[Mrluvaluva]

From Sky News:

This is the face of one of the three children who suffered horrific torture at the hands of their foster mother, Eunice Spry.

The children, who cannot be identified, were made to eat their own faeces, drink bleach and beaten with wooden sticks.

Spry, a devout Jehovah's Witness, was allowed to get away with the abuse over a 20-year period because of failings within the social care system.

She was even well regarded in her neighbourhood as someone who took children in who had nowhere else to go.

However, behind the doors of her Gloucestershire house she was physically and mentally torturing the children.

On one occasion, she forcibly held a child's hand down on a hot electric hob.

She used 4ft long bamboo canes and thick cubed poles of wood to beat them.

The children, who are now grown up, testified against Spry in court.

They told how household cleaning products such as bleach, TCP and washing-up liquid were forced down their throats.

If the liquids caused the children to vomit or they spat them out, they would receive further beatings.

Spry also beat the children by throwing tins of food at their faces and by placing a hot poker on their legs.

During cross-examination in court, Victim C, now aged 18, summed up the way he and the two girls had been treated.

He said: 'The punishment methods she used were unorthodox and I can only describe them as torture.'



What I want to ask is - How can somebody do this to another human being, let alone a child? Do people like this suffer from serious mental problems? Does re-habilitation help? Things like this go on every day around us. Discuss.

I don't mean to shock or offend with the images, just wanted you to see how terrible this woman was.

[Mrluvaluva]

[i]

On one occasion, she forcibly held a child's hand down on a hot electric hob.

[Sunny_01]

BAZG thats such a horrifc story, sadly this is becoming more and more read about in the press!

The fact that this was allowed to continue over a long period of time is so sad. Where were the authorities who should have been over seeing her as a foster parent. Why did noone notice that these children had horrific injuries?

I dont just blame social workers, that would mean laying the blame at another persons door when the blame lays totally with the foster carer. I do blame the system that fails to protect these children. Social workers are so bogged down in red tape and paper work that they now have very little time to make field visits. Health visitors are in the same position, they have so many commitments that it is unbelievable.

This kind of thing sickens me and every decent person.

[Emilee]

That is horrible... why would anyone want to do that to children???

[Mrluvaluva]

Originally posted by Sunny_01
BAZG thats such a horrifc story, sadly this is becoming more and more read about in the press!

The fact that this was allowed to continue over a long period of time is so sad. Where were the authorities who should have been over seeing her as a foster parent. Why did noone notice that these children had horrific injuries?

I dont just blame social workers, that would mean laying the blame at another persons door when the blame lays totally with the foster carer. I do blame the system that fails to protect these children. Social workers are so bogged down in red tape and paper work that they now have very little time to make field visits. Health visitors are in the same position, they have so many commitments that it is unbelievable.

This kind of thing sickens me and every decent person.

I just cannot comprehend how a human being could do something like this. This woman cannot have seen this as punishment, this goes way beyond. This was just a sick and evil thing for somebody to do. Surely she cannot have enjoyed this in some kind of sick and sadistic way? I just cannot believe she got away with it for so long?

[Dr43%er]

I feel sick. Not the photos, but that someone could do that.

[Sunny_01]

She must have some serious mental health problems if she thinks that what she did as acceptable punishment for young children.

I just can never get my head round such cruelty to another person.

She obviously saw these children as a source of income and nothing more. Oh sorry she saw them as something to take her evil rage out on as well!

[Ruth]

It defies belief really. How anybody could ever want to do that - it's very very sad and shocking.

[Mrluvaluva]

"She was even well regarded in her neighbourhood as someone who took children in who had nowhere else to go.

However, behind the doors of her Gloucestershire house she was physically and mentally torturing the children."


She was obviously a very different woman in public. She therefore knew what she was doing was wrong. If she were mentally ill, it might be easier to understand, if at all, but she knew it was wrong. She was fully aware. It makes me sick that somebody could carry out such depraved cruelty.

[Sunny_01]

with you there Baz - just doesnt bare thinking that someone we think is sweet could actually be so cruel to people.

[Ruth*Star]

Why would somewone called a carer want to do, that, its sick.

[mansi]

that's awful, i'm not sure how some people have the heart to do such things....I found something similiar...

_______________________

Family Accused of keeping Woman as ‘Slave’
Parents, three children are charged with kidnapping 19-year-old

Updated: 7:06 p.m. ET March 21, 2007
GREENSBURG, Pa. - A couple and their three teenage children held a woman captive for six months, beating her with broom handles, boards and a metal pipe and forcing her to do chores as they referred to her as their "slave," police said Wednesday.

All five members of the family were arrested on kidnapping, terroristic threat and related charges. They have not yet entered pleas but denied wrongdoing.
The accuser, Emily Nicely, 19, went to live with the family voluntarily last summer but said that she was forced to stay with them since September.


Suspect Cynthia Pollard, 41, is led into Magisterial District Judge James Albert's office in Greensburg, Pa., on Tuesday.


A man whose newspaper was delivered by the family called police on March 10 after he noticed bruises on her. Police brought her to a hospital, where investigators discovered that she had bruises over her entire body and that she had suffered a concussion.

Greensburg police Capt. George Seranko said police believed Nicely's account because the injuries they saw corroborated her story.

"She had injuries on every part of her body," Seranko said.

Nicely said her family had moved out of Greensburg, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, and that she moved in with the Pollard family so she could finish high school in the same district.

School district officials, however, said she was last enrolled in the 2004-05 school year.

"That's actually still part of our investigation," Seranko said.

Three teens charged
Mark Pollard, 43; his wife, Cynthia, 41; and their oldest son, Mark Jr. 18, remained in jail Wednesday, the day after their arrest. The couple's youngest children, Jonathan, 17, and Tabitha, 16, were charged as adults. They were freed on bond and allowed to stay with other family members.


Suspect Mark Pollard, 43, smiles as he is led into the judge's office Tuesday.


Cynthia Pollard acknowledged that Nicely was forced to stand in a corner but told investigators that Nicely is covered with bruises because she falls while delivering newspapers. She also said the family had "numerous physical confrontations with Ms. Nicely but that it was always in self-defense," according to the police affidavit.

"She's a liar," Cynthia Pollard told television reporters after her arraignment Tuesday.

Shortly after Nicely began staying with the Pollards, they became physically abusive, forced her to do work, and never let her leave the home unless she was accompanied by at least one of them, Nicely told police.

"On numerous occasions, the Pollard family would punch the victim with a closed fist, kick, and strike the victim with any of several objects including boots, broom handles, a metal pipe, wooden door slats, belts, boards, and other objects," police said in an affidavit. "The Pollard family referred to her as their 'slave.'"

Mark Pollard is black. Cynthia Pollard and Nicely are white.

"They told her that if she told anyone or tried to leave, they would put wire around her neck and strangle her. They would then go after her family," police said.

Nicely said she was also punished by having to stand with weights, with her hands on her head or in a corner for hours, police said.


Suspect Tabitha Pollard, 16, is led away from the judge's office in Greensburg, Pa., on Tuesday.

Customer called police
A newspaper customer, Nelson Williams, 66, and his caretaker summoned police after they noticed bruises on Nicely when she brought them the paper on March 10.

"Her face, it looked like a baseball bat hit her," Williams told The Associated Press. "She was bad. Boy, she was bruised."


Several minutes after Williams took Nicely in, Cynthia Pollard came to the house and demanded that they let Nicely leave.

Williams said Pollard told him that Nicely had mental health problems and said, "She does that to herself."

He said he replied, "Ain't nobody do that to herself in the face."

-NBC News

[Sunny_01]

more horrific stories of abuse by people who claim to care for others! how can you want to take someone into your home to abuse them!

[Mrluvaluva]

These people are sick, and imo, do not belong in society.

[lily.]

Very upsetting.

Has anyone read any of Dave Pelzer's books? They are a diary of the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his biological mother (which makes it even worse). A lot of the things mentioned in the first story Baz posted were covered in his book.

You might find this strange, but I managed to read all 3 of Pelzer's books about 7 or 8 years ago. At the time I only had one child (a daughter) and although the books were certainly upsetting and very disturbing, they didn't affect me on a personal level. But now that I have a son, I couldn't read them or anything similar to them. It would be too difficult.

Maybe once my children are grown, I will be able to read such things again, but for now, I avoid reading them, or watching dramas/documentaries containing the subject. I actually hesitated before coming to this thread, and to be honest, it was difficult to read through this and respond.

[Chrizzle]

Such horrific stories, all vile and dispicable. They just shock you and leave you speechless.

[Mrluvaluva]

I am sorry to say, they fill me with hatred.

[Chrizzle]

Same Bazg. What I find a bit disturbing is, people like Jade Goody get more press hate than people like this.

[Mrluvaluva]

You are right. We are more obsessed with things that do not matter, than with things that actually do. And I, myself am not blameless.

[Mrluvaluva]

AN evil foster mum who sadistically abused three children in her care got 14 years’ jail yesterday.

Eunice Spry, 62, rammed sticks down the youngsters’ throats and made them eat vomit, beat and starved them.

The fanatical Jehovah’s Witness told the kids she was saving their souls.

Spry had denied the claims but was convicted at Bristol Crown Court last month. She must also pay £80,000 costs and is banned from working with children.

Judge Simon Darwall-Smith told Spry: “This is the worst case I have experienced in 40 years.

“It’s difficult to understand how any human could have even contemplated what you did.”

Yesterday care services apologised for failing to spot abuse at Spry’s two homes in Gloucestershire between 1986 and 2005.

Victim Alloma Gilbert, 21, said: “I have learned not to cry but one day the floodgates will open.”

From The Sun