Judge Neary then asked Lacey Spears if she had anything to say to the court before he passed the sentence.
“Miss Spears,” he told her, “in many respects your crime is unfathomable in its cruelty. You give rise to many questions that i, frankly, do not have answers for. How could a mother ever treat her innocent child in such a callous, inhuman and calculating manner? Do you even realize the magnitude of your crime? Why didnt you seek help at some point?
The judge told her that this was not a spontaneous or single, ill-conceived, solitary act.
“It was a series of planned and orchestrated actions that really shock the conscience,” he said “Instead of nurturing and protecting a beautiful child, you subjected him to five years of torment and pain. Anyone that saw the video evidence of Garnett in the hospital, writhing in pain,- may never be able to erase those images for their minds.”
He noted that, after her arrest, she had refused to admit her guilt, accusing the “dedicated doctors and nurses” that tried to save her sons life of being “negligent, deceitful and uncaring.”
“Nothing could be farther from the truth.” he told her. “You attempted to portray the police and prosecutors as unethical and unwilling participants in an elaborate conspiracy to deny you justice.”
“One does not have to be a psychiatrist to realize that you suffer from a mental illness known as Münchausen syndrome by proxy,” he told her. “I hope you, over the next few years, come to terms with your condition and are receptive to any treatment that may be available to you.”
Then the judge asked whether something “even remotely positive” could emerge from this tragedy.
“My hope,” he told her, “is that the publicity that Garnett’s case generates serve to put a spotlight on Münchausen syndrome by proxy, and that the public becomes more aware of this condition, and that people do not shy away from reporting suspected abusers who exhibit symptoms of this illness.”
