'Sadistic' carer's sentence cut

A foster mother who abused three children in her care has had her 14-year jail sentence cut by two years.

Eunice Spry, from Tewkesbury, was last year found guilty of 26 accounts of physical and mental abuse as well as perverting the course of justice.

The abuse, which was described in her trial as "sadistic", included forcing sticks down the children's throats.

The High Court in London reviewed the sentence and she will now serve a total of 12 years.

Spry was found guilty of a range of charges from unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation.

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

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."

Following Spry's conviction, Gloucestershire County Council apologised for the "shortcomings" in its care system.

Despite arousing suspicions and causing concern, she persistently kept one step ahead of the agencies who were supposed to be safeguarding the youngsters concerned.

Vital information which could have alerted social workers to the abuse was not shared by the various bodies involved.