Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy declared her “worst nightmare” to be finally over as she spoke publicly for the first time since a murder charge against her was dropped over the death of a baby in her care.
The Co Cavan woman, who returned to Ireland on Wednesday after being deported from the US for violating the terms of a tourist visa, told the Boston Herald before her departure from Massachusetts that what local US prosecutors did to her was "scandalous".
"They should be ashamed of themselves. The police and Dr Alice Newton [a paediatric specialist at Boston Children's Hospital], they just decided right away that I had killed the child," said Ms McCarthy.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth. I loved her and cared for her, 10 hours a day, five days a week. I would take her everywhere on day trips.”
Ms McCarthy (37) arrived at Shannon Airport at 6.15am on an Aer Lingus flight from Boston. She was accompanied by her sister and was escorted through the arrivals hall by three airport police and an airport staff member
Asked if she was glad to be home, Ms McCarthy replied: “Yes”, before breaking down in tears. She got into a car outside the airport terminal and is believed to have headed to Co Cork afterwards.
Ms McCarthy was charged initially with assault and later murder in the first degree, meaning her actions were wilful and premeditated, over the death of one-year-old Rehma Sabir in January 2013.
The Irish woman was looking after the infant when police were called to the child’s family home in Cambridge near Boston on January 14th, 2013, to find the baby unconscious but breathing in her cot. She died a few days later in hospital.
Prison time
She spent 27 months in a prison and a further three months under house arrest before Middlesex County district attorney dropped the charges.
Last Thursday, the Massachusetts medical examiner revised her view, changing the manner of the child’s death from homicide to “undetermined” as she said the infant may have died from “an undefined natural disease”.
Ms McCarthy told the Boston Herald that the police and Dr Newton were “wrong” in their initial and long-held view throughout the case.
"It seemed that except for my family and my lawyers Melinda [Thompson] and David [Meier], God bless them, no one would listen," she told Boston Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis, who had been writing critical articles about the prosecution's case for some time.
Ms McCarthy told the journalist that over her time in prison she had received frequent visits from other parents whose children had been cared for by her in the US.
“They would come every week to visit me,” she said. “The kids would bring me drawings and little gifts. They were a huge source of support and comfort to me, and they assured me that they would be there to testify on my behalf when the trial came.”
