Happy to be home

Irish nanny and Aisling Brady McCarthy has said she is happy to be back on home soil, but has criticised the manner in which US prosecutors pursued her in relation to charged connected with the murder of one-year-old baby Rehma Sabir, who died while in the Lavey-native's care.

Speaking to the Boston Herald before she left the US for Ireland last night, Ms Brady McCarthy said she was overwhelmed at how fast things moved after a medical examiner ruled baby Rehma died from undetermined injuries, and the District Attorney dropped their charges against her.

“It has been crazy and hectic,” Brady McCarthy said. “Suddenly, everything is happening so fast after going so ... so very slow for almost three years. I can’t wait to get home and start my life over again. My worst nightmare is finally over.

“What the Middlesex prosecutors did to me was scandalous,” she said, crying.

“They should be ashamed of themselves. The police and (Dr) Alice Newton, they just decided right away that I had killed the child. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I loved her and cared for her, 10 hours a day, five days a week,” she added.

“I would take her everywhere on day trips. They were wrong, but it seemed that except for my family and my lawyers – Melinda Thompson and David Meier, God bless them – no one would listen,” she added.

Brady McCarthy told the Boston Herald what the public did not see during her years of imprisonment was the steady stream of love and support she received from other parents who had employed her, and their children she helped raise.

“They would come every week to visit me. The kids would bring me drawings and little gifts. They were a huge source of support and comfort to me. They assured me that they would be there to testify on my behalf when the trial came,” she said.

The 37-year-old, accompanied by her sister, touched down at 6.15am today at Shannon Airport, and disembarked from Aer Lingus flight EI134 from Boston.

Her deportation from the US was fast-tracked after the murder charge against her was dropped on Monday. Ms McCarthy Brady had been due to stand trial next month on a charge of murdering baby Rehma at an apartment in near Boston in January 2013. She had been living in America illegally for 13 years at the time the incident occurred.

The Cavan woman has spent the last two-and-a-half years in US custody, and has been under house arrest since last May after being granted bail.

Asked if she was glad to be home, Brady McCarthy replied: “Yes”, before breaking down in tears.

She did not answer any other questions from the media.