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Three people who tortured, starved and beat to death a woman from west London have been found guilty of her murder.
On the evening of Monday 12 September last year, 35-year-old Shakira Spencer was driven back to her flat in a car boot by people she had once believed to be friends. A member of the public saw her fall as she was unable to walk from the car. It was the last time she was seen alive.
Shakira had suffered a campaign of cruelty and humiliation by her tormentors, who left her body to rot. It was found when neighbours reported maggots crawling under her front door two weeks later.
An Old Bailey jury has convicted Ashana Studholme, Lisa Richardson and Shaun Pendlebury of taking Ms Spencer’s life and preventing her lawful burial.
Shakira Spencer had been a healthy young woman with a partner, two children and a home until she encountered evil. She fell under the control of Studholme, now 38, who had befriended her and went on to dominate and then abuse her in the year before her death.
‘Feral savages’
Studholme was the leader of the sadistic trio which included her friend, Lisa Richardson, 44, and one-time boyfriend, Shaun Pendlebury, 26.
Their trial heard how over a long period of time, they tormented, tortured, starved, burned and eventually battered Shakira to death. Prosecutor Allison Hunter KC, compared them to “a pack of feral savages”.
They treated Shakira as their slave, ordering her to wake up in the early hours to run errands, feeding her only sachets of ketchup, while Studholme took control of her money.
“Shakira Spencer was clearly viewed as less than human by these three wicked defendants,” Ms. Hunter told the Old Bailey jury.
Months of abuse came to a horrific conclusion in September 2022 at Ashana Studholme’s flat in Harrow, north-west London, when their beatings took Shakira to the brink of death.
Studholme and Pendlebury drove the dying young woman, in a car boot, back to her own flat in Ealing, west London, locked her in a hall cupboard. The killers later returned to move her to the bottom of a bunk bed. It is not known whether she was alive or dead at this point.
They left her body to rot. It was not found for two weeks.
Targeted and isolated
Det Ch Insp Brian Howie of the Metropolitan Police, who led the homicide investigation, says Shakira was vulnerable: “I think she just wanted to be cared for, loved, have a friendship group around her and was just coerced and manipulated over a long period of time by these people.”
Shakira Spencer first met Ashana Studholme when they became neighbours. Studholme targeted the young woman, described by another neighbour as “a loveable person, but very slow and socially awkward who presented as someone with learning difficulties”.
She drew Shakira into what was described in court as her “seedy” social scene. She took her out drinking and introduced her to drugs, leading to a change in Shakira’s behaviour.
Shakira’s relationship broke up and so she became closer to Studholme who wound her tentacles around her, slowly isolating her.
“Ashana Studholme is a cruel, manipulative, coercive individual,” says Det Ch Insp Howie. “She seems to have a power over people and controls them. She is just a vile person.”
At the end of August, Shakira was stopped near Studholme’s flat by police, who were concerned about her appearance and demeanour. She said nothing to them and returned to her solitary hell.
Ten days later, Studholme sent Richardson a message saying: “I’ve buss her head I need you here I will go to jail.” This was the signal for all three to gather at Studholme’s flat.
Over a weekend in September they carried out their final sustained attacks on Shakira, which would prove fatal. Boiling water was poured over her, a lighter and spray can was used as a blowtorch, burning her face and she was beaten around the head with a heavy massager.
“They have no remorse,” says Det Ch Insp Howie. “None of them gave her any medical assistance. None of them called any professionals, any doctors, tried to get any help for her at all, when they could have. That death could hopefully have been prevented at that point. But they didn’t. And it was two weeks later that she was found in a badly decomposed state in her home.”
Concerned only for themselves, the killers tried to remove evidence of the “beating, blood and torture”, he says. They scrambled to mount a clean-up operation. They were caught on CCTV buying products, using Shakira’s bank card. Studholme was heard shouting: “I can’t go back to prison.”
Soon afterwards, the trio’s bond of complicity was broken. Shaun Pendlebury confessed to members of his family what he and the two women had done. His uncle called the police. During the trial Pendlebury changed his story, saying he was not involved in Shakira’s death.
At Studholme’s flat, police found paperwork, showing she was receiving all Shakira’s benefits and had control of her finances. Some documents were hidden under a mattress, others were in a bag emblazoned with the logo: “It wasn’t me.”
Shakira Spencer’s remains were so badly decomposed an exact cause of death could not be established. A post-mortem examination listed a catalogue of injuries to her head and feet. The prosecution said: “Her body just simply wore out.”
The smiling, healthy young woman, seen in photographs before she fell under the control of her abusers, died an emaciated wreck.
‘Disgusting and sickening’
Those who knew Shakira Spencer have been reflecting on her isolation and her slow degrading death.
Her cousin, Tashica Loo, told the BBC: “For someone who is bubbly and kind and caring, to just be taken away for what? It’s heart-breaking.”
Studholme has a history of violence. The jury heard how she kicked and punched a woman in the back as she lay in the middle of the street, and was remanded in prison. Four years later, in 2017, she admitted a racially aggravated common assault on another female.
Neighbours of Lisa Richardson in Northolt, west London describe her flat as a hive of anti-social behaviour, with visitors coming and going at all hours and fights in the stairwell. Shaun Pendlebury, whose attempt to distance himself from Shakira’s killing has failed, has served a jail term for Class A drugs offences, intending to supply heroin and cocaine.
Jurors deliberated for nearly 18 hours to reach their verdicts, and were excused by the judge from jury service for life due to the “harrowing nature” of the case.
Pendlebury clapped the guilty of murder verdict twice ironically before walking out of the dock.
He and the two other defendants will be sentenced at a later date.
Tashica Loo says: “No amount of time would be enough for what they have done. They have taken someone very special and what they have done is disgusting and sickening.”
Ealing Council says it is carrying out a Safeguarding Adult Review into the case.
Additional reporting by Abiona Boja
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