Child Care Solicitors

A foster mother jailed for 14 years in 2007 for abusing children in her care is due to be released from prison in July, according to a Daily Mail report.

Eunice Spry was found guilty of beating, starving and abusing the foster children in her care – but could now be sent to live just miles away from her adopted daughter Victoria Evans, 28, who is one of her victims.

Spry was found guilty of an “horrific catalogue of cruel and sadistic treatment” during 19 years of caring for children she had fostered. Ms Evans said that the news her adoptive mother may be living close to her after her release was “heartbreaking”.

Ms Evans told The Sun newspaper:

“I don’t want her anywhere near us – she is a psychopath and my concern is that being so close, she’ll find out where we are.”

Spry, 70, from Gloucestershire is a devout Jehovah’s Witness and subjected children in her care to unimaginable cruelty – in the case of her adoptive daughter, it is reported that she forced sticks down her throat and forced her to eat rat excrement and even her own vomit.

Ms Evans was also beaten on the soles of her feet – and was forced to drink bleach and washing-up liquid.

After Ms Evans was injured in a car crash, Spry also forced her to use a wheelchair for three years to increase the value of a personal injury compensation settlement.

Children in the care of Spry – including two other children who were placed with her in long-term foster care – were abused during the period 1986 and 2005.

Spry denied the charges, but a jury at Bristol Crown Court found her guilty on 26 counts, which included charges of unlawful wounding and cruelty to a person under 16 – as well as assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation, the Mail online reports.

During Spry’s trial, Judge Simon Darwall-Smith said that the case was the “worst” he had come across in his 40-year career.

“Frankly, it's difficult for anyone to understand how any human being could have even contemplated what you did, let alone with the regularity and premeditation you employed,” he said.

Children cared for at her two Gloucestershire homes also lived in squalid conditions, with images showing clothing piled in a corner of a dilapidated room and chaotic accommodation with a bedroom full of junk.

The abuse was uncovered when a fellow Jehovah’s Witness asked Spry’s adoptive daughter about injuries to her face and head, including multiple injuries to her face. Ms Evans escaped from Spry’s home in 2004 and reported her to the police.

As well as being jailed for 14 years, Spry was also ordered by the court to pay £80,000 costs. Her prison sentence was reduced to 12 years after she lodged an appeal.

The Probation Service has written to Ms Evans to advise her that Spry is due to be released in July, having served half her 12-year sentence.

Duncan Lewis Childcare Solicitors

Duncan Lewis childcare solicitors can advise on family and childcare law, including children taken into Local Authority care and care proceedings, child contact and residence, Court of Protection and child abuse or domestic violence against children.

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of Legal Aid solicitors and can advise on family and childcare under UK law or Islamic law.

For expert legal advice on childcare and family law, contact Duncan Lewis childcare solicitors on 020 7923 4020.

For help with domestic violence and child abuse call the Duncan Lewis Domestic Violence Solicitors Helpline on 07920 077054.