'Sadistic' foster mother jailed

Eunice Spry, 62, from Gloucestershire, routinely beat, abused and starved the vulnerable youngsters over a 19-year period.

The devout Jehovah's Witness forced sticks down their throats and made them eat their own vomit and rat excrement.

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

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 last month 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.

Judge Simon Darwall-Smith told Spry that this 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."

The slight figure in the dock looked on impassively as the judge sentenced her to 14 years.

He also ordered her to pay costs of £80,000, which he said would inevitably mean she would have to sell at least one of her two properties in Gloucestershire.