A US mother was sentenced to between eight and 10 years in prison yesterday for attempted murder by withholding anti-cancer drugs from her dying nine-year-old son.

The sentence for Kristen LaBrie, a single mother from Salem, Massachusetts, was less than the maximum possible of 20 years. Her jail time will be followed by five years probation. Judge Richard Welch said she deserved punishment “albeit tempered with mercy” for actions that were “extended, sec­retive and calculated. These were acts that really do chill one’s soul.”

The length of the prison sentence will depend on Ms LaBrie’s behaviour behind bars.

During the trial, doctors testified that the boy, Jeremy Fraser, died from respiratory complications related to leukaemia diagnosed in 2008. He was also autistic. In 2006, the boy was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and doctors then said he had an 85 to 90 per cent chance of survival if he followed a two-year treatment plan.