A Coquitlam daycare operator charged Monday in connection with the 2011 death of an infant in her care had two previous violations reported to Fraser Health.
Fraser Health spokesperson Roy Thorpe-Dorward said licensing officers went to the home of Maria McFerran in December 2007 after a complaint was made that she had one too many children in her home-based Rattle-N-Roll Daycare.
The private daycare is unlicensed, meaning the operator is not allowed to have more than two children who are not related to the daycare provider.
Thorpe-Dorward said licensing officers made a follow-up visit to McFerran's Shaughnessy Street home on Jan. 15, 2008 and found that she was in compliance with regulations.
Fraser Health had been to her home three years earlier for the same complaint when someone reported in February 2005 that McFerran was looking after three children; an inspection was done on May 5, 2005, and a subsequent visit was carried out on May 25, 2005, he said.
Thorpe-Dorward said inspections of unlicensed daycares are a "complaint-driven process" and complaints can be made by anyone in the community; for privacy reasons, he did not say who launched the two complaints against Rattle-N-Roll.
Coquitlam RCMP on Monday charged McFerran, 48, with criminal negligence causing death and failure to provide the necessaries of life in the Jan. 17, 2011, death of Arto Howley. As well, she is charged with obstruction of justice "by interfering with or misdirecting a police investigation," according to court papers.
McFerran next appears in Port Coquitlam provincial court next Wednesday.
