From The Boston Globe:
Aisling McCarthy Brady, 34, is accused of assaulting the child on Jan. 14 and inflicting severe head injuries, District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.’s office said in a statement. The child, whom authorities did not identify, died at Boston Children’s Hospital two days after the alleged assault.
“This is an extremely troubling case, where we allege the defendant violently assaulted a one-year-old child, causing a devastating head injury and broken bones,” Leone said in the statement. “Children are our most vulnerable victims and where, as here, the offender has been entrusted with the care of a child who depends on them, the allegations are all the more egregious.”
The few details of the case released on Monday had echoes of a high-profile trial in Middlesex County of another nanny, Louise Woodward, in 1997.
Woodward, a British national, was convicted of second-degree murder in the shaking death of an 8-month-old boy in her care, though a judge later reduced the conviction to involuntary manslaughter.
Leone and Attorney General Martha Coakley tried the Woodward case as assistant district attorneys.
While there are reports that Brady is in the country illegally, and had a couple of restraining orders related to fights with other women, the injuries to the child do not all appear to have all taken place on the day in question. From Metro.us
Doctors diagnosed her with subdural and retinal hemorrhaging and cerebral swelling caused by “abusive head trauma,” authorities said. She also appeared to be healing from multiple bone fractures.
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…Brady’s attorney, Melinda Thompson, said that her client has no idea what happened to the child. She suggested that Sabir may have fallen ill because of complications from vaccines that have symptoms similar to shaken baby syndrome. She also said that something could have happened to Sabir who Brady did not care for because the child and her parents recently visited England, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.“She’s devastated,” Thompson said of Brady. “She called 911. She went to the hospital with the family … She was mourning this child with this family.”
Thompson said Brady was married about a year ago and has worked as a nanny for 13 years for children whose parents are lawyers and doctors and had no other incidents involving child care.
There are also reports that Sabir was treated for malnutrition upon her return from overseas. Brady was not with the family on those trips.
The Woodward case from the late 1990’s was one of CourtTV’s signature cases. The details available in this case so far indicate that Brady might be able to use the same sort of defense Barry Scheck used for Woodward.
