Eunice Spry
Eunice Spry | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 April 1944 |
| Criminal status | Released June 2014 after serving only 7 years and two months of her sentence |
| Conviction(s) | Assault, perverting the course of justice |
| Criminal charge | Assault, perverting the course of justice |
| Penalty | 14 years' imprisonment |
| Details | |
| Date | 1986 – 2005 |
Eunice Spry (born 28 April 1944)[1] is a British woman from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, a Jehovah's Witness[2] who was convicted of 26 charges of child abuse against children in her foster care in April 2007.[3] She was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment and ordered to pay £80,000 costs. In sentencing, the judge told Spry that it was the "worst case in his 40 years practising law".
The foster mother forced three children in her care (two foster, one adopted) to eat their own excrement and vomit, rammed sticks down the children's throats, rubbed their faces with sandpaper, and locked two of them naked in a room for a month. Two of her foster children and her adopted daughter have published books about their childhoods. Her oldest foster son, Christopher Spry, nicknamed 'Child C', published a book of the same name about his childhood living with Eunice Spry.[4] Her foster daughter, Alloma Gilbert, published Deliver Me from Evil.[5] Victoria Spry published Tortured in April 2015.[6]
Spry also had two other children in her care at this time, one adopted daughter and one adopted son (Christopher's younger brother), but these children did not experience the same kind of abuse that the aforementioned three did.[4] Instead, they were treated as very young children in spite of them ageing - Christopher has spoken about how his younger brother was unable to wash himself or tie his shoelaces even as a teenager.
In September 2008, Spry's sentence was reduced by the High Court to 12 years.[7] On 30 May 2014 the Gloucestershire Echo indicated she would be released in June 2014.
In September 2020, Victoria Spry died by suicide. Her siblings allege that residual trauma from the abuse she suffered led to her suicide.[2][8] In July 2024, Christopher Spry confirmed on Instagram that his other sister Alloma Gilbert had died, leaving him the only remaining survivor of Spry's abuse.
References
[edit]- ^ Davis, Carol Anne (14 July 2016). "The Foster Mother: Eunice Spry". Masking Evil: When Good Men and Women Turn Criminal. Chichester: Summersdale Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-1-78372-889-3.
- ^ a b Morris, Steven (1 October 2020). "Victoria Spry: woman who was tortured by 'sadistic' foster mother dies". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
- ^ "'Sadistic' foster mother jailed". BBC News. 19 April 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2007.
- ^ a b Spry, Christopher (2008). Child C: Surviving a Foster Mother's Reign of Terror. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1847391896.
- ^ Gilbert, Alloma (2008). Deliver Me From Evil: A Sadistic Foster Mother, A Childhood Torn Apart. Pan. ISBN 978-0330457316.
- ^ Spry, Victoria (2015). Tortured: Abused and neglected by Britain's most sadistic mum. This is my story of survival. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0091960353.
- ^ "Eunice Spry Has Sentence Reduced". Gloucestershire Constabulary. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ^ Coles, Jonathan; O'Neill, Kara (17 October 2020). "Britain's most sadistic mother 'drove our sister to take her own life'". mirror. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
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- English criminals
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- 1944 births
- Criminals from Gloucestershire
- English prisoners and detainees
- Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales
- People from Tewkesbury
- English people convicted of assault
- British people convicted of perverting the course of justice
- 2007 in England
- British Jehovah's Witnesses
- Torture in England
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