An Irish nanny accused of murdering a little girl in her care has been granted bail but will remain on house arrest in Massachusetts.
Aisling Brady McCarthy, from Cavan, has been in prison since 2013 when she was charged with killing one-year-old Rehma Sabir on the child’s birthday, January 14.
The nanny’s defence team say that Rehma was not in the care of Brady McCarthy when her injuries occurred. Records show that the child had travelled to London, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia with her Pakistani parents in the weeks leading up to her death. The defence claim the injuries Rehma died from were caused during this time.
Speaking in court, defence attorney Melinda Thompson requested that bail be set at $15,000, a fraction of the original $500,000 Brady McCarthy was held on. She also revealed that the woman’s husband and extended family had travelled to Boston to be with her, meaning she was unlikely to attempt to flee the country.
“She has a place to go. She can be there in home confinement. There is no reason to believe she wants to flee. Her face is all over the papers in Ireland, so going back there is the last thing she wants to do,”
The next hearing in the case has been set for May 19.
Rehma’s father Sameer Sabir, a medical device entrepreneur and her mother Nada Siddiqui have since set up a foundation called the Rehma Fund for Children to help parents to deal with the emotional trauma of a child’s illness.
