The six-month-old died on February 18 of his injuries, which he allegedly suffered at the nursery. The day before, the University Hospital of Ghent (UZ Gent) had informed the public prosecutor’s office that a baby had been admitted with a serious head trauma, caused in unclear circumstances. The baby was rushed to hospital after a call from ‘t Sloeberhuisje.
The East Flanders public prosecutor’s office had appointed a forensic doctor and the examining magistrate had put seals on the crèche.
An investigation led to the arrest of three officials of the institution: the manager, Davina V., her father, Roxan V., and an employee. The latter had been able to dispose because she would not have been involved in the facts. The operator had been released on conditions but charged with manslaughter. The manager’s father had been placed under an arrest warrant for intentional bodily harm resulting in death without intention of giving it.
On Tuesday, Davina V. again appeared before the investigating judge in Ghent and she was placed under an arrest warrant. The prosecution confirms the arrest without going into details.
According to the autopsy, the child had “shaken baby” syndrome. Roxan V. denied having manhandled the victim. It appears from inspection reports concerning the crèche, since 2015, that parents had accused the father of the manager, who was a guide in the crèche, of some physical violence towards the little residents. His daughter, however, denied these accusations. Davina V. closed the crèche after the baby’s death and this week Kind & Gezin, the childcare organization in Flanders, revoked the institution’s license, having already suspended it.
The case caused a stir in Flanders. Flemish Health and Welfare Minister Wouter Beke said following his resignation last month that the baby’s death at the nursery had affected him “more than he cared to admit to the world. outside”.