A judge has given permission for further tests on the body of the one-year-old baby at the center of Aisling Brady McCarthy’s murder trial. The Lavey, County Cavan nanny is accused of murdering baby Rehma Sabir, who was in her care.
The permission was given by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Maureen B Hogan at a hearing last Wednesday (July 16). The tests, carried out by the Chief Medical Examiner, will attempt to determine if the baby had suffered abuse prior to her death. The initial reports found evidence of older traumas.
“In order to learn as much as they can about what truly caused the child’s death, the defendant’s experts wish to take into account and conduct a comprehensive medical evaluation and examination of all the medical evidence in the case, rather than perform a piecemeal review of individual items of evidence,” attorneys Melinda Thompson and David Meier told the Boston Herald.
For some time the Irish 35-year-old nanny’s defense team have been attempting to gain access to the child’s remains. For the past 18 months her body has been in the “sole and exclusive custody” of the prosecutors. It is the defense lawyers' belief that if they can examine the baby thoroughly they will be able to exonerate Brady McCarthy who is accused of violent murder.
Judge Hogan has allowed that Doctor Maria Cohen, the defense’s expert, will present her findings following the procedure.
Rehma Sabir died on January 14, 2013, her first birthday. The Chief Medical Officer ruled her cause of death as “blunt force head injuries” and the manner or her death as “homicide” and “not accidental.” However, a skeletal survey showed “multiple old and healing fractures” to her spine, left forearm and left leg, some possibly as old as two months.
Brady McCarthy had been living in Quincy, MA, illegally. She has remained in custody since her arrest just days after she phoned the ambulance. She is currently being held at Framington State Prison, near Boston.
Her trial is expected to commence in October of this year. A hearing of her legal team’s motion to suppress evidence in the case is scheduled for August 6.
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