A toddler who was left on a minibus in Far North Queensland two years ago "died because he was forgotten", a Supreme Court jury has heard.
Maliq Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo, three, died inside the bus outside the Goodstart Early Learning Centre in the Cairns suburb of Edmonton on February 18, 2020.
Former childcare worker Dionne Batrice Grills, 36, is standing trial for manslaughter over the boy's death.
On the opening day of proceedings, Ms Grills pleaded not guilty to the charge and the jury was empanelled.
In his opening address, prosecutor Nathan Crane told the jury the boy was affectionately known to his family as "Meeky".
Late pick-up
Mr Crane said Maliq was normally picked up about 7am, but at 8:30 that morning his mother called the centre to say nobody had collected him.
He said centre director Michael Glen Lewis drove the bus and that Maliq was collected almost an hour later, while Ms Grills – at the time a lead educator at the centre – was sitting in a passenger seat.
Mr Crane told the court that after Ms Grills and Mr Lewis disembarked, neither checked with the other about whether Maliq had been taken off the bus.
"He was forgotten at that point and he remained on that van until about 2:30 in the afternoon," Mr Crane told the jury.
The court heard Maliq was buckled into a seat in the second row of the bus.
Maliq had attended the childcare centre for about eight months, the court heard, and was enrolled five days a week.
Mr Crane said the accused had started work at the centre about six weeks before Maliq's death.
She was hired by Mr Lewis for her experience in early childhood education, the court heard.
The jury was told Ms Grills had been given instructions about how to do the bus runs and had driven the bus the day before.
'I hope you guys can get Dionne'
Defence counsel Tony Kimmins told jurors the case would centre on the brief period in which the bus carrying Maliq returned to the childcare centre.
He said Ms Grills contested each element of the case that the prosecution needed to satisfy to prove criminal negligence.
"She walked away from the bus, leaving her boss in the bus with the child," Mr Kimmins said.
Mr Kimmins also told the jury to consider Mr Lewis was a "pivotal part of the prosecution case" and had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and that childcare centre had also pleaded guilty to offences following Maliq's death.
Mr Kimmins said Mr Lewis only disclosed to police that he had told Ms Grills to get Maliq off the bus after he was sentenced to a prison term.
"He said, 'I hope you guys can get Dionne, honest to God,'" Mr Kimmins told the jury.
He told jurors they would need to be "very cognisant of the fact that I'll be saying there has been a rewriting of history".
The jury is expected to hear from a number of witnesses, including staff who worked at the centre, police, ambulance officers and families associated with the childcare centre.
The trial, before Justice Peter Applegarth, is expected to last five days.
