Judge orders further autopsy tests in Cavan nanny trial

Seamus Enright

A judge hearing an application in the first-degree murder case of Lavey-nanny Aisling McCarthy Brady (35) in Boston has given permission to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to carry out a series of tests on the body of baby Rehma Sabir to see of the child had suffered abuse prior to her death.
Middlesex Superior Court Judge Maureen B Hogan handed down her ruling last Wednesday on the application, which the Cavan woman’s defence have been pressing for some time.
Mrs McCarthy Brady’s legal team have been trying to gain access to baby Rehma’s remains, which are in the “sole and exclusive custody” of prosecutors for past 18 months, stating if properly examined it could uncover evidence, which could exonerate their client.
Attorneys Melinda Thompson and David Meier successfully argued in their memorandum in support of the post-autopsy procedure that they wished to take into account and conduct a comprehensive medical evaluation and examination “of all the medical evidence in the case, rather than perform a piece-meal review of individual items of evidence”.
Judge Hogan’s order allows for Dr Maria Cohen, a defence expert, to be present when the procedure takes place.
Baby Rehma (1) died on her birthday on January 14 last year. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and ruled the cause of death as “blunt force head injuries” and the manner of death as “homicide” and “not accidental”, though a skeletal survey revealed “multiple old and healing fractures” to her spine, left forearm and left leg, some possibly as old as two months. 
Ms McCarthy Brady, who was the child’s nanny, and living illegally in the US at the time, has been in custody since she was first arrested in connection with baby Rehma’s death.
She is currently detained without bail at Framington State Prison near the city of Boston and her trial is not expected to take place until October later this year.
A hearing on her legal team’s motion to suppress evidence in the case is scheduled for August 6.