A shocked mother went to the police after discovering the nanny she hired for her daughters had been showing porn for a fortnight, teaching them about sex and making out with her boyfriend.
Helen Leah Ferriolo, 40, was said to be caring for the two sisters, ages eight and 10, along with their 10-year-old friend at the home in North Haven, Connecticut.
Instead, they were locked in a closet and subjected to weeks of sexual behavior, lewd comments and lessons in masturbation and oral sex, an affidavit alleges.
Ferriolo repeatedly masturbated in front of the children and demanded that a girl smell her fingers afterwards.
She also grabbed her breasts, asked her to “pose sexy” in her swimsuit and held her hands behind her back to make her watch a porn video.
Helen Leah Ferriolo, 40, has been charged with four counts of risk of injury to a minor, three counts of second-degree unlawful restraint and a single count of fourth-degree assault
She invited boyfriend Tim McNulty to the house without the parents’ knowledge and regaled the children with details about the couple’s sex life.
The girls revealed their ordeal to their shocked families after Ferriolo was fired for repeatedly failing to show up for work.
The girls’ aunt recorded a phone conversation in which she confronted the nanny about her behavior and pretended to have a recording of her sexualized conversations.
Ferriolo claimed the girls initiated the conversations before admitting she was sorry and that she should apologize to them.
“I probably shouldn’t have said what I said,” she reportedly admitted.
The Wallingford nanny started working for the family on July 15, taking the girls for days out at the beach in nearby East Haven.
“You have big tits, the boys will love you,” she said to one of the ten year olds as she changed clothes.
On a second visit, Ferriolo “began touching and rubbing her breasts,” before the girl pushed her away.
The nanny would also take her boyfriend Tim McNulty swimming in the family’s pool without the parents’ knowledge.
“Leah and Tim lay on top of each other while in the water and kissed,” the affidavit states.
“Leah took off her bathing suit. When the bathing suit was taken off, she didn’t see anything else because she went inside.’
The older sister was at home in a bathing suit when Ferriolo grabbed her phone and asked her to ‘pose sexy’, it is alleged.
The sitter then took a second photo after the girl turned around, but the girl waited until Ferriolo left her phone unattended before deleting the photos from it.
She allegedly told the girl’s friend to wear a “more revealing” swimsuit, and immediately after sex showed the girls a video of her and her boyfriend in bed.
The eight-year-old also did not escape the attention of the babysitter and remembered her on the couch, rubbing her breasts and groin under her clothes.
“They advised (her) that she should try it, but she refused. (Ferriolo) also made obscene gestures in front of (the eight-year-old).
“She described a specific incident where (Ferriolo) placed her hands near her own mouth and moved them around in a circular motion.”
The little girl and her sister were repeatedly locked in a closet by their caregiver, who banged on furniture to pretend there was an “intruder” in the house.
Ferriolo was fired on August 8 and the girls’ mother went to police on August 20 after they began revealing what happened.
The girls repeated the allegations in interviews with North Haven police and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.
The nanny was arrested Friday and has been charged with four counts of risk of injury to a minor, three counts of unlawful restraint in the second degree and one count of assault in the fourth degree.
She was released on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Meriden on October 3.