Three jailed for murder of woman who was starved, tortured and battered to death

Three people have been jailed for murdering a vulnerable woman they “treated like a slave” by starving, torturing and beating her.

Ashana Studholme, 39, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, and their friend Lisa Richardson, 45, were handed life sentences with a minimum term of 34 years each for killing Shakira Spencer and preventing her lawful burial.

The trio were found guilty of murdering the 35-year-old in December.

Read more: What happened to Shakira Spencer?

They beat and tortured Ms Spencer, including scalding her feet and feeding her only ketchup from sachets.

Her badly decomposed body was found in September 2022 after neighbours saw maggots coming from her flat in Ealing, west London.

The mother-of-two had fallen under the influence of her former neighbour, Studholme, and was subjected to “dehumanising and degrading” treatment by the group.

The court heard the defendants, from west London, subdued and dominated Ms Spencer to the point that she was under their “complete control”.

She was isolated, prostituted and robbed of her self-respect and finances over many months, jurors were told.

She went from being a “beautiful, happy, healthy” size 16 to a “gaunt and skeletal” size six shortly before her death.

An ‘orgy of violence’

Sentencing the trio on Friday, Judge Angela Rafferty KC said none of them took any responsibility and continued to blame each other for Ms Spencer’s death.

“You, Pendlebury, lived in her flat whilst she slept in a bike shed; you, Studholme, started as a friend but ended as the worst kind of enemy a person could have; you, Richardson, showed Shakira nothing but exceptional contempt and aggression,” Ms Rafferty said.

“This murder is marked by extreme, calculated and brutal violence and torture,” she added, describing what happened to Ms Spencer as an “orgy of violence”.

“I am of no doubt that you all intended to kill Shakira. This was a sadistic campaign in which you all took pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering on a vulnerable woman,” Ms Rafferty said.

In an impact statement read to the court, Ms Spencer’s son, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “I’ve suffered with daily nightmares and anxiety over what happened to her. I cannot get the horrible image of my mother looking skinny and unwell out of my head.”

“Why were they [the defendants] so heartless? What could cause them to torture another human?

“I hope that every day they feel bad for the choices they have made.”

He described his mother as “the best”.

“She was not perfect but she made me feel happy, safe and loved, I miss her every day and wish for a chance to see and speak with her again,” he said.

While Ms Spencer’s mother, Merjia Spencer, described her as a “caring and sweet-natured person” who was keen to please people, this trait also made her vulnerable.

Beaten ‘to the brink of death’

All three of the defendants were arrested hours after the discovery of Ms Spencer’s body.

Their mobile phones were seized and hundreds of messages were found referencing the abuse to which they had subjected Ms Spencer.

Richardson and Studholme exchanged images mocking her, and videos of Ms Spencer being beaten up while the others laughed and jeered were also discovered.

The abuse reached a “frenzied climax” in September 2022 when Ms Spencer was beaten “to the brink of death” at Studholme’s home.

She was bundled into the boot of a borrowed car and driven back to her flat, where she was locked in a hallway cupboard.

As part of the attempted cover-up, newspapers were then carefully laid on the floor next to the bed as if Ms Spencer had been reading and died in her sleep.

The defendants also cleaned the victim’s blood, bodily fluids and DNA from their homes and removed all traces of their presence from Ms Spencer’s flat.

Prosecutor Allison Hunter KC said during the trial: “For whatever was their unfathomable, cruel, sadistic motive, these three defendants tormented, tortured, starved, burned and eventually battered Shakira Spencer to death.”

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Jurors had deliberated for nearly 18 hours to reach their verdicts in December and were excused by the judge from further jury service for life due to the “harrowing nature” of Ms Spencer’s case.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Brian Howie, previously said: “Shakira was a beautiful, happy mother, who was kind and had a trusting nature.

“Shakira could be vulnerable and these defendants took advantage of that by controlling and isolating her from everyone she knew in order to control and enslave her in the most dehumanising and degrading way.”

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