Babysitter Lidia Quilligana Claims Child Injured Herself, But A Security Cam Reveals Horrifying Truth

Lidia Quilligana has been arrested for what can only be described as horrific injuries administered to the 3-year-old girl in her care.

The child’s mother is a Connecticut school teacher who had hired Lidia to watch her daughter while she was at work.

One day, the mom, whose identity was not released to protect the privacy of the family and the little girl, came home from work and discovered that her daughter had second-degree burns on her hands and legs along with a black eye.

Quilligana, pictured above, had a perfectly rational explanation for the injuries, she said. The little girl had accidentally burned herself on the stove at one point, and then she’d bumped her eye on the door knob and fell down.

Not entirely convinced of the story, the mom did some investigation of her own.

“Lidia, my nanny, told me that they had made pancakes and when she wasn’t watching, my daughter had pushed her little chair up to the stove and burned herself, and that she got the black eye by hitting herself on the stove knob cover when she fell,” the mom is quoted as saying in a police statement. “I called my pediatrician and was told to bring my daughter in immediately.”

Following that trip to the pediatrician, the mom reviewed the security cam footage and saw the awful truth.

Danbury Police Officer Thomas Geanuracos explains the details after watching the video himself, in the arrest report via News-Times.

“At one point, I observed Quilligana pick (the child) up by the throat with two hands and toss her to the ground…. I observed Quilligana repeatedly take (her) by the wrist and put her hands on what appeared to be hot stove burners…. I observed Quilligana at one point jump on (the child) while she was lying on the ground and it appeared Quilligana applied all of her weight onto her and then pulled her pants and underwear down and spanked her.”

“In the footage, you can see the absolute fear and pain from the trauma in (the little girl’s) facial expressions,” Geanuracos continued.

Lidia Quilligana is now under arrest, charged with the crime of first-degree assault, which means that, if convicted, she could be in prison for the next 20 years. She’s also being held on $1 million bond.

Her attorneys have not released a statement to the press.

Do you think that 20 years is a good enough sentence for Lidia Quilligana if she’s convicted of child abuse? How would you react if you were in the school teacher’s situation?