Mummy blogger ‘poisoned her own son to get sympathy from people online’

Lacey Spears pictured with her son, Garnett-Paul, who she is alleged to have killed

 The world has gone gaga with the possibilities provided by the internet. But who could have believed that the situation has gotten so bad, that a woman, would kill her own son, in cold blood, for the sake of getting the world's attention, online.

According to this report: A woman accused of killing her 5-year-old son by feeding him salt through a stomach tube calmly ‘watched and waited’ for the poisoning to take effect, summoning help only after he began writhing and retching, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

In her opening statement at the murder trial of Lacey Spears, Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd said she researched, planned, carried out and tried to cover up the killing of her blond, blue-eyed son, Garnett-Paul.

‘It seems to go against nature,’ the prosecutor said. ‘But Lacey Spears is not like most people.’ She said Spears enjoyed the ‘attention and sympathy’ she received from having a sick child.

Spears, of Scottsville, Kentucky, had documented Garnett’s declining health on social media. She wiped away a tear as the prosecutor spoke.

Defense lawyer Stephen Riebling told the jurors there are no eyewitnesses and no direct evidence that the 27-year-old Spears poisoned her son.

He added: ‘There is no evidence in this case that legitimately answers the question `Why?”

Lloyd alleged Spears fed her son the salt in the bathroom of a Nyack Hospital room after he was admitted. The mother had told doctors he was having seizures.

Lloyd told jurors they would see hospital video showing mother and son twice going into the bathroom and then see Garnett become ill soon afterward both times. He died of high sodium levels that caused swelling of the brain.

But the bathroom is out of the range of the camera, and Riebling noted that no one saw Spears feed her son salt.

He said, in context, Spears’ actions show a caring mother.

He implored the jurors to ‘set aside emotion.’

Riebling also appeared to blame the hospital, in the New York suburbs near the Spearses’ Chestnut Ridge home, noting it was only there that a high sodium level was detected.

The defense lawyer said the prosecution case was ‘riddled with reasonable doubt.’

The Spearses lived in Chestnut Ridge at the time of Garnett’s death. Lacey Spears moved to Kentucky afterward and was living there when she was arrested.

Garnett’s death ended a short life filled with doctor and hospital visits that his mother tirelessly documented in thousands of postings on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and a blog.

Many of the postings will be in evidence, along with Spears’ online research into the dangers of sodium in children and hospital records from New York, Florida and Spears’ native Alabama. Also in evidence is a feeding bag prosecutors believe was used to hold the salt – and which they say she tried to hide after Garnett’s death.

Defense attorneys have insisted that there will be no mention of Munchausen by proxy, a disorder in which caretakers secretly harm children to win sympathy. Some experts believe that disorder fits Spears’ actions.

MN