Call center agent draws jail term for killing child

BACOLOD CITY—A regional trial court here sentenced a call center agent to 17 years in prison about two months after the call center worker pleaded guilty of killing his six-year-old daughter in 2010.

Judge Philadelfa Pagapong Agraviador, of Regional Trial Court Branch 43 here, handed the sentence down on Bernard Nolan, 28, who pleaded guilty of parricide last April 9.

Nolan bargained for the lighter sentence. He faced a sentence of life imprisonment before he entered into a plea bargaining agreement with the court, said city prosecutor Amando Abanado.

Nolan and his live-in-partner, Rachel Esguera, were arrested on Oct. 27, 2010, several hours after their six-year-old daughter died at the Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital where the couple took the child for bruises and concussion.

Nolan volunteered to enter the plea bargaining agreement without Esguera, who still faces trial for the death of the child.

Eli Cong, city medico-legal officer, said the child had bruises all over her body which were signs that she had been beaten up. The girl’s buttock had burn marks believed to be from iron.