TORONTO – A court has been told that two-year-old Eva Ravikovich was stuck inside a boiling SUV outside her daycare north of Toronto for about seven hours before her lifeless body was discovered.
Olena Panfilova, who owned the daycare in Vaughan, Ont., pleaded guilty Tuesday to criminal negligence causing death nearly four years after the fact, and one year after she was found guilty under Ontario’s Day Nurseries Act of operating an illegal daycare.
Panfilova’s husband and adult daughter were also found guilty of the same charge last year, and the trio was sentenced to 30 days in jail, to be served intermittently on weekends, and given two years to each pay a $15,000 fine with a victim surcharge.
WATCH: Vaughan daycare operator admits she failed duty of care that lead to child’s death. Ashley Carter reports. (April 5)
Panfilova will face sentencing for the criminal negligence charge on May 19.
In an email to The Canadian Press, a lawyer representing Eva’s parents said now that the criminal proceedings have concluded, the lawsuit against the daycare operators and the Ministry of Education can move forward.
READ MORE: Judge finds family members guilty for operating illegal daycare after toddler’s death
“The Ministry had full knowledge of this illegal daycare and did not take appropriate steps to investigate it or shut it down,” Patrick Brown alleged in the email. “It should not have taken the death of a child for the government to finally take action. This is not the standard that we should be expecting in Ontario.”
An agreed statement of facts read in court Tuesday said Panfilova had a business licence for “Lena Daycare,” but she never applied to be licensed under the Day Nurseries Act, which is required for daycares with more than five children under the age of 10.
VIDEO: The mother of a two-year-old girl who died at an unlicensed daycare in Vaughan visits The Morning Show to discuss a lawsuit against the province and daycare operator for $3.5 million in punitive damages due to negligence.
The court document said two employees with the Ministry of Education inspected the daycare almost a year before Eva’s death and found Panfilova was caring for seven children. She was told then – through her daughter, who often acted as her Russian interpreter – that she was required to reduce the number of children at her daycare or apply for the licence.
READ MORE: 2 women charged in 2013 death of toddler at unlicensed daycare in Vaughan
The agreed statement of facts also said when Panfilova arrived at the daycare at 9:30 a.m. that July morning, she removed all the children from the passenger side of her SUV but forgot Eva, who was strapped in a car seat on the driver’s side.
Panfilova, who had 35 children at her daycare that day, did not realize she had left Eva sitting in the hot vehicle until sometime after 5 p.m.
The document said the vehicle likely heated up to at least 50 C by noon, adding the little girl died of heat stroke.
Panfilova initially told paramedics and police that she put Eva down for a nap that afternoon in the daycare and found she was not breathing when she went to check up on her, the statement of facts said.
Panfilova and her daughter Karina Rabadanova were also charged with obstruction of justice three months after Eva’s death because they would not provide police with surveillance footage from their daycare’s cameras and Eva’s child seat had gone missing.
READ MORE: Fundraiser set up for family of toddler found dead in Vaughan daycare
“Olena Panfilova admits that she had a duty of care (to) protect Eva on July 8, 2013, but that she failed in that duty by leaving Eva in her vehicle all day, thereby causing Eva’s death,” the statement said.
Brown said despite the terrible events that were revealed in court Tuesday, the Ravikovich family is relieved that this part of the process has come to an end.
“The family looks forward to finding closure and a just conclusion to both the criminal and civil proceedings,” Brown said.
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