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 fed only ketchup packets when 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, on September 25, 2022, after a neighbor spotted maggots crawling under her front door.

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

Allison Hunter KC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey that the three killers controlled and tortured Mrs Spencer, who was described as a ‘beautiful, happy, healthy’ woman.

“Whatever their cruel, sadistic motive, 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, so completely subjugated and dominated Shakira 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-respect and her finances, took over her apartment, prostituted her (or so they claimed), treated her like a slave ordering her to wake up in the early morning hours to clean their houses, and sent her to the stores to do her shopping and only give her ketchup bags.

Ms Hunter added: ‘Then, in circumstances of incredible depravity, (they) bragged about and occasionally photographed and filmed what they were doing and planning to do to her.

‘The last assault on the verge of her death took place at Ashana Studholme’s home, 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 stuffed into the boot of a red Honda Civic motor vehicle that Pendlebury had borrowed from his aunt on the evening of September 12, the court heard.

It was driven back to Shakira’s flat in Hanwell by him and Studholme.

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

“Their initial plan had been to dump her body in a caravan Pendlebury had borrowed from his aunt on September 15, 2022,” Ms Hunter said.

‘Pendlebury never returned the caravan to his aunt, but after the three defendants began removing what they thought were all traces of Shakira’s blood, bodily fluids and DNA from their own premises, and attempted to find traces of their presence in Shakira’s apartment after she lay dead.’

Ms Hunter said the defendants were captured on CCTV buying cleaning products and walking towards Shakira’s flat in the early hours of September 16.

‘Her state of decomposition must have been so bad 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 crawling out from under her door that police were called to Shakira’s address on Sunday 25 September 2022 and the painstaking investigation that followed revealed in detail what they had done.

‘Shakira’s state of decomposition was so poor that the precise mechanism that caused her death could not be determined.

‘The autopsy revealed crushing injuries where her left ear would have been, four ‘deficient areas’ on what would have been her scalp, representing full-thickness lacerations that would have been inflicted while she was alive, defects in the bone of her left eye socket.’

Ms Hunter added that the injuries also included detachment of the epidermis from the feet, which is consistent with burning – ‘one of the activities that Shaun Pendlebury admitted to his mother and uncle and in which he had taken part.’

By early 2021, Shakira was a “healthy, even voluptuous size 16,” the prosecutor said.

“In July 2022, Shakira Spencer was only skin and bones.

“Emaciated and bruised from head to toe with hollow black eyes, she was barely a size 6 thin in the photographs the defendants took just before her death. ‘

Ms Hunter explained to the jury how Shakira met the three defendants.

‘They are connected to each other and to Shakira at a distance 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 would borrow her car with which Shakira was transported in the trunk, her caravan: intended to be thrown away with Shakira’s body inside, and with whom he left a suitcase containing cleaning products that he and his co-defendants had used to clean the flat where Shakira had died and dissolved.”

‘Michelle Pendlebury knew Lisa Richardson as a friend of her sister’s, and Lisa Richardson’s brother Craig was a friend of Shaun’s, which no doubt led to his introduction to Lisa.’

Ms Hunter added: ‘Studholme and Richardson used Shakira’s bank and debit cards at their discretion for their food, sundries and taxi rides etc. used to remove traces of Shakira’s bodily fluids and DNA which would reveal the extent and location of their final abuse and storage of her barely conscious body in the run-up to her death.’

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

On July 14, she sent a message to Carla Gilmaney saying: ‘I just fucked this b**** this b****… she goes no we go xx I’m breaking yay no joke.’

She sent another message saying she was going to “grind” 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 hit her that much – I just gave her a couple of slaps, a tappy tappy. (slap sounds are heard) clap 1-2-3 but no.’

On July 22, Richardson sent a message in which Shakira showed an elongated nose, the court heard.

‘In August, there are more images of Shakira, beaten with black eyes, and sleeping 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 the murder and prevent a legal burial.

The process continues.