Nanny jailed for six years for shaking 11-month-old baby to death

A nanny working illegally in the UK when she shook an 11-month-old girl to death has been jailed for six years.

Anh Pham, 27, was seen holding little Tina Nguyen asking neighbours in Barking, east London, to ‘help me’ on October 5, 2017.

Pham, who speaks little English, began babysitting for Tina’s mother, Huong Nguyen, a month earlier earning £30 a day and had looked after her 10 times previously.

The Old Bailey heard the toddler died from a bleed on the brain caused by a significant use of force.

Pham, who had no right to remain in the country, was convicted of manslaughter last month and Mr Justice Martin Spencer today jailed her for six years.

‘On the penultimate day you looked after Tina, the baby was unwell with a running nose, a cold and teething, wanting to be carried most of the time,’ he said.

‘It was a long day for you because Tina’s mother did not come to collect her because she was running late.’

The judge said Pham was left on her own with Tina for a second day after her boyfriend left the house.

‘That must have annoyed you because it was going to be an onerous day looking after Tina because it had been the other day.

‘Tina vomited on two occasions necessitating you to clean up after her. Shortly before midday, you shook Tina’s head and probably also threw her.’

In a moving victim impact statement, Ms Nguyen described her daughter as ‘a gift from God’ after she had left her husband and two other children behind fleeing Vietnam.

‘I felt as if everything had collapsed on me,’ she said. ‘I still felt there was hope because the ambulance were trying to save her.

‘I wanted to hold her in my arms to hold her hands. I felt at the time that Tina’s heart was beating fast because I was not there.

‘I was allowed in to hold Tina at about 8pm. I was praying and I was crying, I wished for a miracle to happen. I said to Tina “Don’t leave” and I felt her heartbeat move back up a little bit.’

Tina was taken to Queen’s Hospital in Romford before being transferred to Great Ormond Street where it was discovered her brain had shifted 15mm inside her skull, causing the brain to swell and pressure to build.

‘The death of any child is likely to be emotive most especially where an adult on whom they were wholly dependent is said to have caused it,’ said prosecutor Hugh Davies QC.

‘What caused this death was traumatic and consistent with Tina having been shaken with a significant degree of force or a blow to her left-hand forehead.

‘These actions caused acceleration or deceleration of the brain within the skill and for a bridging vein in the brain to rupture and bleed.

‘Tina did not suffer, we contend, a progressive loss of consciousness from a slow bleed.

‘[Pham] may have momentarily have lost control and in frustration shaken Tina or hit her in a way that caused the movement of the brain that caused this injury.’

Pham, of Barking, was jailed for six years and was told she is likely to face deportation proceedings.