A woman who was reduced from a ‘voluptuous size 16’ to ‘skin and bone’ as she was enslaved, tortured and left to die in a locked cupboard did not need an ambulance, her alleged killer told the murder trial....CONTINUE READING
Shaun Pendlebury is on trial for murdering and preventing the lawful burial of Shakira Spencer, 35, alongside his girlfriend Ashana Studholme, 38, and their friend Lisa Richardson, 44.
Police officers were called to the home of MsSpencer in Hanwell, west London
after a neighbour spotted maggots crawling from under her front door on 25 September 2022.
She had been fed just sachets of ketchup as she was enslaved and tortured, the Old Bailey has heard.
But Pendlebury said he did not call an ambulance for Ms Spencer after she had been severely beaten by his girlfriend because she was ‘a whole adult who knows her body.’
Instead she was driven home in the boot of his car and left to die in the cupboard.
Shaun Pendlebury is on trial for murdering and preventing the lawful burial of Shakira Spencer, 35, (pictured) alongside his girlfriend Ashana Studholme, 38, and their friend Lisa Richardson, 44
Ms Spencer (pictured) had been fed just sachets of ketchup as she was enslaved, tortured and shrunk to ‘skin and bone’, the Old Bailey has heard
The three killers controlled and tortured Ms Spencer, who was described as a ‘beautiful happy, healthy’ woman before fatally beating her and locking her in a cupboard, it is said.
They took over her flat, finances and treated her like a slave while filming their abuse of her, the court heard.
Pendlebury claims he witnessed assaults on Ms Spencer by Studholme and Richardson but did not participate.
Wearing a pink shirt and purple waistcoat, Pendlebury told jurors after Ms Spencer was beaten by Studholme and Richardson on 11 September 2022 while she slept on newspapers on the floor in the hallway of Studholme’s home.
A witness claims they saw Pendlebury drag Ms Spencer off the floor in the morning and throw her against the oven causing her to bang her head, which he denied.
The witness also claims he burned Ms Spencer with a lighter and an aerosol bottle.
Prosecutor Alison Hunter, KC, asked if Pendlebury did anything to help Ms Spencer.
‘No I dropped her home – when she’s home she was in a safe place from my understanding,’ he replied.
Pendlebury said he did not call an ambulance for Ms Spencer after she had been severely beaten by his girlfriend because she was ‘a whole adult who knows her body’
Police officers were called to the home of Ms Spencer in Hanwell, west London after a neighbour spotted maggots crawling from under her front door on 25 September 2022
Pendlebury said he did not think he needed to call an ambulance for ‘a whole adult who knows her body.’
He said he drove Ms Spencer to her home in the boot of his car and Studholme put her in the cupboard.
‘Is a cupboard a place people are left to die?’ Ms Hunter asked.
‘No. How am I meant to know, how am I meant to know where people are left to die?’ Pendlebury replied.
‘Was Shakira Spencer taken back to her flat to be left to die?’ Ms Hunter asked.
‘No,’ Pendlebury replied.
He denied that Studholme and Richardson had told him not to give Ms Spencer food and water.
Ms Hunter asked Pendlebury why he had been seen on CCTV taking bin bags away from Studholme’s home on 12 September 2022.
Ashana Studholme, 38, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, both of Ealing, and Lisa Richardson, 44, of Harrow, all deny murder and preventing a lawful burial and are accused of taking over her flat. Pictured: Hanwell
He said the bin bags included bloody tissues wiped off the wall in Studholme’s bedroom after she had attacked her in there.
‘Ashana is wearing a vest and shorts, you can see the sun glinting off the windscreen, do you agree it looks like a warm summer’s day?’ Ms Hunter asked.
‘It looks like an okay day,’ Pendlebury replied.
‘Why were you wearing a black puffer jacket zipped up with gloves?’ Ms Hunter asked.
‘Because I was asked to take the bins out,’ Pendlebury replied.
‘Why did you take them away from the house?’ Ms Hunter said.
‘Because I was asked to,’ Pendlebury replied.
‘Did you ask why you had to hide rubbish with blood on it?’
‘No,’ Pendlebury replied.
‘Did you think anyone would come looking for sacks with Shakira’s blood on them?’
‘No,’ Pendlebury replied.
Pendlebury said he later went to his uncle’s house and told him that Ms Spencer was dead and that Studholme and Richardson had beat her.
His uncle asked him: ‘Are you a killer, do you go around killing people now?’ and he told him he was not, the court heard.
Pendlebury denied telling his uncle that Studholme was ‘dominating’ him.
‘Is it your case that Ashana and Lisa killed Shakira Spencer?’ Ms Hunter asked.
‘I’m not saying they killed Shakira Spencer. I’m just saying what I saw happen,’ he replied.
His uncle claims Pendlebury asked him if he could get him a ticket to the Seychelles where his grandmother lived, but he denied this.
‘If anyone had suggested I go to the Seychelles I’d have declined- I don’t like the life over there it’s a lot slower life than here.’
He said he initially refused to go to the police when told to by his uncle.
‘I didn’t think I had to go to the police, I didn’t do anything wrong,’ he said.
Pendlebury said he later found Ms Spencer dead at her home and he met up with his co-defendants at Richardson’s home.
He said Ashana went running into the house saying she could not ‘go back to jail.’
Pendlebury said he did not go to the police because he did not trust them but that he did tell the others that they should.
‘I don’t really trust the police, they haven’t treated me well in the past, they’ve wrongfully arrested me in the past so I didn’t go there.’
He said: ‘I told them a manslaughter charge isn’t as bad as a murder charge so I told them to go to the police and show them that an accident had happened.’
‘Is it an accident when someone is beaten and then dies?’ Ms Hunter asked.
‘No but I believe they didn’t mean to kill her,’ Pendlebury replied.
‘If those deliberate actions result in someone’s death is that murder Mr Pendlebury?’
Pendlebury replied: ‘I believe if you intend to kill someone that’s murder but if you didn’t intend to kill someone I don’t see how that could be murder.’
Pendlebury, of Tewkesbury Road; Richardson, of Broomcroft Avenue, both Ealing, west London; and Studholme, of Greenhill Road, Harrow, all deny murder and preventing and unlawful burial.
