Eunice Spry (born 28 April 1944) is a British woman from

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

, a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...

who was convicted of 26 charges of

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

against children in her

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family ...

in April 2007. 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. Her foster daughter, Alloma Gilbert, published ''Deliver Me From Evil''. Victoria Spry published ''Tortured'' in April 2015. 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 abuse that the aforementioned three did. In September 2008, Spry's sentence was reduced by the High Court to 12 years. 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 Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

References

English criminals Living people 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 {{crime-bio-stub