https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8793541/Foster-daughter-abused-sadistic-mother-dead-aged-35.htmlFoster daughter who suffered 17 years of sickening torture and abuse at the hands of Jehovah's Witness dubbed 'Britain's most sadistic mother' is found dead aged 35 after devoting life to safeguarding children
Victoria Spry was subjected to physical and mental torture for 17 years
Eunice Spry forced her foster children to eat their own excrement and vomit
The 35-year-old dedicated her life to helping protect other vulnerable children
By Antonia Paget For Mailonline
Published: 11:05, 1 October 2020 | Updated: 16:49, 1 October 2020
A foster daughter who was horrifically abused by 'Britain's most sadistic mother' has died aged 35 with police confirming the death is not suspicious after her body was found at a property in Cheltenham. Victoria Spry was subjected to sickening physical and mental torture for nearly 20 years at the hands of Eunice Spry. The Jehovah's Witness, now 76, forced young Victoria and two other children in her care to eat their own excrement and vomit. She would also ram sticks down the children's throats, rub their faces with sandpaper and lock them naked in rooms for weeks at a time. Victoria and her foster siblings were attacked with hot pokers, machetes and cricket bats, and had their heads held under water. She eventually managed to escape and raise the alarm, leading to Spry being jailed for 14 years, reduced to 12 on appeal and released in 2014. Despite her horrendous ordeal, Victoria later worked with social workers to help them spot the signs of abuse. Victoria who wrote a book about her experiences called 'Tortured' has now passed away aged 35. Her death is not being treated as suspicious and an inquest is expected to open later this week. A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Police said: 'Police were called to Pennine Road in Cheltenham shortly after 11.30am on Tuesday 22 September following reports that the body of a woman had been found inside a property. 'The death is being treated as non-suspicious and the woman’s next of kin has been informed. A file has been passed to the coroner.'
Victoria's foster brother, Christopher, said Victoria wanted to be remembered for her mission to help children. Paying tribute to the BBC he said: 'The work she was doing with the Gloucestershire Safeguarding Board and social services was because she wanted ours to be the last "horror case" for Gloucestershire. I think her legacy will be the work she was doing to help the next wave of social workers to spot cases like ours earlier on.'
Victoria, Spry's oldest victim, had sticks forced down her throat and was tied up naked and blindfolded. She endured 17 years of torture before she escaped and went to police and Spry was brought to justice. But in spite of her nightmare upbringing brave Victoria went on to work as a consultant with social services in Gloucestershire. Speaking in 2015, she said she wanted to draw on her own experience and to do further child protection studies. Victoria said: 'My past helped me enormously. It is really nice to be going to the same office where I was let down as a little one, now as a young woman helping other children.'
She added: 'I was offered the opportunity to write the book nine years ago when Eunice was found guilty but I turned that away because it was the worst time possible. I wanted to concentrate on surgery and educating myself. As I started to get older, my brother and sister had written about it and they got a lot of understanding from people about it. It was really quite a liberating experience, doing the book but there are lots of other reasons.'
She only escaped when she was allowed to accompany her younger brother to Jehovah's Witness meetings in Tewkesbury, aged 17. She broke down and told everything to a young couple in the group who smuggled her out the house just before Christmas 2004. It took three weeks to build up the courage to tell the police. Jehovah's Witness Eunice Spry of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, was convicted of 26 charges of child abuse against children in her foster care in April 2007. She was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment and ordered to pay £80,000 costs. In sentencing, the judge told Spry that it was the 'worst case in his 40 years practising law'.
She was arrested when police raided her home in Tewkesbury in February 2005. Following Spry's conviction, Gloucestershire County Council apologised for the 'shortcomings' in its care system. Vital information which could have alerted social workers to the abuse was not shared by the various bodies involved.
For confidential support or advice call the Samaritans on 116 123 for free or visit
www.samaritans.org.
The tragic memoirs of Victoria Spry
Victoria Spry, 35, published her account of her awful upbringing in her memoir Tortured. The memoirs recounted her life at Eunice Spry's home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, where she lived with other foster children in squalor. The book, released in April 2015, detailed the horrendous torture she endured at the hands of her foster mother. It revealed how she forced bleach and urine down Victoria's throat, knocked out her teeth and tied her up naked. It took years for Victoria to tell her story. She was initially offered the oppotunity to write a book when Spry was convicted in April 2007. But Victoria felt 'it was the worst time possible' becuse she wanted to focus on getting her life back on track. When she saw the benefit her older foster siblings had from writing about their own experiences, she decided to go ahead. Brother Christopher Spry wrote a book titled 'Child C', after the name he was given by social services, and Alloma Gilbert also published Deliver Me From Evil. Victoria's memoir 'Tortured: Abused and neglected by Britain’s most sadistic mum. This is my story of survival' was published in April 2015.
