Babysitter granted $100k bail as sentencing is appealed

Babysitter granted $100k bail as sentencing is appealed

Chief Justice Ian Chang on Wednesday granted bail in the sum of $100,000 for the 19-year-old babysitter who was sentenced to five years in jail after she pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to a one year old child who was in her care.

The young woman Fatima Martin is being represented by Attorney Sase Gunraj who explained to News Source that he filed an appeal in the matter and immediately moved to the High Court seeking bail for his client and bail was granted.

The Court of Appeal will now be handling the matter and will be examining the decision by Magistrate Sueanna Lovell to impose the 5 year jail sentence on the young woman. The Magistrate in her ruling had pointed to the fact that the woman did not show any remorse for the crime she pleaded guilty to and the age of the child as the factors which influenced her decision to hand down the maximum sentence in the case.

Earlier this week, a number of women rights and Amerindian rights groups protested the sentencing by the Magistrate, saying that it was too harsh and that they believed that the babysitter was being overworked and underpaid by the parents of the child. The child’s  mother is also a Magistrate while the father is an Attorney. They have both rubbished claims that the young woman was treated badly while in their employ and they have also shot down reports that she was abused by them after they learnt of the incident involving their baby.

Medical reports provided by two doctors to the court found that the baby suffered a number of injuries to the face and the left eye as a result of blunt trauma with a fist. The baby’s left eye bore a number of injuries and was completely covered in blood.

The parents said they were at work when they were called home by the baby sitter who at first claimed that the child had fallen from the bed but later said that the child slipped from her hands while she was giving her a bath. The parents said she eventually admitted that she had hit the baby in a fit of rage because the baby did not want to put  on the pampers.

The doctors’ reports said the injuries were not consistent with any fall but appeared more consistent with strangulation and blunt trauma.

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