A girl was tortured, starved, battered to loss of life and left to rot by three “sadistic” individuals, a court docket has been advised.
Shakira Spencer died after allegedly falling beneath the affect of former neighbour Ashana Studholme, 38, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, and their good friend Lisa Richardson, 44.
The 35-year-old was “handled like a slave”, scalded on her ft and fed solely ketchup from sachets, the Previous Bailey heard.
She went from being a “stunning, glad, wholesome” dimension 16 to a “gaunt and skeletal” dimension six shortly earlier than her loss of life, jurors have been advised.
Her badly decomposed physique was discovered final September after neighbours noticed maggots coming from her flat in Ealing, west London.
Pendlebury, Richardson and Studholme are accused of homicide and stopping Ms Spencer’s lawful burial.
Opening their trial on Monday, prosecutor Allison Hunter KC mentioned: “For no matter was their unfathomable, merciless, sadistic motive, these three defendants tormented, tortured, starved, burned and finally battered Shakira Spencer to loss of life.”
After assembly the defendants, Ms Spencer was allegedly subdued and dominated primarily by Studholme and Richardson to the purpose the place she was beneath all of their “full management”.
Over a interval of months, she was allegedly remoted from everybody she had beforehand recognized, prostituted and robbed of her self respect and funds.
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She can be woken up within the early hours to scrub the defendants’ homes and despatched on errands to the outlets, it was claimed.
Ms Hunter mentioned: “In early 2021 Shakira Spencer had been a wholesome – even voluptuous – dimension 16 weighing some 74kgs (11st 9lb).
“By July 2022 Shakira Spencer was simply pores and skin and bone. Gaunt and skeletal, bruised from head to foot, with hollowed black eyes. She was barely a scrawny dimension six in pictures taken by the defendants simply earlier than she died.”
The abuse reached a “frenzied climax” on round September 11 and 12 final 12 months when Ms Spencer was overwhelmed “to the brink of loss of life” at Studholme’s house, the jury was advised.
She was bundled into the boot of Pendlebury’s borrowed Honda Civic automotive and pushed again to her flat, the place she was locked in a hallway cabinet, it was claimed.
At some stage, Ms Spencer’s physique was moved to the underside of a kids’s bunk mattress, the place she was left to rot, jurors heard.
Ms Hunter mentioned ice was packed round Ms Spencer in a primitive bid to gradual decomposition.
Newspapers have been fastidiously laid on the ground subsequent to the mattress as if Ms Spencer had been studying and died in her sleep, jurors heard.
An alternate plan to get rid of the physique in a caravan was deserted as a result of the defendants couldn’t threat shifting her because of the state of decomposition, it was prompt.
In the meantime, the three defendants allegedly set about eradicating the sufferer’s blood, bodily fluids and DNA from their properties in addition to all traces of their presence from Ms Spencer’s flat.
Ms Hunter mentioned: “It was solely when neighbours noticed maggots crawling out from beneath her door that the police have been referred to as to Shakira’s deal with on Sunday September 25 2022 and the painstaking investigation which ensued revealed intimately what they’d carried out.”
A pathologist was unable to establish precisely how Ms Spencer died because of the poor situation of her physique.
A autopsy examination discovered crushing accidents to her ear, cuts to her scalp and scalding wounds to her ft, jurors have been advised.
Pendlebury, of Ealing; Richardson, of Ealing; and Studholme, of Harrow, west London, deny the fees towards them and the trial continues.