Mother was only fed ketchup sachets as she was enslaved, tortured, burned and beaten to death by three ‘sadistic’ killers, court hears

A mother was given nothing but packets of ketchup as she was enslaved, tortured, burned and beaten to death by three “sadistic” killers, a court has heard.

Shakira Spencer, 35, was found dead by police at her home in Hanwell, west London, after a neighbor spotted maggots crawling under her front door on September 25, 2022.

Ashana Studholme, 38, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, and Lisa Richardson, 44, all deny murder and preventing a lawful burial.

Allison Hunter KC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey the three killers controlled and tortured Ms Spencer, who was described as a “beautiful, healthy, happy woman”.

“Whatever their cruel and sadistic motivation, these three defendants tormented, tortured, starved, burned and ultimately beat Shakira to death,” Ms Hunter said.

“In the months leading up to her murder, the defendants, primarily Studholme and Richardson, subjugated and dominated Shakira so completely that she was under their complete control.

“She was isolated from everyone she had known before, her free will seemingly undermined and stolen from her.

“They stole her self-esteem, her finances, took over her apartment, prostituted her (or so they claimed), treated her like a slave, ordered her to get up early in the morning to clean their homes, sent her to the stores to do their shopping, feeding her only ketchup packets.

Ms Hunter added: “Then, in circumstances of incredible depravity, (they) bragged and sometimes photographed and filmed what they had done and intended to do to him.”

“The last beatings to death took place at the home of Ashana Studholme, probably between September 11 and 12.”

Ms Spencer was once a “voluptuous size 16” but was reduced to “skin and bones” in July last year, jurors heard.

The victim was locked in the boot of a red Honda Civic motor vehicle borrowed by Pendlebury from his aunt on the evening of September 12, the court heard.

He was driven by him and Studholme to Shakira’s apartment in Hanwell.

They placed her body in a cupboard in her hallway while they returned to Studholme’s home in Greenhill Road, Harrow, and “together with Lisa set up the clean-up operation”, the prosecutor said.

“They had initially planned to dispose of his body in a caravan that Pendlebury had borrowed from his same aunt on September 15, 2022,” Ms Hunter said.

“Pendlebury never returned the trailer to his aunt, but once the three defendants began removing what they believed to be all traces of Shakira’s blood, bodily fluids and DNA from their own respective premises , and tried to erase traces of their presence in Shakira’s apartment after she died.

Shakira was found dead by police at her home in Hanwell, west London (pictured) after a neighbor spotted maggots crawling under her front door on September 25, 2022.

Ms Hunter said the defendants were filmed on CCTV buying cleaning products and heading towards Shakira’s apartment in the early hours of September 16.

“Her state of decomposition must have been so severe that they could no longer risk moving her. So they just left her there to be found,” Ms Hunter said.

“It was only when neighbors saw maggots coming out from under her door that police were called to Shakira’s address on Sunday September 25, 2022 and the careful investigation that followed revealed in detail what they had done.

“Shakira’s state of decomposition was so severe that it was not possible to determine the precise mechanism that caused her death.

“The autopsy revealed crush injuries where his left ear should have been, four ‘deficient areas’ on what would have been his scalp representing full thickness lacerations that would have been inflicted from his alive, defects in the bone of his left eye. taken.’

Ms Hunter added that the injuries also included epidermal degloving of the feet, consistent with burns – “one of the activities that Shaun Pendlebury admitted to his mother and uncle that he had participated in”.

At the start of 2021, Shakira was a “healthy, even voluptuous, size 16,” the prosecutor said.

“In July 2022, Shakira Spencer was nothing but skin and bones.

“Gaunted and skeletal, bruised from head to toe with sunken black eyes, she was barely a size 6 in the images taken by the defendants just before her death.” ‘

Ms Hunter told the jury how Shakira met the three defendants.

“They are connected to each other and remotely to Shakira through a complex web of relationships.

“Shaun Pendlebury is the son of Michelle Pendlebury.

“Michelle and Eli Shaun Pendlebury confessed to his involvement in the torture that led to the death of Shakira Spencer; and from Fern he had to borrow his car used to move Shakira in the trunk, his caravan: intended to be disposed of with Shakira’s body inside, and to whom he left a suitcase with cleaning products that he and his co-defendants had used to clean the apartment where Shakira had died and decomposed.

“Michelle Pendlebury knew Lisa Richardson as a friend of her sister, and Lisa Richardson’s brother Craig was a friend of Shaun, which undoubtedly led to his introduction to Lisa.”

Ms Hunter added: ‘Studholme and Richardson used Shakira’s bank and charge cards at will, for their food, sundries and taxi rides etc, but in acts of particularly inhumane brutality, Wild and ironic, they also used them to purchase the materials they used to try to remove traces of Shakira’s bodily fluids and DNA that would reveal the extent and locations of their latest beatings and the storage of his barely conscious body before his death.

The court also heard that Richardson sent a series of messages mocking and insulting Shakira.

On July 14, she sent a message to Carla Gilmaney saying: “I just fucked this bitch up…she’s gonna, no we’re gonna xx, I’m gonna smash, hurry up”. no, kidding.’

She sent another message saying she was going to “crush” Shakira, it was said.

The next day, Richardson allegedly sent a message saying, “So at the end of the day she deserved everything she got…I didn’t even beat her that much – I just gave her a few slaps and a tappy tappy.” (clicks can be heard) clicks 1-2-3 but no.

On July 22, Richardson sent a message showing Shakira with an extended nose, the court heard.

“In August, there were more images of Shakira, beaten with black eyes, and lying asleep or unconscious on Lisa Richardson’s couch, which she sent with an accompanying message saying “look who I ‘have “.

Pendlebury, Richardson and Studholme all deny murder and prevent a legal burial.

The trial continues.