McCarthy Brady to be arraigned on murder charge today
At 2pm GMT, Cavan nanny Aisling McCarthy Brady is due to be brought before a Boston court, where she is to be arraigned on charges of murder in the first degree and assault and battery, relating to the death of a one-year-old baby earlier this year.
The Lavey native has been in custody since her arrest in connection with the death of baby Rehma Sabir almost three months ago.
On January 22 of last year, Mrs McCarthy Brady was charged with assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury before Cambridge District Court - a charge she denies. It was intimated then, by the prosecution, that once full autopsy results were made available, a charge of murder would be forthcoming.
Those results have since been released and prosecutors in the US believe they have enough evidence against Mrs McCarthy Brady to bring forward a charge of murder against her later today.
According to authorities, on January 14 at approximately 4:41pm, Cambridge Police responded to an Ash Street address, regarding an unresponsive infant, where the child was found to be breathing but unconscious. The child was transported to Children’s Hospital in Boston, where she was found to be suffering from subdural and retinal haemorrhaging and cerebral swelling. On January 16, the child, Rehma Sabir, was pronounced brain dead and subsequently died.
The DA's office had previously stated baby Rehma also had numerous bone fractures, which were in the process of healing. They further say the infant was in the sole care of the nanny during the time when she allegedly sustained the injuries prosecutors say are 'consistent with abusive head trauma'.
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'.
The charges against Mrs McCarthy Brady are at this stage only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Mrs McCarthy Brady, who had recently married in the US to her partner, Donald McCarthy from Cork, has lived and worked in the US for over a decade. She is currently being held in prison on a $500,000 bail bond. If Mrs McCarthy Brady is to post bail, she is on a court order to remain under house-arrest with GPS monitoring along with a number of other strict conditions.
At every court hearing the Cavan woman's attorney, Melinda Thompson, has stated her client's innocence, most recently stating the new charge is “wrongful” and that it compounds the already tragic circumstances surrounding baby Rehma’s death.