A pretrial conference will be held Friday in the Nathaniel McLellan manslaughter case, signaling that the oft-delayed case against the Strathroy, Ont. woman charged in his death he is moving forward.
Meggin Van Hoof, 42, of Strathroy, was charged June 23, 2021, with a manslaughter in Nathaniel’s 2015 death. A Toronto Star series, Death in a Small Town, delved into the mysterious case of the 15-month-old. Van Hoof was arrested one week after the series was published. Van Hoof ran a home daycare in Strathroy and was looking after Nathaniel the day he collapsed.
It’s been nine months since Van Hoof was arrested by Ontario Provincial Police detectives. There were several delays by the London, Ont. crown’s office in providing Van Hoof’s lawyer with disclosure material — evidence collected by police investigators.
A London court heard Thursday that the disclosure issues have been “resolved” and that two new crown attorneys have been assigned the case, one of them veteran prosecutor Joseph Perfetto, who leads Ontario’s western region crown office.
The brief court hearing, held via Zoom Thursday, heard that a “crown pretrial” discussion will be held in London Friday. No further details were provided, but such discussions are an opportunity for crown attorneys and defense lawyers on a case to discuss preliminary issues prior to setting a trial date. Van Hoof has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Pretrials are not public. The next public appearance in the case will be April 14, when the court will hear information arising from the pretrial discussion. London lawyer Jenny Prosser is Van Hoof’s lawyer.
On Oct. 27, 2015, as the Star series detailed, Van Hoof called Rose-Anne McLellan, Nathaniel’s mother, to tell her the child was in distress. Rose-Anne picked her son up and rushed him to hospital in London where doctors determined he had a fracture in the back of his skull. Nathaniel was declared brain-dead and removed from life support on Oct. 31, 2015. As part of its comprehensive coverage of the case, the Star published a video detailing the timeline of events. As the Star series detailed, the Strathroy-Caradoc police and the OPP initially focused on Nathaniel’s parents as suspects.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)