Trial of nanny accused of killing baby postponed

The murder trial of Aisling Brady McCarthy — the Irish nanny accused of fatally assaulting a one-year-old girl in Boston — has been postponed in a dramatic development which saw a judge order a full review of medical evidence relating to the baby’s death.

Baby Rehma Sabir was found unconscious in her cot and rushed to hospital with head injuries in January 2013. She died two days later on her first birthday.

Ms McCarthy, from Lavey, Co Cavan, was subsequently charged with killing the child, whom she had been looking after for almost six months. She has since been held without bail.

However, her trial — which was due to begin next Wednesday — was cancelled indefinitely this week, after Middlesex Superior Court Judge Maureen B Hogan was presented with new evidence by nine medical experts for the defence.

The nine testimonies cast doubt on the diagnosis Ms McCarthy had either shaken or beaten the baby to death and led to a unanimous statement from the experts that the child’s death “was not a homicide”.

The judge demanded the medical examiner’s office compile a “re-review” of the evidence and also ordered prosecutors to check with immigration authorities if Ms McCarthy could be released on bail and go home with a monitoring bracelet.

Speaking to The Boston Globe, David Meier, a lawyer for Ms McCarthy, said: “I think it’s in everyone’s interest to allow [the office] as much time as they need to perform a full reconsideration of the case.”

It has also come to light the baby had several major health issues and had been travelling with her parents outside the US for weeks without Ms McCarthy.

Ms McCarthy’s lawyers will seek to have her released at a bail hearing next week.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS