A Connecticut nanny accused of burning a
3-year-old's hand and leg on a hot stove, swinging her by the hair and
trapping her inside a toy chest has been sentenced to 15 years in
prison.
Lidia Quilligana, 32, learned
her fate during an emotionally charged sentencing hearing on Tuesday,
six weeks after she pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, which was
reduced from first-degree assault in exchange for pleading guilty to 24
counts of risk of injury to a minor.
Quilligana
pleaded guilty to some charges under the Alford doctrine, meaning she
doesn't agree with all the evidence but acknowledges there's enough for a
conviction.
Nanny punished: Lidia Quilligana, 32, (pictured in court Tuesday) has
been sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to abusing and
torturing three children, ages three and one, in 2015
Crocodile tears: Quilligana sobbed in court and apologized for losing
control while looking after her employers' children, who prosecutors say
were burned, beaten and tortured
The caretaker, an immigrant from Ecuador with three children of her own, was arrested in 2015 in Danbury after she was caught on a hidden camera repeatedly abusing her employers' 3-year-old girl and 1-year-old twin siblings, according to The News-Times.
The caretaker, an immigrant from Ecuador with three children of her own, was arrested in 2015 in Danbury after she was caught on a hidden camera repeatedly abusing her employers' 3-year-old girl and 1-year-old twin siblings, according to The News-Times.
Prosecutors say she also ripped hair out of the children's heads.
A defense attorney called Quilligana's
actions 'unfathomable' at Tuesday's sentencing, but said she was not a
'monster' but 'a sad person who lost control.'
The
attorney also said Quilligana was abused as a child at the hands of her
drunkard father and was using the only discipline she knew.
Plea deal: Quilligana, pictured in her
mugshot, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree assault and 24 counts
of risk of injury to a minor
An
advocate for the three victims said the abuse suffered by the 3-year-old
girl and her younger siblings could only be described as torture.
Quilligana
had worked for the family for about a year when the abuse came to
light. At the time of her arrest in March 2015, she was pregnant with
her third child.
The family had set up the nanny camera in December 2014 after suspecting that something was happening to their eldest daughter.
On
March 27, 2015, the child's mother had come home from work when she saw
her daughter's burned hands and black eye and asked Quilligana what
happened, according to court records.
An
arrest warrant said the nanny lied to the mother that the child had
placed a chair next to the stove and accidentally burned her hands
before falling and injuring her head on one of the stove's knobs.
But
surreptitiously recorded video showed that it was Quilligana who
dragged the toddler to the hot stove and placed her hands and legs
against the burners.
Plea deal: Quilligana, pictured in her mugshot, pleaded guilty in July
to second-degree assault and 24 counts of risk of injury to a minor
The girl suffered from second-degree burns, according to The News-Times.
The girl suffered from second-degree burns, according to The News-Times.
‘There
was an amount of sustained and depraved cruelty that I’ve never seen
before,’ said attorney Sharon Dornfeld, who was appointed to represent
the victims. ‘She tortured those children.’
According
to the prosecution, the nanny cam recorded 10 days’ worth of abuse in
March 2015, showing Quilligana, among other things, causally picking up
the three-year-old girl by the hair and swinging her around, 'much like a
track star swing a hammer,' said Assistant State's Attorney Warren
Murray.
source : Daily Mail
Her excuse: A lawyer for Quilligana, pictured in court in March 2015,
said she was abused as a child at the hands of her drunkard father and
was using the only discipline she knew
At another point in the recording, which
has been sealed by the judge, Quilligana could be seen letting the
toddler out of a toy box, where she had been confined, and ordering her
to go upstairs, only to viciously slap the child across the face.
‘I
couldn’t control myself,’ Quilligana said Tuesday through an
interpreter. ‘Believe me, I loved those children with all my heart. I’m
sorry a thousand times.’
The victims' mother rejected the nanny's apology and said in a statement there was no excuse for her conduct.
The judge agreed, telling the defendant 15 years 'doesn't even come close to fitting the crime.'