The Saga of Aisling Brady McCarthy Is Over

Aisling Brady McCarthy in May. via AP.

Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy walked out of a Middlesex Superior Court on Monday a free woman for the first time since she was charged with murdering a Cambridge infant in 2013.

All charges against McCarthy, 37, were dropped by the prosecution after a report from a medical examiner determined that 1-year-old Rehma Sabir had a troubled medical history that made her susceptible to easy bleeding. The report ran counter to the prosecution’s case that Sabir was a victim of shaken baby syndrome and suffered under the abusive care of McCarthy. Sabir’s mother, Rhema, claimed after her arrest that McCarthy beat the child to death but evidence reviewed by the medical examiner earlier showed those injuries were sustained long before she was in the care of McCarthy.

It’s possible, the examiner concluded, that Sabir suffered from an undiagnosed condition and officially changed her cause of death from homicide to “undetermined.”

McCarthy was held in a jail cell from the time of her arrest in January 2013 until May when she was released on bail before the start of a possible trial in October. At the time, McCarthy was required to surrender her passport, wear a GPS monitoring device, and put up $15,000 in bail. She was under a virtual house arrest that limited her daily movements and contact, still, it beat rotting away in a jail cell while waiting for a trial to start.

It’s not all good news for McCarthy though as she now faces immediate deportation from the United States. McCarthy entered the United States in 2002 on a tourist visa but never left. She eventually put down roots in Boston, built a life, and married Irish national Dan McCarthy in September 2012.

McCarthy was arrested by immigration officials  when she was formally released though she planned to leave the country on Tuesday and even bought a one-way ticket on Aer Lingus. Still, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials wanted were determined to formally process and deport McCarthy for her actions, as she is seen as a “significant violator” of American immigration law according to the Irish Times.

The rules of her deportation could ban her from reentering the United States for up to ten years though they would not block her from seeking legal damages in court for her imprisonment. Any lawsuit against the Middlesex District Attorney’s office would be a major uphill battle.

It was unknown at press time if McCarthy left Boston on Tuesday night.