Irish nanny held on $500K bail after infant's death; officials say she's in US illegally

The Associated Press / Times Colonist
January 22, 2013

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A nanny charged with injuring a 1-year-old girl who later died has been in the country illegally for about a decade after arriving from Ireland as a tourist, immigration officials said Tuesday.

Aisling McCarthy Brady was ordered held on $500,000 bail after pleading not guilty to a charge of assault and battery on a child causing injury. But authorities said she could be charged with murder after an autopsy is completed on Rehma Sabir, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, baby hospitalized with head injuries on Jan. 14 — her first birthday.

Prosecutors allege Brady was the only person with the child when she sustained her injuries. She died two days after being hospitalized with what authorities called head injuries and healing bone fractures.

During Tuesday's court appearance, Brady's attorney denied her client injured the child, saying Rehma had recently travelled overseas — including trips to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and London — and was found to be malnourished after coming back to the U.S.

Immigration officials said Brady, of Quincy, Massachusetts, had been living in the U.S. illegally since 2002, when she arrived from Ireland under the Visa Waiver Program. She was only authorized to stay 90 days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein said Brady will be turned over to immigration authorities after the local case is adjudicated.

On Tuesday, two deliveries of white flowers waited for the victim's parents in the lobby of their brick building close to the Charles River in Cambridge. A man who answered the phone at a listing for the victim's family asked for privacy.

Prosecutors said Brady had civil restraining orders filed against her in the past.

Court records showed orders from Dorchester District Court in 2005 and 2012, the first stemming from an alleged bar altercation and the second relating to allegations that Brady posted false claims online saying another woman abused children.

Records also showed a 2007 assault and battery case against Brady was dropped.

No one answered the door at Brady's residence Tuesday, but a Quincy non-profit official remembered the woman as a former volunteer.

Interfaith Social Services Executive Director Rick Doane spoke of the defendant as a pleasant person who helped stock shelves and hand out food in the past, but not for about two years.