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26/09/2008
Foster Carer Jailed For 'Sadistic' Abuse Has Sentence Cut
A foster mother who was jailed for 14 years for abusing children in her care has had her sentenced reduced by two years.
Eunice Spry, 64, from Tewkesbury was found guilty last year of 26 counts of physical and mental abuse.
She was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice, unlawful wounding, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, witness intimidation and cruelty to a person under 16.
The jury at Bristol Crown Court in March last year heard Spry subjected three children to a "horrific catalogue of cruel and sadistic treatment", including routinely beating, starving and forcing sticks down their throats.
The High Court in London reviewed the sentence and Spry will now serve a total of 12 years.
Trial judge Simon Darwall-Smith told the 64-year-old this was the worst case he had come across in 40 years of law.
He said: "All these children have suffered serious psychiatric damage because of the ordeal that they have endured. We have found this case especially difficult to resolve.
"We consider that the sentence of 12 years on account of the cruelty in this case is out of the range which can be inferred as appropriate from previous decisions in this court.
"We are particularly mindful of the fact that in this case the physical injuries could have been much more serious than mercifully they were."
The judge also said: "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."
(JM)
Eunice Spry, 64, from Tewkesbury was found guilty last year of 26 counts of physical and mental abuse.
She was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice, unlawful wounding, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, witness intimidation and cruelty to a person under 16.
The jury at Bristol Crown Court in March last year heard Spry subjected three children to a "horrific catalogue of cruel and sadistic treatment", including routinely beating, starving and forcing sticks down their throats.
The High Court in London reviewed the sentence and Spry will now serve a total of 12 years.
Trial judge Simon Darwall-Smith told the 64-year-old this was the worst case he had come across in 40 years of law.
He said: "All these children have suffered serious psychiatric damage because of the ordeal that they have endured. We have found this case especially difficult to resolve.
"We consider that the sentence of 12 years on account of the cruelty in this case is out of the range which can be inferred as appropriate from previous decisions in this court.
"We are particularly mindful of the fact that in this case the physical injuries could have been much more serious than mercifully they were."
The judge also said: "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."
(JM)
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