Utah mother sent to prison for starving son, locking him in filthy bathroom for years

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A Utah mother guilty of child abuse by starving her 12-year-old son until he weighed 30 pounds, and locked him up in a feces-covered bathroom for more than a year, has been sentenced to a maximum of 45 years in prison.

Brandy Kay Jaynes, 36, was ordered to serve consecutive sentences of 1-15 years for each of the three second-degree felony counts of intentional child abuse she pleaded guilty to earlier this year, reported the Spectrum.

Jayne's home in southern Utah was described by prosecutors as a "torture chamber." When police searched her home in January, they said the boy had been locked in the bathroom where "feces was covering the floor and walls, the lights were duct-taped in the off position [and] the shower's drain was duct-taped closed."

The boy was also given so little food, he weighed only 30 pounds, which is the average weight of a 2-year-old.

"Instead of eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, I would only get one meal of a couple of hot dogs every other day for months," the boy, now 13, said. "I felt frozen when I was drenched with ice cold water in the winter." 

The boy's brothers, who were not abused, said he had been locked in the bathroom for two years. But officials believe he may have been in isolation for as many as eight years.

"I've been doing this for 30 years, I've never seen anything like this," said Fifth District Court Judge Eric Ludlow. "I've handled murder cases, rape cases, and I've never seen anything like this. It's unbelievable, quite frankly."