A US-based Ghanaian mother, jailed for killing her five-year-old son, professed her love for the boy during her sentencing in a US court earlier this month.

Valerie Owusu and her husband, Emmanuel Addae, were each sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of their son, King Owusu, in the spring of 2021.

The Suffolk judge who handed down the sentence told the couple that he couldn't think of a crime "more deserving of a maximum sentence."

In her comments shortly before sentencing, she spoke about her love for King and the medical circumstances that led to the incident.

"Let no one ever say I did not love my son because I did. I do," an emotional Owusu said in a report by newsday.com.

She explained that she was suffering from depression following the birth of King's younger sister and that her son was the only person who cheered her up.

She said she would cling to those positive memories of her son while in prison.

The convicted couple, both 28, were found guilty in March of second-degree depraved indifference murder for the death of King Owusu.

Prosecutors said at trial that the child was "severely beaten" by the couple, who made no effort to seek medical help in the two days between the beating and the boy's death.

In his own brief remarks, Addae said he too "always loved King."

"One day our family will be reunited in heaven," Addae said."

SARA