PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "His father, Kent McLellan, testified Wednesday in a trial presided over by Judge Michael Carnegie. There is no jury. McLellan said that in the months following their son’s death he and his wife (Rose-Anne Van De Wiele) were looking for answers. He said police had “interrogated” him in an attempt, he believes, to get him to “confess” that his wife was to blame. McLellan and Van De Wiele have both testified that police considered them suspects. Wanting to find his own answers, McLellan went to see Van Hoof at her home in the summer of 2016. He drove to her house in Strathroy, set his iPhone to record, tucked it in his shirt pocket, and knocked on her door. “I wanted to see her and find out what happened,” McLellan testified. Asked by Crown counsel Lerren Ducharme why he decided to record the meeting, McLellan said he had two reasons. “First I wanted to protect myself,” McLellan answered. “I did not want to be falsely accused of being mean or whatever other word would go with that. And second, if she told me what happened, I wanted to have it, I wanted to have proof,” McLellan told court."
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STORY: "Father of dead toddler Nathaniel McLellan confronted babysitter looking for answers, trial hears," by Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, published by The Toronto Star, on January 7, 2025. Kevin Donovan is the Toronto Star’s Chief Investigative Reporter. His focus is on journalism that exposes wrongdoing and effects change. Over more than three decades he has reported on the activities of charities, government, police, business among other institutions. Donovan also reported from the battlefields in the Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan following 9/11. He has won three National Newspaper Awards, two Governor General’s Michener Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation award and three Canadian Association of Journalists Awards. As the Star’s editor of investigations for many years, Donovan led many award-winning projects for the paper. He is the author of several books, including “Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation” and the “Dead Times” (a fiction novel);
SUB-HEADING: "In an audio recording that he made, she tells him why she didn’t call 911 after the 15-month-old collapsed."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Nathaniel McLellan with dad Kent McLellan. McLellan recorded his encounter with Nathaniel’s babysitter in audio played for the court on Wednesday."
Months after his son died, the father of a dead toddler confronted the boy’s babysitter in an attempt to get answers, a London trial was told. Court heard an audio recording that he made in which the babysitter said she didn’t call 911 after the 15-month-old collapsed because he was “breathing.”
“The only reason I didn’t call 911 was because he was looking at me and he was breathing,” former babysitter Meggin Van Hoof is heard saying on the recording. “It was just like he had passed out from ... I fainted before myself and I came back to and it was just like that.”
Van Hoof is on trial for manslaughter in the case of Nathaniel McLellan, who died in 2015 of a massive head trauma. Van Hoof has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution contends Nathaniel’s death was caused by something that happened while Van Hoof was looking after him, and that Van Hoof failed to promptly get help by calling 911.
Nathaniel died Oct. 31, 2015, several days after he became unwell at the unlicensed daycare Van Hoof ran out of her Strathroy bungalow.
His father, Kent McLellan, testified Wednesday in a trial presided over by Judge Michael Carnegie. There is no jury.
McLellan said that in the months following their son’s death he and his wife (Rose-Anne Van De Wiele) were looking for answers. He said police had “interrogated” him in an attempt, he believes, to get him to “confess” that his wife was to blame. McLellan and Van De Wiele have both testified that police considered them suspects.
Wanting to find his own answers, McLellan went to see Van Hoof at her home in the summer of 2016. He drove to her house in Strathroy, set his iPhone to record, tucked it in his shirt pocket, and knocked on her door.
“I wanted to see her and find out what happened,” McLellan testified. Asked by Crown counsel Lerren Ducharme why he decided to record the meeting, McLellan said he had two reasons.
“First I wanted to protect myself,” McLellan answered. “I did not want to be falsely accused of being mean or whatever other word would go with that. And second, if she told me what happened, I wanted to have it, I wanted to have proof,” McLellan told court.
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The audio recording was played in court. Van Hoof answers the door. She and McLellan make some small talk about the hot weather that summer. Van Hoof’s two young children come to the door and try to get their mother’s attention. Van Hoof can be heard saying “it’s an adult matter.”
Van Hoof tells McLellan that she would like to talk to him but “when I was interrogated for manslaughter it was time to get a lawyer.”
Then, Van Hoof provides an explanation of what happened the day Nathaniel “collapsed” at her home. Court has heard this was just before the lunch hour on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015. Nathaniel had been dropped at Van Hoof’s home by Van De Wiele (his mother) at 8:30 a.m., just before she went to teach at her school down the street.
“I don’t really have much to say other than (Nathaniel) wasn’t himself that day,” Van Hoof told McLellan. He collapsed, like as in fainted, when I was getting him ready to go get (another child) from preschool.”
Van Hoof told McLellan in this doorstep conversation that she was getting another child ready for the walk to the preschool and she saw Nathaniel faint “out of the corner of my eye.” Court heard earlier that Van Hoof telephoned the school down the street where Nathaniel’s mother (Van De Wiele) works, and told her Nathaniel was unwell and she would bring him to her.
In the recorded conversation played in court, McLellan then tells Van Hoof that he “doesn’t understand” what happened to his son. Van Hoof replies, “I feel the same way and nothing makes sense to me.”
McLellan then tells her Nathaniel was perfectly normal that morning at home, eating his regular breakfast of oatmeal. McLellan then gets emotional.
“We just want to know what happened to him,” McLellan says. ”(Van De Wiele) dropped off a perfectly good healthy boy and he died. You don’t just die.”
In the start of what may be a lengthy cross-examination (Van De Wiele was cross-examined for eight days), Van Hoof’s lawyer Geoff Snow questioned why McLellan would go see Van Hoof.
Snow pointed out that in a recorded interview with OPP investigators that took place before McLellan going to see Van Hoof, McLellan said he would not “text” Van Hoof. Snow also noted that at one point in the police interview, McLellan “talked about thinking (Van Hoof) is a stupid bitch, how much you wanted to go see her.” During the interview, the OPP detective asks both McLellan and his wife not to do anything that would cause police to get involved.
McLellan acknowledged that he made those statements. Regardless, he said that a month later he went to see Van Hoof (and sent her a text asking for a meeting, along with a photo of Nathaniel in the hospital with his parents on either side) because he wanted to know what happened to their son.
Two months later, McLellan turned over the recording of his doorstep chat to the OPP.
In a trial that has been fraught with emotion there was one moment of levity on Wednesday. During his cross-examination of McLellan, defence lawyer Snow looked to his left and informed the court that there was “a bat” on the floor. The aging London courthouse has a frequent problem with bats and staff have raised health and safety concerns. Lead prosecutor Meredith Gardiner stood up, emptied a pink pencil holder box she carries with her, walked past the defence table, scooped up the bat, closed the box and handed it to the file co-ordinator on the case, Det. Sgt. Dylan Langille. Langille took the bat outside and set it free.
The trial continues Thursday."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.thestar.com/news/father-confronts-nathaniels-babysitter/article_315428c8-0c1e-4aa6-9eb3-060d3aa26bcf.htmlPUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;6
