US Mother Gets 20 Years For Poisoning 5-Year-Old Son To Death

Lacey Spears, convicted for poisoning her 5-year-old son to death, was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years to life in prison. The 27-year-old mother was found guilty after a 14-day trial by a jury on Mar. 2.

Westchester County's assistant district attorney, Doreen Lloyd, said that the mother’s actions were inhuman, despicable and evil. She described in court how the mother put salt into her son’s feeding tube while he lay sick in the hospital.

The child was unable to vomit the salt up as he had suffered from scarring previous. The baby boy eventually had explosive bouts of diarrhoea, which went on for hours while his body tried expelling the poison.

Acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary said that the mother’s condition caused her to long for attention. The woman apparently suffers from Münchausen by proxy syndrome. She poisoned her son as his illness caused people to give attention to the mother.

Spears’ lawyers, however, did not use the disorder as a defence. Both sides decided not to mention the condition during the trial.

Even though the judge believed that the mother was suffering from a mental condition, he dismissed the idea that it affected her competency to stand trial. The judge said that Spears’ action was not a spontaneous or ill-conceived solitary act. He said that he was offering something to the mother that she had not offered to her son: mercy.

"It was a serious and orchestrated series of actions that really shock the conscience," Neary said. The judge added the mother’s actions were “unfathomable in its cruelty” as she had brought her son “five years of torment and pain.”

While Spears was entitle to getting 25 years to life, the judge restrained from the maximum penalty. According to him, one does not have to be a psychiatrist to realise that the mother suffers from Münchausen by proxy.

The mother, on the other hand, tried blaming doctors for her son’s death. She alleged that her prosecution was a conspiracy against her by law enforcement officials. Munchausen by proxy is clinically known to be a factitious disorder imposed on another. In certain cases, mothers secretly hurt children and enjoy the sympathy and attention.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au