Foster daughter who was abused by ‘Britain’s most sadistic mother’ found dead aged 35
Foster daughter who suffered 17 years of sickening torture and abuse at the hands of ‘Britain’s most sadistic mother’ is found dead aged 35 – after devoting life to safeguarding children
- Victoria Spry was subjected to physical and mental torture for 17 years
- Eunice Spry forced her foster children to eat their own excrement and vomit
- The 35-year-old dedicated her life to helping protect other vulnerable children
A foster daughter horrifically abused by ‘Britain’s most sadistic mother’ has died aged just 35 – with police confirming the death is not suspicious after her body was found at a property in Cheltenham.
Victoria Spry was subjected to sickening physical and mental torture for nearly 20 years by evil Eunice Spry.
She forced Victoria and two other children in her care to eat their own excrement and vomit.
Eunice rammed sticks down the children’s throats, rubbed their faces with sandpaper and locked them naked in rooms for weeks at a time.
Victoria Spry has died aged 35. She was subjected to sickening physical and mental torture for nearly 20 years by evil Eunice Spry
Victoria and her siblings were battered and attacked with hot pokers, machetes and cricket bats and had their heads held under water.
She eventually managed to escape and raise the alarm and Spry was jailed for 14 years, reduced to 12 on appeal – and released in 2014.
Eunice Spry (pictured) was dubbed ‘Britain’s most sadistic mother’ after subjecting foster children in her care to horrific abuse
Despite her horrendous ordeal brave Victoria later worked with social workers to help them spot the signs of abuse.
Victoria – who wrote a book about her experiences called ‘Tortured’ – has now passed away aged 35.
Her death is not being treated as suspicious and an inquest is expected to open later this week.
A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Police said: ‘Police were called to Pennine Road in Cheltenham shortly after 11.30am on Tuesday 22 September following reports that the body of a woman had been found inside a property.
‘The death is being treated as non-suspicious and the woman’s next of kin has been informed.
‘A file has been passed to the coroner.’
Victoria’s foster brother, Christopher, said Victoria wanted to be remembered for her mission to help children.
Paying tribute to the BBC he said: ‘The work she was doing with the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Board and social services was because she wanted ours to be the last “horror case” for Gloucestershire.
‘I think her legacy will be the work she was doing to help the next wave of social workers to spot cases like ours earlier on.’
Victoria, Spry’s oldest victim, had sticks forced down her throat and was tied up naked and blindfolded.
She endured 17 years of torture before she escaped and went to police and Spry was brought to justice.
But in spite of her nightmare upbringing brave Victoria went on to work as a consultant with social services in Gloucestershire.
These are some of the conditions Victoria was kept in at Eustice Spry’s home, where she endured 17 years of torture before she escaped and went to police
In spite of the horrific upbringing at Eustice Spry’s Tewkesbury home in Gloucestershire (pictured), brave Victoria went on to work with social services to protect vulnerable children
The judge who convicted Eunice Spry said the abuse and the conditios the children had to live in (pictured) made it was the ‘worst case in his 40 years practising law’
Speaking in 2015, she said she wanted to draw on her own experience and to do further child protection studies.
Victoria said: ‘My past helped me enormously.
‘It is really nice to be going to the same office where I was let down as a little one, now as a young woman helping other children.’
She added: ‘I was offered the opportunity to write the book nine years ago when Eunice was found guilty but I turned that away because it was the worst time possible.
‘I wanted to concentrate on surgery and educating myself.
Victoria was subjected to sickening physical and mental torture for nearly 20 years by evil Eunice Spry. She forced Victoria and two other children in her care to eat their own excrement and vomit
‘As I started to get older, my brother and sister had written about it and they got a lot of understanding from people about it.
‘It was really quite a liberating experience, doing the book but there are lots of other reasons.’
She only escaped when she was allowed to accompany her younger brother to Jehovah’s Witness meetings in Tewkesbury, aged 17.
She broke down and told everything to a young couple in the group who smuggled her out the house just before Christmas 2004.
It took three weeks to build up the courage to tell the police.
Jehovah’s Witness Eunice Spry, now 76, of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, was convicted of 26 charges of child abuse against children in her foster care 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’.
Eunice Spry was arrested when police raided her home in Tewkesbury in February 2005 and found children living in horrific conditions like the ones pictured here
After keeping her children in conditions like this pictured, Jehovah’s Witness Eunice Spry, now 76, of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, was convicted of 26 charges of child abuse in April 2007
She was arrested when police raided her home in Tewkesbury in February 2005.
Following Spry’s conviction, Gloucestershire County Council apologised for the ‘shortcomings’ in its care system.
Vital information which could have alerted social workers to the abuse was not shared by the various bodies involved.
Her oldest foster son, Christopher Spry, nicknamed ‘Child C’, published a book of the same name about his childhood living with her.
Foster daughter, Alloma Gilbert, also published Deliver Me From Evil while Victoria published Tortured in April 2015.
For confidential support or advice call the Samaritans on 116 123 for free or visit www.samaritans.org.
