Slowly killing her son by poisoning him over five years with salt just to get online attention and blog follower earned for 27-year-old Lacey Spears of Scottsville, Kentucky, more than just a 20-year prison term.

Prosecutors described what she did as "evil, inhuman and despicable." However, acting state Supreme Court Judge Robert Neary acknowledged that the woman was sick from a rare mental disorder and shaved five years off her term.

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When Garnett-Paul was still a baby, she placed salt in his feeding tube. The addition of high levels of salt in his meals over five years led to Garnett's death in 2014 at Westchester Medical Centre where the boy was treated for gastrointestinal symptoms, reports BBC.

Garnett was having seizures when Spears brought him to the hospital. Doctors who examined the boy discovered an extremely high sodium level. And while in the medical centre, she administered more salt on Garnett in the bathroom.

While Garnett was dying, Spears took photos of him and then posted the images on her Facebook.

For causing torment and pain on her son for five years, Neary described the woman's action was beyond fathomable in her cruelty. Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd added that Spears' weapon of death was the feeding tube that she used to be able to portray Garnett as a sick child so she could gain more media attention.

According to probers, she said that the child had a lot of medical issues, ranging from Crohn's disease to Celiac diseases and ear abnormalities.

Neary said her mental ailment is known as Munchausen by proxy syndrome. People who are sick of that disease cause their child to become sick so in the process, they would get attention due to the child's plight.

But Spears's attorney insisted that his client has not been diagnosed of any mental illness and refused to use the so-called disorder as defense. Instead, the lawyer sought a minimum 15-year sentence and filed an appeal against her conviction.

David Sachs, the lawyer, even described Spears as "a hard-working single mother who gave her son unconditional love," quotes the Chicago Tribune.

Tagssalt poisoning, Lacy Spears, Kentucky, Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome