Three staff of a childcare centre where toddler Ebony Thompson fatally choked have attended court after being charged with failing to supervise and protect her.
The 22-month-old died by the chicken coop at the Humpty Doo Community and Child Care Centre southwest of Darwin in 2023 when she was unsupervised for up to 10 minutes.
The centre's director Rachel Lee Marsh and staff members Casandra Lee Harris and Gurmeet Kaur Rimpy appeared in Darwin Local Court on Wednesday.
The Northern Territory education department has charged the trio and the childcare centre with inadequately supervising children and protecting them from harm and hazards.
In court on Wednesday, Judge Jonathan Bortoli adjourned the matters to February 20.
An inquest before NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage ruled the toddler's death was preventable and found the loop-top fence, on which she became trapped and then choked, was in a "blind spot" behind a shed at the centre.
The lack of a yard check as part of the centre's supervision strategy was a "systemic failure" by the centre and childcare regulator Quality Education and Care Northern Territory (QECNT), the coroner found.
QECNT had also failed to adequately manage the risk posed by the chicken enclosure fence, she found.
In announcing the charges in November, NT Education Minister Jo Hersey said childcare centres had to be held accountable.
"This is the first time childcare staff have been charged in the Northern Territory, which sends a clear message child safety must come first," she said.
Ebony's family has called for a ban on loop-top fencing under a proposed "Ebony's Law" and want a "three strikes rule" for supervision breaches to temporarily close childcare centres pending safety rectifications.
A review of national laws around suitable fencing in early childhood services will be on the agenda for the National Education Ministers’ Meeting in February, Ms Hersey has confirmed.
