Trio jailed for over 100 years for murder of woman they treated like slave

Three people were jailed for murdering a vulnerable woman they "treated like a slave" by starving, torturing and beating her.
Ashana Studholme, 39, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, and their friend Lisa Richardson, 45, were handed life sentences with a minimum term of 34 years each for killing Shakira Spencer and preventing her lawful burial.
The trio were found guilty of murdering the 35-year-old following a trial at the Old Bailey.
They beat and tortured Ms Spencer, including scalding her feet and feeding her only ketchup from sachets.
Her badly decomposed body was found in September 2022 after neighbours saw maggots coming from her flat in Ealing, west London.
The mother-of-two had fallen under the influence of her former neighbour, Studholme, and was subjected to "dehumanising and degrading" treatment by the group.
The defendants, from west London, subdued and dominated Ms Spencer to the point that she was under their "complete control".
She was isolated, prostituted and robbed of her self-respect and finances over many months.
She went from being a "beautiful, happy, healthy" size 16 to a "gaunt and skeletal" size six shortly before her death.
Sentencing the trio, Judge Angela Rafferty KC said none of them took any responsibility and continued to blame each other for Ms Spencer's death.
"This murder is marked by extreme, calculated and brutal violence and torture," she said, describing what happened to Ms Spencer as an "orgy of violence".
"I am of no doubt that you all intended to kill Shakira. This was a sadistic campaign in which you all took pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering on a vulnerable woman," the judge added.
This video has been edited to remove graphic descriptions of extreme violence and to comply with reporting restrictions.
The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at: www.judiciary.uk/judgments/th...
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