A violent and abusive woman who abused and assaulted her husband for 20 years has been jailed. Sheree Spencer, 45, was a heavy drinker and punched, kicked and slapped her husband in fits that left him feeling trapped.
A court was told how Spencer once hit her husband with a wine bottle, leaving him with a “cauliflower” ear and a chipped elbow. She was known to drink up to three bottles of wine a day.
As reported by The Mirror, Hull Crown Court heard how the attacks left her husband living in fear and despair. Police received 43 photographs of injuries inflicted by Spencer and two hours of recorded incidents.
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Spencer, of Beals Close, Market Weighton in East Yorkshire, admitted to coercive and controlling behavior between January 2016 and June 2021. She also admitted to three offenses of assaulting her husband, causing actual bodily harm, between January and April 2020.
Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, the prosecutor, said they had been together as a couple since 2000 and had three young children together. Spencer’s violent behavior was revealed after she alerted the police.
During one incident, Spencer, a former Justice Ministry employee, spat on her husband and grabbed him by the neck, causing him to have difficulty breathing. Her behavior had changed while the couple lived in London and she became aggressive, pushing and slapping him.
She hit him on the back of the neck with a glass of wine, causing a wound that required stitches. Her husband provided the police with 43 photos of injuries, 36 video clips and nine mobile phone recordings.
In addition to frequent kicking, punching, hitting, biting, and spitting, Spencer regularly hurled insults at her. She damaged her property, including laptops, phones, clothing, and household items.
She was heard saying, “You’re not a fucking man. I want you out of my life.” In one incident, she damaged the tire of her car with a kitchen knife, lunged at him with the knife, cutting him 2 cm below the knee.
In a statement read in court, her husband said that he has suffered 20 years of physical and mental abuse. Spencer’s “unpredictable and threatening” behavior caused her to distance herself from her family.
She controlled every aspect of his daily life, including the room he slept in and the bathroom he could use. He said: “She threatened to make false accusations to the police against me.”
He felt “trapped” and “feared the consequences of speaking out” and became “increasingly tough” to abuse, including kicking and punching. Spencer’s husband said that after she was arrested, the problems continued during Family Court hearings when she claimed she was the victim and used defamation against him.
“She continued to exert her control over me,” he said. She was “unnecessarily obstructive” and it was three months before she allowed the family home to be sold.
He added: “I have had to seek help from my GP on a number of occasions.” Defense attorney Richard Pratt KC said there was “little or nothing” that could be said on mitigation.
Pratt said: “It’s a shocking and harrowing case. Alcohol played the biggest role in what happened.”
A combination of alcohol and her prescription medication caused Spencer to behave in a way that “appalled” her. She accepted that she had caused her husband pain and humiliation.
Judge Rayfield said: “You have caused him significant psychological damage. There is a history of violence and abuse against the same victim.”
Spencer was jailed for four years and given an indefinite restraining order. She smiled as she left the dock to be taken to the cells.
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