Known as a “mommy blogger,” Lacey Spears regularly posted on-line about her son’s chronic medical conditions. But it turns out her son Garnett Paul Spears was repeatedly hospitalized because that’s exactly what his mother wanted! It’s called “Munchausen by proxy” syndrome: a parent or other caregiver exaggerates a child’s ailments or even causes them. In this twisted form of hypochondria, the adult uses the child’s illness as a way of getting attention.
In April of 2015, Lacey Spears was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 20 years to life behind bars. The jury determined that she had killed her 5 year-old son Garnett by administering a massive dose of salt through his feeding tube. Chillingly, there was evidence that she had researched the dangers of salt overdoses in children. Below, we’ve posted a news video about the case.
At Bedford Hill Prison in Westchester County, New York, Spears she met immediate hostility from other inmates and was repeatedly bullied. As Spears herself described it when talking to an author writing about her case: “It’s been brutal here. Crimes involving children are considered the worst here. I hear them talking behind my back, calling me ‘baby killer,’ ‘child killer,’ and ‘mother of the year.’ But I know it’s not who I am. It’s been very hard, adjusting to being here. You always have to look behind your back, and I don’t trust anyone. I don’t have any friends, but I have people to talk to.”
Prison authorities have offered to put Spears in protective custody, but she’s refused since this would be tantamount to being in solitary confinement 23 hours a day.
What do you think? Should Lacey Spears get some kind of special treatment because of all the bullying or is that just part of paying for her crime? Give us your view in the Facebook comments. Don’t forget to like and share: your friends will probably have something to say about this, too.
