World

'Shaken Baby' Dies, Nanny In Jail

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 22, 1998 / 8:50 AM EDT / CBS

Australian nanny Louise Sullivan, 26, is in custody and could face murder charges in the death of a baby in her charge. The case brings back memories of British nanny Louise Woodward, whose trial sparked emotional reactions on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Australian nanny now faces possible charges of murder or manslaughter. Tuesday, she was in court for a hearing when she was charged with causing grievous bodily harm to the baby, allegedly by shaking her. But sadly, right after that hearing, the baby died.

CBS News Correspondent Vicki Mabrey reports that 6-month-old Caroline Jongen was taken from her home on Friday, suffering from brain injuries. She had been in the nanny's care for six hours that day after her mother and father left for work. For five days, she was in a coma, undergoing neurological tests and brain scans. Tuesday afternoon, doctors determined that she was brain dead. With her parents at her bedside, her life support system was removed, and the baby died soon after.

It was just last fall that Americans and Britons were gripped by a similar case, that of a British au pair charged with killing an American baby. Louise Woodward, 19, was in court, charged with second-degree murder of Matthew Eappen that carried a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

Woodward declared her innocence, and the British public and press believed her, especially in her hometown of Elton, England. There was an outcry against her treatment in the American judicial system. But weeks later, the judge in the case overruled the jury's decision, lowering the second-degree murder conviction to manslaughter and sentencing her to time served, 279 days in jail. Both sides in that case are appealing the judge's ruling. Woodward remains free, but unable to leave the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This time, it will be an Australian nanny facing the British judicial system.

Sullivan moved to Great Britain from Australia last year with permission to work in the country for two years. She said she had been a nanny for five years before that, and now British police are asking any families who employed her to come forward and talk to them.

According to a statement from the hospital, the baby's parents, investment company director Marcel, 41, and his French wife, Muriel, are "deeply distressed" and have asked to be able to grieve in peace.