Nanny Given Jail Sentence for Abusing Small Child

A nanny who was caught on videotape abusing the Thousand Oaks toddler she was hired to care for was sentenced Monday to 60 days in Ventura County Jail and a three-year probation term that bans her from unsupervised contact with children.

Live-in nanny Maryam Safiaan, 33, on April 23 pleaded no contest to misdemeanor child abuse.

Clark and Loren Blowers placed a hidden video camera in their home after they noticed their son banging his head on the floor, not speaking and suffering from severe and chronic diarrhea. The first tape they made Feb. 3 ultimately led to Safiaan’s conviction.

In part, it showed Safiaan forcing 17-month-old Donovan Blowers to stand against a wall for long periods of time. If the boy moved, she would slap him, hit him with a shoe or strongly tug on his arm, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christina Harrison said.

“The pain continues every time I see my son react to something,” Clark Blowers said. “I had no idea why he hated sandals. Now I know why . . . . This woman was beating him with them.”

The child-abuse conviction through the use of videotape is believed to be the first of its kind in Ventura County, Harrison said.

Most of the physical abuse was heard off camera, though it did show Safiaan throwing a shoe at the boy, hitting him on the head three times and yanking Donovan across the floor by his arm after he was sitting quietly, she said. A felony charge was not brought against the Manhattan Beach single woman because the physical injuries were not severe enough, Harrison said.

“The emotional injuries in this case were greater than the physical injuries,” she said.

Liana Johnsson, Safiaan’s public defender, had no comment Monday. However, Nancy Shokohi, a Los Angeles County woman who subsequently had hired Safiaan to care for her two older children, spoke in the nanny’s defense.

Despite the conviction, she is not convinced by the videotape and said she continues to trust Safiaan. The nanny, she said, always treated her children well and, if not, her 7-year-old daughter would have said so.

“I trust her, yes I do,” she said. “I had to, to let her keep staying in my home.”

A throng of television news cameras and reporters flanked Safiaan as she was shuffled from the courtroom down the second-floor hallway to the public defender’s office following the sentencing.

Clark Blowers stayed within yelling distance about 20 feet behind, chiding his son’s former nanny and calling Shokohi an “awful mother” for speaking out in her defense. “This is a child abuser. She abused my son,” he yelled to anyone in the courthouse who would listen. “You’re both evil and I hope God strikes you down. . . . Everything you’ve done, everyone’s going to know about it, Maryam.”

Prosecutors sought a 120-day jail sentence and similar probation terms but were satisfied since Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell’s ruling included jail time, Harrison said.

Following the jail term, Safiaan must spend a year in child-abuse treatment. For the 36-month duration of her probation term, she cannot be employed as a nanny or left unsupervised with any child under age 18, Harrison said.

Still, the boy’s father said that while he understood the legal reasoning behind the sentence, the law is too lenient toward child abusers. He said he wanted Safiaan to spend a year behind bars.

“The way the laws are written, they really are not strong enough against child abusers,” he said. “You can see that these people are running free. That’s not right. We need to make some changes.”

Since discovering the abuse, Loren Blowers has refused to let anyone else care for her child and has stayed at home full time. She gave birth to a second child, a daughter, on Friday.