A 30-year-old Irish nanny who was caught on videotape beating a nine-month-old baby girl and stuffing a towel into her mouth was sentenced yesterday to four years in a New Jersey state prison.
Morris County Superior Court judge Lewis Weinstein gave Irish immigrant Siobhan Diaz (30) the maximum sentence requested by prosecutors for endangering the child, who suffered no permanent injuries.
The case was the first in New Jersey to test the constitutionality of using videotapes of nannies as court evidence. Superior Court judge Catherine Langlois upheld that right during Diaz's trial last year, denying a challenge by her attorney to suppress the evidence.
The videotape, recorded on May 2nd, 1996, showed Diaz punching the infant in the head, twisting her leg and pushing a towel into her mouth. She was charged with aggravated assault and child endangerment. In a deal with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to child endangerment and the assault charge was dropped.
Diaz is married to a US citizen and is not likely to be deported, her attorney said. She will be eligible for parole in six months.
"This certainly goes out to anyone who cares for children, that they can be videotaped and it can be used against them," Judge Weinstein said. He described the case as "clearly a case of the 90s". Some 85 per cent of all parents in the US work and are required to arrange care for their children.
The child's mother, Ms Diane Hook, said she had installed the camera in the family home in Randolph, New Jersey, because she became suspicious of Diaz after catching her in a lie.
Diaz, six months pregnant, told the court before being led away in handcuffs: "I just want to say I'm sorry to everybody. I made a bad judgment call. I never intended to hurt anybody."
Hook, using her maiden name to help protect her privacy, sobbed and held her husband's hand as the sentence was announced. She told the court that Diaz "violated our trust, violated our home" and "treated our baby worse than a farm animal".