Woman 'controlled partner and pal then encouraged them to beat woman to death'
A woman "controlled" her boyfriend and best friend, then encouraged them to beat another woman to death, a court has heard.
Police officers were called to the home of Shakira Spencer, 35, in Hanwell, west London, after a neighbour spotted maggots crawling from under her front door on September 25, 2022. The Old Bailey heard the woman was once a size 16 but was reduced to "skin and bone" by July last year, and fed just sachets of ketchup as she was enslaved and tortured.
Ashana Studholme, 38, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, both of Ealing, and Lisa Richardson, 44, of Harrow, all deny murder and preventing a lawful burial. The three alleged killers controlled and tortured Ms Spencer, described as a "beautiful happy, healthy" woman before fatally beating her and locking her in a cupboard to die, it is claimed.
Shakira, pictured in 2007, was reduced to 'skin and bone' by July last year (PA)They took over her flat and finances, and then treated her like a slave while filming their abuse of her, the court heard. Shaun's mother Michelle Pendlebury, who was also a friend of Studholme, told jurors how Studholme controlled her son and Richardson. Ms Pendlebury said on one occasion Studholme made her hit Ms Spencer. She said that Studholme was "opinionated", had "a lot of attitude", and was "quite a force". Ms Pendlebury had been good friends with Studholme and would go to her home nearly every day.
The friendship came to an end around June 2022 when she claimed to see Studholme set upon Ms Spencer and attack her on the floor. Ms Pendlebury told police that Studholme was controlling towards her son and Richardson. She said she saw things she did not like but stuck with her until the incident where Ms Spencer was beaten. Ms Pendlebury said she told other friends to keep a distance and that Studholme was bad news. She also told her son to stay away but never knew the extent of their relationship, she said.
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Ms Pendlebury told police there had been an occasion where she had hit Ms Spencer on Studholme's instruction. "She'll make you hit her too. She gets you riled up and you don't even know why you're just worked up," she said. "I have hit her before in the past with Shanti there - but it was once but I'm sorry and I'm not proud of it."
Asked how Studholme was controlling, Ms Pendlebury said: "She wants you under her feet every 24 hours of a day. I felt like I was there every single day. I was at hers every single day, it was 'Michelle, can you do this, do that.' Even with partners she treated them like dogs.
"If you don't do what she says she'll hit you, mate, she kicks, she doesn't care. She said Studholme had not assaulted her but the threat was always there. Did you for a time find some of her qualities quite attractive?" Richardson's barrister John Benson, asked. "Yes I did," Ms Pendlebury replied. "Could she be kind?" Mr Benson asked. "Yeah she could be kind," Ms Pendlebury replied.
"A kindness that sometimes turned into being very angry almost as if someone flicked a switch?" Mr Benson asked. "Yeah, basically," Ms Pendlebury replied. "Do you think looking back you might have fallen under Shanti's spell a bit? A bit in awe of it at times?", Mr Benson asked. "Yeah. She seem to have it figured out at times."
Ms Pendlebury said her son Shuan came to her home and said he had done something "really bad". He said he had burnt someone's toes, that they were Ms Spencer's toes, and that she was now dead. He said that Studholme and Richardson had beaten Ms Spencer. Ms Pendlebury then took her son to her brother's house. Shaun's uncle later called the police and told them his nephew had killed someone. Pendlebury, of Tewkesbury Road; Richardson, of Broomcroft Avenue, both Ealing, west London, and Studholme, of Greenhill Road, Harrow, all deny murder and preventing and unlawful burial. The trial continues.
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