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Sadistic carer sent to prison | |
(40 minutes later) | |
A woman who punished three children in her care by ramming sticks down their throats and making them eat their own vomit has been jailed for 14 years. | |
Eunice Spry, 62, from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, was convicted at Bristol Crown Court last month, of 26 charges of abuse spanning 19 years. | |
The prosecution said Spry's behaviour was "horrifying" and "sadistic". | The prosecution said Spry's behaviour was "horrifying" and "sadistic". |
Spry had denied all the allegations against her. The offences took place in Gloucestershire between 1986 and 2005. | |
Spry, who was the legal parent of the three children, was arrested when police raided her home in February 2005. | Spry, who was the legal parent of the three children, was arrested when police raided her home in February 2005. |
Frankly, it's difficult for anyone to understand how any human being could have contemplated what you did Judge Simon Darwall-Smith | |
The 62-year-old was found guilty of a range of charges from unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation. | |
She was cleared of 12 charges. | |
Judge Simon Darwall-Smith told Spry that this was the worst case he had come across in 40 years in law. | |
He told her: "Frankly, it's difficult for anyone to understand how any human being could have even contemplated what you did, let alone with the regularity and premeditation you employed." | |
The slight figure in the dock looked on impassively as the judge sentenced her to 14 years. | |
He also ordered her to pay costs of £80,000, which he said would inevitably mean she would have to sell at least one of her two properties in Gloucestershire. |