Lacey Spears, 27, of New York, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for causing the death of her five-year-old son, Garnett, by administering salt into his feeding tube from infancy while writing a blog about his illness.
The boy died in 2014 at Westchester Medical Centre after being treated for gastrointestinal symptoms that his mother had induced. His feeding tube had been in place since infancy after Spears told doctors he could not keep food down.
When she took him to hospital saying he was having seizures, doctors found his sodium levels to be extremely high. Prosecutors said that after administering salt at their suburban New York home, she twice took Garnett into a hospital bathroom to do the same. She also posted pictures of him dying on her Facebook account.
Acting state supreme court justice Robert Neary called the crime "unfathomable in its cruelty", saying it brought Garnett "five years of torment and pain". Assistant district attorney Doreen Lloyd said Spears "continued to portray him as a sick child for her own bizarre need for attention".
The judge identified Spears as suffering from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, a disorder in which a parent sickens a child to gain attention. Her defence lawyers had refused to raise the disorder as a defence and said she had not been diagnosed with any mental illness. They have filed an appeal against her conviction.
