‘Fed just ketchup before she was tortured to death’

A woman was fed just sachets of ketchup as she was enslaved, tortured and beaten to death, a court heard today (mon).

Police officers were called to the home of Shakira Spencer, 35, in Holbeck Road, Hanwell, west London after a neighbour spotted maggots crawling from under her front door on 25 September 2022.

Ms Spencer was once a ‘voluptuous size 16’ but she was reduced to ‘skin and bone’ by July last year, jurors heard.

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.

Allison Hunter, KC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey the three killers controlled and tortured Ms Spencer, described as a ‘beautiful happy, healthy’ woman.

‘For whatever was their cruel, sadistic motive, these three defendants tormented, tortured, starved, burned, and eventually battered Shakira to death.

‘Over the months leading up to her murder the defendants, primarily Studholme and Richardson subdued and dominated Shakira so totally that she was under all of their complete control.

‘She was isolated from everyone she had previously known, her freewill seemingly sapped and stolen from her.

‘They stole her self-respect, her finances, took over her flat, prostituted her (at least so they claimed), treated her like a slave ordering her wake up in the early hours of the morning to clean their houses, sending her to the shops to do their errands, feeding her only on sachets of ketchup, and then in circumstances of unbelievable depravity, boasted about and on occasion photographed and filmed what they did and were intending to do to her.

‘The last beatings to the brink of her death took place in the home of Ashana Studholme likely between 11 and 12 September,’ said Ms Hunter.

Late in the evening of 12 September the victim was bundled into the boot of a red Honda Civic motor vehicle borrowed by Pendlebury from his aunt, the court heard.

It was driven by him and Studholme back to Shakira’s flat at 9 Lambert House, Hanwell.

They placed her body in a cupboard in her hallway while they returned to Studholme’s home in Greenhill Road, Harrow and ‘together with Lisa mounted the clean-up operation,’ said the prosecutor.

‘It had first been their plan to dispose of her body in a caravan Pendlebury had borrowed from his same aunt on 15th September 2022,’ said Ms Hunter.

‘Pendlebury never returned the caravan to his aunt, but once the three defendants had set about removing what they thought were all traces of Shakira’s blood, bodily fluids and DNA from their own respective premises, and attempting to clear traces of their presence in Shakira’s flat after she lay dead.’

Ms Hunter said the defendants were captured on CCTV buying cleaning products and going towards Shakira’s flat in the early hours of 16 September.

‘Her state of decomposition must have been so bad that they could no longer risk moving her. So they just left her there to be found.

‘It was only when neighbours saw maggots crawling out from under her door that the police were called to Shakira’s address on Sunday 25th September 2022 and the painstaking investigation which ensued revealed in detail what they had done.

‘Shakira’s state of decomposition was so bad that the precise mechanism that caused her death could not be determined, though the post mortem revealed crushing injuries to where her left ear would have been, four “deficient areas” on what would have been her scalp representing full thickness lacerations that would have been inflicted whilst she was alive, defects to the bone of her left eye socket, and epidermal degloving of the feet, consistent with scalding – one of the activities that Shaun Pendlebury admitted to his mother and uncle that he had joined in.’

In early 2021 Shakira had been a ‘healthy even voluptuous size 16’, said the prosecutor.

‘By July 2022 Shakira Spencer was just skin and bone.

‘Gaunt and skeletal bruised from head to foot with hollowed black eyes, she was barely a scrawny size 6 in images taken by the defendants just before she died. ‘

Ms Hunter explained to the jury how Shakira met the three defendants.

‘They are connected to each other and remotely to Shakira through a complex web of relationships.

‘Shaun Pendlebury is the son of Michelle Pendlebury and nephew of Fern Rahman.’

Ms Hunter said Pendlebury confessed to his mother Michelle ‘his involvement in the torture that led to Shakira Spencer’s death; and from Fern he was to borrow her car used to move Shakira in the boot, her caravan: intended to be disposed of with Shakira’s body inside, and with whom he left a suitcase with cleaning products that he and his co-defendants had used to clean the flat where Shakira had died and decomposed.’

‘Michelle Pendlebury knew Lisa Richardson as a friend of her sister’s, and Lisa Richardson’s brother Craig was a friend of Shaun’s which no doubt led to his introduction to Lisa.’

Ms Hunter added: ‘Studholme and Richardson would use Shakira’s bank and cash point cards at will, for their food, sundries and cab journeys etc, but in acts of particular callous inhumane savage and ironic brutality, they also used them to buy the materials they used to try to remove traces of Shakira’s bodily fluids and DNA that would reveal the extent and the
locations of their final beatings and stowage of her barely conscious body in the lead up to her death.’

Ms Hunter explained the defendants were remotely to Shakira through a complex web of relationships.

‘Michelle Pendlebury also knew Ashana Studholme as a friend of ex-partner Gavin McIntosh,’ said Ms Hunter.

‘Ashana Studholme is remotely related to Zeph Louis, Shakira’s ex-partner. His cousin is Joe Louis. Joe Louis’ father and Ashana Studholme’s father were brothers.

‘Shakira first met Ashana Studholme when they were living in the same block in Sherwood Close in 2014. She announced herself to be Zeph’s cousin.

‘At the time Zeph Louis had never heard of her and did not accept her claim to their relationship.

‘Further, he did not like Studholme nor her influence on Shakira and nothing he learned from
enquiring into her claim to be his relative served to improve upon his perception of her as a thoroughly bad, controlling influence.

‘It was common knowledge that she had spent time in custody as a result of an offence of violence – punching and kicking her victim in the back whilst she lay in the middle of the street.

‘Studholme was nothing if not persistent however, and Shakira, described by her neighbour as a loveable person, but very slow and socially awkward who presented as someone with learning difficulties, was drawn more and more into Studholme’s seedier social scene by her
persistence,’ said the prosecutor.

‘Studholme would take Shakira out drinking at nights.

‘She introduced Shakira to drug taking with increasing frequency until Zeph Louis finally
separated from Shakira in 2015.

‘Once he was out of their flat, he left the way clear for Shanti (Studholme) to move in on Shakira even more, until Studholme persuaded Shakira to oust him from her life altogether.’

Jurors heard, by the time Shakira was killed Studholme was ‘in receipt of all of her benefits and had control of all of her finances’.

Ms Hunter said Studholme was later found in possession of all of Shakira’s personal documentation including bank accounts, disability allowance applications and Nationwide Trust fund documents ‘hidden under her mattress and a quantity of other documentation in a bag ironically captioned “it wasn’t me” hanging on the back of her kitchen door!’

Lisa Richardson sent a series of messages mocking and abusing Shakira, the court heard.

Jurors were told on 14 July, she sent a message to Carla Gilmaney saying: ‘I’ve just f*ck this b*tch up this b*tch…she ant going no we’re xx iamvgoing smash hur up nah joke.’

She sent another message saying she was going to ‘mash up’ Shakira, it was said.

The following day Richardson allegedly sent a message in which she said: ‘“So at the end of the day she deserved everything she got… I didn’t even beat her that much- I just gave her a couple of slaps a tappy tappy (slapping sounds can be heard) slap 1-2-3 but no.’

On 22 July, Richardson sent a message that showed Shakira with an elongated nose, the court heard.

Studholme and Richardson referred to and saved Shakira on their phone as ‘Gully creeper’/aka ‘Ginnal’/aka John Doe.’

‘In August there are further images of Shakira, beaten with black eyes, and lying either asleep or unconscious on Lisa Richardson’s sofa which she sent with an accompanying message stating “look who I’ve got” ‘But I ant touched hur .. #Yet.’ On 14.08.22 Lisa Richardson sent a voicenote to Ashana Studholme “Oh yeah, sh-t, oh yeah and I beat Shakira up and made her prostitute herself’, said Ms Hunter.

Pendlebury, of Tewkesbury Road; Richardson, of Broomcroft Avenue, both Ealing, west London; and Studholme, of Greenhill Road, Harrow, all deny murder and preventing a lawful burial.

The trial continues.
ends