Foster mother who was jailed for 14 years for torturing three children in her care is set to be released from prison - and could now be re-homed near her victims

Eunice Spry, 70, subjected three children to abuse over 19-year period

She was jailed in April 2007 for beating, abusing and starving the youngsters



According to probation service, she is due to be released from prison in July

Her daughter Victoria Evans - one of her victims - is worried about release as Spry could live just 25 miles away from her



Eunice Spry, 70, was jailed for 14 years in April 2007 after she was convicted of subjecting the vulnerable youngsters to years of horrific abuse

A foster mother who was jailed for beating, abusing and starving three children in her care is set to be freed from prison in a matter of weeks – and could be rehomed just miles from the daughter she once tortured.

Eunice Spry, 70, was jailed for 14 years in April 2007 after she was convicted of subjecting the vulnerable youngsters to a ‘horrifying catalogue of cruel and sadistic treatment’ over a 19-year period.

However, after serving just over half of her sentence, Spry is set to be released on parole in a couple of weeks and is reportedly set to be rehomed just 25 miles away from her daughter in Worcester, West Midlands.

The news has horrified her adopted daughter Victoria Evans, 28.

Speaking to The Sun, she said: ‘The thought of her living nearby again is dreadful – heart-breaking.

‘I don’t want her anywhere near us. She is a psychopath and my concern is that being so close she’ll find out where we are.’

During her reign of terror, Spry forced sticks down her daughters’ throat and made her eat her own vomit and rat excrement.

As punishment for misbehaving, she would also beat her on the soles of her feet and force her to drink washing-up liquid and bleach.

She even confined her to a wheelchair for three years after a car crash in a cynical bid to maximise compensation for the accident.

Painful reminder: Victoria Spry, 28, has built a new life after years of abuse by her sadistic mother - who is now being released from jail and rehoused nearby

Spry's daughter Victoria Evans, pictured after being abused by her foster mother, thinks she will be rehoused near to her family home

The Jehovah's Witness, who committed the offences at her two homes in Gloucestershire between 1986 and 2005, also abused two other children in her care during the 19-year period.

Spry staunchly denied all the claims made against her and insisted the only physical punishment she ever used was ‘a smack on the bottom’.

But a jury at Bristol Crown Court convicted her of 26 charges, ranging from unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation.

At the time, Judge Simon Darwall-Smith told her it was the worst case he had come across in 40 years in law.

He told her: ‘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.’

Eunice Spry committed the offences at her two homes in Gloucestershire - one of which is pictured - between 1986 and 2005 During her reign of terror, Spry forced sticks down her daughters' throat and made her eat her own vomit and rat excrement. Pictured: The bedroom of Spry's Gloucestershire home

During the four-week trial the jury heard harrowing evidence of how Spry subjected the children to a regime of abuse.

Spry was jailed for 14 years in 2007 after being convicted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court

The three victims, known as Victim A, B and C, all gave evidence describing how their daily routines were punctuated by random acts of bizarre and sadistic violence at the hands of their foster mother.

The abuse was finally discovered after a Jehovah's Witness secretly confronted Ms Evans about marks to her head caused when Spry rubbed sandpaper over her face.

After managing to escape the house in 2004, aged 19, Ms Evans then plucked up the courage to report her foster mother to the police.

Spry maintained her innocence throughout police interviews and during the subsequent trial but was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 14 years and ordered to pay costs of £80,000.

However, after appealing the sentence, it was reduced to 12 years and now, after serving just over half the time in prison, she is set to be released on licence.

Ms Evans told The Sun she received a letter from the probation service informing her Spry is set to be released in July.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘Serious offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions and controls including restrictions of their movements.