitate her.

Rhiya had not suffered a fit as staff at Eton Manor Nursery in Chigwell, Essex, had suggested. She had been found hanging from a gap between the roof and the wall of the nursery's Wendy house after getting her head wedged during breaktime.

Rhiya's death made headlines, but was initially shrugged off as a 'tragic accident'. It has taken the Malins five years to hold the nursery and a member of its staff to account.

Nursery worker Kayley Murphey was found guilty of failing to ensure Rhiya's safety, during a hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court, a little over a week ago.

The now 23-year-old had been distracted, chatting on her mobile phone when Rhiya whizzed into the playhouse on a scooter. 

Staff had previously admitted they could not account for the little girl for up to 20 minutes.

Murphey is due to be sentenced on February 25. The nursery's owners admitted a breach of health and safety rules at Eton Manor last year.

Speaking exclusively to the Mail On Sunday in their first interview since the trial, IT consultant Jay, 42, and Shatl, 33, say while justice has been done for Rhiya, they fear a similar incident could easily happen again.

Thanks to a legal loophole, Eton Manor was able to re-register its holding name a year after Rhiya's death. Effectively a new company, the nursery had its slate wiped clean.

Indeed, as of Friday night, Murphey was still on the nursery's website as an employee.

The company's Ofsted report from 2009 makes no mention of Rhiya's death and contains none of the complaints about the nursery, dating back before 2007, which include staffing issues and missing children. Any prospective parent would be none the wiser.

Persistence: Thanks to the efforts of Rhiya's parents, Jay and Shatl, Ofsted now keeps historical details online


The nursery is by no means alone. Several others have also been exposed in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, broadcast tomorrow.

Thanks to Rhiya's case, and the persistence of her parents, Ofsted now keeps historical details of all institutions on its website for three years after they close. But, any incident that occurred before January 2011 has been erased.

It's something the Malins are angry about. 'Wouldn't you want to know if a child had died at a nursery you were looking to send your child to?' asks Shatl.

Almost certainly, you would think. Indeed Ofsted has received more than 4,000 complaints about nurseries in the past year. But when Dispatches surveyed 670 parents about nursery incidents, 61 per cent admitted they had no idea if their child's nursery had any complaints against it. '

A spokesman from the watchdog said: 'The safety of children is our first concern, as it is of every parent.

'Ofsted has explained to the Department for Education that for a new nursery to be linked more clearly and directly to one that has closed there would need to be changes to the law, and we are pleased the Department is working with us to look at how this could be taken forward.


Do the staff appear caring and competent?

How many of the staff are qualified?

Is the environment happy, homely and clean?

Does it look safe and secure?

If the nursery has outdoor play areas, how often do the children get access to them?

Do the children look stimulated and engaged in activities by the staff?

Are you confident that the nursery manager has good leadership skills and is involved in the running of the nursery?

Is the equipment in good nick?

Does the nursery have a good Ofsted report?

Does it have a good reputation locally? Online?

What's the staff turnover like? Low turnover is usually a sign of a happy and well-managed nursery.

'We have also recently published more guidance for parents on how they can check the quality of prospective child care providers for their children.

The Department of Education itself has proposed to increase the adult to child care ratio, in a series of reforms. Currently, one adult can care for up to four children, but under new reforms, designed to put Britain in line with Europe, one member of 'high quality staff' will oversee six children.

The proposed changes have not gone down well with the 4million monthly users of Mumsnet.com, an online platform for parents.

Mumsnet founder, Justine Roberts, told the Mail On Sunday: 'There's not a lot of support on Mumsnet for the Government's plan to increase childcare ratios as demonstrated by our recent webchat with Education and Childcare Minister Liz Truss who got quite a grilling.

'While our users are all for improving the status and quality of childcare workers, just 5 per cent, when surveyed, said they'd be happy to see the number of childcare staff reduced even if it meant the cost of childcare was to fall.'

A spokesman for the Department of Education said: 'It is wrong to say that safety is only about ratios. Fundamentally, safety is determined by the quality of supervision and care provided by a nursery.'
Sadly, it is too late for Rhiya.

Born six weeks early in 2005, she had been a precious child after the Malin's first son was stillborn.
'I completely, absolutely smothered her, right to the end really,' Shatl admits. 'She was my first child, and had been premature so very dependent on me. She really was my world.'

Despite a poor start, Rhiya grew into an adorable, mischievous little girl who loved sampling olives at the deli counter, who put her own parents in 'time out' if she thought they had been naughty, and who loved cartoon, Dora The Explorer.

'I can't watch it now,' says Shatl. 'It seems silly, but it was such a big thing for Rhiya. She dressed like Dora, she had Dora dolls, her duvet cover was Dora, her backpack, everything. I dread seeing it at other people's houses.'

The day of Rhiya's death had started like any other. The toddler had woken before her parents and had been brought into their bed for a cuddle. But she had been grisly too, and Jay had stayed on for 10 minutes at nursery to settle her.

'Although, it's bittersweet, I'm glad she was grumpy that day because it was the last time I spent time with her while she was still alive,' he says.

Shatl had been in a meeting when Jay called shortly after 11am to say Rhiya had had a fit and was in hospital.

Unsupervised: Rhiya had been playing outside on her own when she became trapped in the Wendy house


'I panicked, but I used to suffer from epilepsy as a child so to me it was quite feasible,' she says. 'I thought we'd get there and she'd be sitting up in bed and not know the fuss that had gone on.'

But Shatl quickly realised the situation was serious on being told by several police officers at the hospital that it appeared Rhiya had been found hanging.

Both parents were led to a resuscitation room where medical staff were working with air bags and a defibrillator to revive the toddler.

'She had tubes all over her and a mask on her face,' Shatl recalls. 'It looked so violent because she was so small.'

Jay adds: 'I remember a consultant saying, 'We've been trying for half an hour, can anyone give me a reason why we should continue?'

'I can still remember shouting that we could give him some really good reasons, but they couldn't get a pulse, they couldn't get her to breathe and Rhiya was pronounced dead at 11.41am.'


Check the company has a procedures and policies handbook.

Check the company has a mobile phone policy.

Check the company has a daily checklist e.g. for broken toys or damaged plugs.

Check the company has an up to date risk assessment list.

Ask how all these lists are being enforced.

Ensure all staff are CRB checked.

Ask them directly about any previous serious incidents (don't assume Ofsted will tell you).

Ask about staff levels of training, are there enough staff trained in first aid and health and safety?

If possible on your visit, ask different staff members their understanding of how lunches/breaks/sicknesses are covered to ensure ratios are met. If the responses differ, they clearly aren't all following the same procedures.

'Initially we shouted and screamed,' Shatl says quietly. 'Jay fell to the floor saying, 'She can't die, she can't die”. I was trying to pull all the tubes from her. I just wanted to see her properly.'

Nurses wrapped Rhiya in a white sheet and allowed Jay and Shatl to take her into a relatives' room.

They stayed for five hours, singing and saying goodbye, not quite able to comprehend how their precious little girl, who had been so full of life just hours before, was now gone.

At 5pm a nurse came to take Rhiya away.

'Leaving her there was the hardest thing we've ever had to do,' Shatl says. 'I just can't put into words how that felt. She'd never stayed away from us and had never been away overnight so to leave her in a strange room in a white sheet - it's an image that will haunt us forever. It was the worst, worst day.'

Both parents admit the first few weeks went by in a complete blur. But one thing continued to plague Jay.

'Even now, I still remember the police saying that nobody at the nursery could account for Rhiya for 25 minutes.

'I couldn't for the life of me understand how supposedly four members of staff couldn't account for Rhiya at all. I'm not saying they should have known exactly what she was doing and where she was doing it every step of the way, but that's a very long time not to know where a child is.'

Suspicions aroused, Jay and his legal team, asked the police for the nursery staff members' mobile phone records. But, because none of the witnesses had suggested their phones had been used at the time, police had not asked for the records.

It wasn't until March 2008, four months after Rhiya's death, that another nursery staff member made a voluntary statement saying she had seen others using their phones while on duty.

Evidence shows that Kayley Murphey had received or made four calls and another staff member, who was not prosecuted, had made one during that breaktime. At one point the two women were on their phones at the same time.

The Malins also discovered the wooden Wendy house had been modified by a handyman and not risk assessed, and that the staff member who had given Rhiya CPR had not been properly trained.
Sadly, these additional details arose after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to press charges against the nursery.

There was another blow when the decision was not overturned during a judicial review at the High Court in London in March 2010.

But, after listening to the evidence during the inquest into Rhiya's death in December 2010, Epping Forest District Council made the unusual decision to bring charges over breached healthy and safety regulations against two members of staff and the nursery's owners.

'That was a real turning point for us,' says Shatl. 'We felt so grateful that someone was looking at this case for what it was. That someone was going to be held accountable.'

The inquest had heard that Rhiya suffered a heart attack due to neck compression and the pathologist told the Malins that her death would have been instant, but there are some things the Malins will never know.

'We don't know how long she was hanging there,' Jay says.

'To think what her last minutes might have been like: was she calling for Mummy? Was she calling for daddy? Did she pass out quickly? We just don't know and that tortures us every day.'

After Murphey was found guilty of failing to ensure Rhiya's safety, Shatl and Jay came home, looked at the two enormous photographs of Rhiya on their hall wall and felt they had finally got justice. Another nursery worker was acquitted.

Concern: Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts has expressed fears over plans to increase childcare ratios


'We will never, ever be at peace with what's happened to Rhiya,' says Shatl. 'But after five years of hurdles and obstacles, to finally get something for her case is such a relief. Now I can start to remember her for all the good times without the dark cloud of the case hanging over us.'

There are plenty of reminders at the Malins three-bedroom home in leafy Chigwell, Essex. Rhiya's chestnut eyes and toothy smile shine out of framed photographs on every wall and shelf. They have also filled a wicker box with keepsakes from their little girl's short life.

There's a glittery hairband, which Rhiya wore to a special dinner three days before her death. The 4D scan of Rhyia in the womb and her tiny ID hospital wrist bands sit next to a wooden train set, bearing the letters of her name, while several paintings of mummy and daddy have started to yellow.

Perhaps the most apt reminder though is the Malin's 15-month-old daughter Maya, who is the spitting image of her sister.

'I couldn't have faced a life without a child,' says Shatl. 'To me, having a child was my purpose - you can't unknow being a mum. Having Maya has made a very big difference to our lives. Of course she's not a replacement for Rhiya, but she has given us our hope back.'

A spokesman for Casterbridge, the owners of Eton Manor Nursery, said: 'Our thoughts are with the parents and family of Rhiya Malin.

'We cannot comment further on the details of the case, because of ongoing court proceedings. Nothing is more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care.'

He added: 'This re-registration with Ofsted was made as part of a conventional reorganisation of the various Casterbridge companies. It had absolutely nothing to do with Rhiya's death or with any attempt to cover up any issue.'

Before her daughter's death, Shatl had enjoyed a successful career as a life coach. Now she will remain at home with Maya until she starts school.

'I just wouldn't put her in nursery,' says Shatl. 'I couldn't risk it.'

You can see the story in full on Dispatches: How Safe Is Your Child's Nursery? Channel 4, Monday, 8pm.