Woman is convicted of evil catalogue of child cruelty

10:26am Thursday 22nd March 2007

A FORMER Eckington woman is facing prison after a court was told of the horrific child cruelty meted out by Jehovah's witness, Eunice Spry.

Spry, 62, who now lives in Tewkesbury, was convicted on Tuesday of subjecting three children in her care to an evil catalogue of physical and mental abuse over 20 years.

She was alleged to have beaten the children with sticks and metal bars, made them drink bleach and eat their own vomit and faeces and starved them in a locked room for a month.

Twice-married Spry inflicted cruel punishments on the two girls and a boy, who did not go to school because she thought they were possessed by the devil.

Bristol Crown Court, during a five-week trial, heard the children were also strangled, fed blocks of lard, forced to drink urine, and scrubbed on the skin with sandpaper.

Spry was convicted of 26 charges including child cruelty, unlawful wounding, actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation.

Judge Simon Darwall-Smith adjourned sentence for pre-sentence reports on or after April 10.

The children, now young adults, were placed with Spry at a young age by social services. But the sickening abuse, which lasted from 1986 to 2005, was never uncovered by the authorities.

The abuse came to light in December 2004, when Child A escaped and confided in a family friend who took her to the police.

Spry consistently denied any abuse whatsoever and claimed any scars were due to a "robust" childhood.

"From a Christian point of view we expect our children to be obedient as it says in the Bible" she said.

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