‘I saw her beating up this woman – but did nothing’

A boyfriend told a court he did not intervene when his partner beat a woman in the lead up to her death because it ‘wasn’t his house’.

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 25 September 2022.

Ms Spencer was once a ‘voluptuous size 16’ but she was reduced to ‘skin and bone’ by July last year and fed just sachets of ketchup as she was enslaved and tortured, jurors have 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.

The three killers tortured Ms Spencer before fatally beating her and locking her in a cupboard to die, it is said.

They took over her flat, finances and treated her like a slave while filming their abuse of her, the Old Bailey has heard.

Giving evidence wearing a pink shirt and grey waistcoat, Pendlebury claimed he saw assaults on Ms Spencer by Studholme and Richardson.

He said he didn’t understand why Ms Spencer kept going to see Studholme at her address when they were ‘fighting’.

‘I didn’t get why she went there. It didn’t make sense to me,’ he said.

Pendlebury said that on 10 September 2022 Ms Spencer had come to Studholme’s house and told her about using drugs with someone the night before and Studholme ‘didn’t seem pleased’.

‘They ended up in an altercation and Ashana picked something up from the bed and then hit her two or three times on the head.

‘I saw blood ended up going on the walls, I was taken aback, I didn’t expect that to happen.’

Pendlebury said he wasn’t taking part in the behaviour or ‘egging it on’.

Studholme then sent a text to Richardson saying: ‘I’ve buss her head in I need you here I will go to jail’, the court heard.

Pendlebury said: ‘Lisa came round she came into the bedroom- there was still some blood on the wall. She was like “bruv what happened?”

He said Studholme then cleaned up Ms Spencer’s head.

‘After her head was cleaned up she was alright- I wouldn’t say alright but she was functioning, she understood everything, she was okay.’

Defence barrister Neil Bentley KC asked his client what he did about the attack.

‘It’s not my place to do anything, it’s not my house,’ Pendlebury replied.

He said Ms Spencer never complained about being hit and just said she was ‘okay.’

He said that on 11 September 2022 he went into the kitchen and saw Studholme slapping Ms Spencer ‘dragging her, pulling her around and pushing her up against the cupboard door.

‘While she was doing that she was threatening her, cussing her,’ he said.

He said Richardson was there laughing and he went to get a drink and left.

He entered a second time and saw Richardson attacking Ms Spencer, he said.

‘I saw Lisa dragging Shakira about and I think she kicked and stamped on her a couple of times.’

He said he did not see boiling water thrown on Ms Spencer but that the floor was ‘pretty much flooded’ with water.

‘I didn’t get involved I just went about my business. I didn’t have no part. It had got to a point where seeing this just felt normal,’ Pendlebury said.

‘It was just another day sadly. This happened every day with them.’

He said the women then told Ms Spencer to take her clothes off but he left the room.

He said Ms Spencer then slept overnight in the hallway with newspapers.

‘She wasn’t in the best state – she ended up falling over and hitting her head on the washing machine.

I tried to catch her but I was unable to.’

‘Was she injured at all?’ Ms Bentley asked.

‘I didn’t really check but I presume so, yes,’ he said.

He said her collapsing was unusual and he told Studholme and Richardson ‘this ain’t a joke, this is serious, she needs help.’

But Studholme said she was ‘acting’, he said.

He said Studholme then asked him to wipe the walls in the bedroom and throw away bags of bloody tissues.

She then asked him to take Ms Spencer home, he said.

He said Studholme put Ms Spencer in the boot because he had said he didn’t want her in the car because she had wet herself.

They took Ms Spencer into the flat and left her there, he said.

The prosecution says that Ms Spencer was locked in a cupboard where she died as a result of the assaults on her.

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.

Pendlebury’s evidence continues tomorrow.