Two women and a man have been found guilty of murdering a vulnerable woman who they “treated her like a slave”.
Shakira Spencer died aged 35 after falling under the influence of her former neighbour Ashana Studholme, 38, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, and their friend Lisa Richardson, 44.
The defendants, from west London, scalded her feet and fed her only ketchup from sachets, the Old Bailey was told.
Ms Spencer went from being a “beautiful, happy, healthy” size 16 to a “gaunt and skeletal” size six shortly before her death, jurors heard.
Last September, her badly decomposed body was found after neighbours saw maggots coming from her flat in Ealing, west London.
The three defendants had denied murder and preventing Ms Spencer’s lawful burial.
On Monday, a jury found all three guilty of both charges against them and Pendlebury reacted by clapping his hands and walking out of the dock.
Previously, jurors heard how Ms Spencer had been subdued and dominated mainly to the point where she was under the “complete control” of the defendants.
Over many months, she was isolated, prostituted and robbed of her self-respect and finances, it was claimed.
She would be woken up in the early hours to clean the defendants’ houses and sent on errands to the shops.
Read more from Sky News:
Trio arrested over death of newborn
Mother and son killed in Derbyshire crash
Prosecutor Allison Hunter KC said: “In early 2021 Shakira Spencer had been a healthy – even voluptuous – size 16 weighing some 74kgs (11st 9lb).
“By July 2022 Shakira Spencer was just skin and bone. Gaunt and skeletal, bruised from head to foot, with hollowed black eyes. She was barely a scrawny size six in images taken by the defendants just before she died.
“For whatever was their unfathomable, cruel, sadistic motive, these three defendants tormented, tortured, starved, burned and eventually battered Shakira Spencer to death.”
The abuse reached a “frenzied climax” on around September 11 and 12 last year when Ms Spencer was beaten “to the brink of death” at Studholme’s home.
She was bundled into the boot of a borrowed Honda Civic and driven back to her flat, where she was locked in a hallway cupboard.
Ms Hunter said ice was packed around Ms Spencer in a bid to slow decomposition.
Newspapers were then carefully laid on the floor next to the bed as if Ms Spencer had been reading and died in her sleep.
An alternative plan to dispose of the body in a caravan was abandoned because the defendants could not risk moving her due to the extent of decomposition.
As part of the cover-up, the defendants cleaned the victim’s blood, bodily fluids and DNA from their homes and removed all traces of their presence from Ms Spencer’s flat.
Following the verdicts, Judge Angela Rafferty KC adjourned sentencing to a later date.
Jurors had deliberated for nearly 18 hours to reach their verdicts and were excused by the judge from further jury service for life due to the “harrowing nature” of Ms Spencer’s case.
