Cavan nanny's defence team granted evidence access

The defence team for Cavan nanny Aisling McCarthy Brady have been granted the right to preserve and access a range of private and electronic information and communication belonging to the family of the child she is accused of harming. The court order made last week will see the preservation of email correspondence and internet searches on the Sabir family laptop since one-year-old baby Rehma was hospitalised on her first birthday on January 14 last, two days prior to her death. Also, falling under the remit is access to computer hard drives, electronic and phone messaging, medical, journals and travel records, and a breakdown of who baby Rehma travelled with, where she stayed and if she was examined by medical personnel during her one-month trip abroad to England, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Facing assault and battery charges, which could be upgraded to murder, pending autopsy results which have yet to be released, 34-year-old McCarthy Brady, from Moher, near Lavey appeared in a concealed dock of courtroom one at the Cambridge District Courthouse last Friday. Presiding Judge Severlin Singleton III adjourned the hearing until Friday, March 22, when a hearing on the statement of probable cause based on the Cambridge police report is expected will take place. By the time Mrs McCarthy-Brady next appears before the court she will have spent almost 10-weeks in prison in the US at Framingham Correctional facility. It has been reported that Aisling McCarthy Brady's lawyer, Melinda Thompson Thompson told the pres after the hearing that her client remained "upset" and "devastated" being faced with the charges: "She's devastated because she didn't do this", she said. She added that she was "unsure" as to whether the appointment of high-profile assistant district attorney Adrienne Lynch pointed toward the potential of a murder charge against her client; nor was she certain of the status of the as yet unknown autopsy results. A spokeswoman for the prosecution team declined to comment, except to say that they would await the findings of the autopsy. Cash bail, which remains set at $500,000 (€380,000) has not yet been met. Prior to her arrest, Mrs McCarthy-Brady had been living in Quincy, a southern suburb of Boston, since 2002. She had been living and working illegally in the US having overstayed her 90-day holiday visa.