Nominated BEST BRITISH TRUE-CRIME PODCAST, 4th Best True-Crime Podcast by This Week, iTunes Top 25 Podcast, Podcast Magazine's Hot 50, The Telegraph's Top 5, Crime & Investigation Channel's Top 20 True-Crime Podcasts, also seen on BBC Radio, Sky News, The Guardian and TalkRadio's Podcast of the Week.
Shakira's flat and the bike shed (@Googlemaps Sept2023)
Welcome to the Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast and audio guided walk of London's most infamous and often forgotten murder cases, all set within and beyond the West End.
EPISODE TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE & SIXTY-SEVEN:
Shakira Spencer was a loving mother-of-two, who lived to be loved and gave it back in spades. But when her “best friend” became her worst enemy, her life no longer became her own, she was reduced to being little more than a slave, and across the weekend Friday 9th to Monday 12th of September 2022 – out of boredom or spite - her so-called friends subjected her to what the judge described as “sadistic cruelty”.
THE LOCATION:
The location is marked with a purple symbol of a bin in the west by the words 'Ealing'. To use the map, click it. If you want to see the other maps, click here.
SOURCES: (a selection)
MUSIC:
UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE: Welcome to Murder Mile. Today, I’m standing on Holbeck Road in West Ealing, W13; four streets west of Latvian child killer Arnis Zalkins, three roads north of the last attack by the failed serial-killer known as ‘Jack the Shitter’, and two roads east of the troubled barman with the ravenous dog - coming soon to Murder Mile. Off Uxbridge Road and Northfields Avenue in a discrete side street called Holbeck Road sits Lambert House, a four-storey sandstone-bricked block of flats, built in 2019 for council tenants and keyworkers. Like most new builds, the occupants must abide by strict rules – no littering, no loitering and no late-night noise – so this nice neighbourhood for families doesn’t descend into a wild west of bag snatchers, glue sniffers, granny bashers and rude-boys grabbing their crotches like they’ve all got genital crabs. I know this building well, as my old flat looks right across it, and being situated just off Dean Gardens where the local kids play, it’s a nice place where you wouldn’t expect to find a story as horrific as this. It began with a young mother living an ordinary life in a new flat and looking forward to a bright future, and it ended in what the judge described as “a sadistic campaign of pain and suffering on a vulnerable woman”. I warn you now, this is a sickening true story about deceit, bullying and unbearable misery. My name is Michael, I am your tour guide, and this is Murder Mile. Episode 267: Sadistic Cruelty. All she ever wanted was to be loved. Born on the 13th of June 1987, Shakira was raised in West London as one of the beloved daughters of Lloyd & Merjia Spencer. Shakira in Arabic means ‘thankful’, and her parents and sisters certainly were to receive into their world this small bundle of joy who would blossom into a sweet and caring girl. For Shakira, her family was her world, her everything, and being raised with love in her heart and an unwavering dedication to those she held close, she was easy to love and impossible to dislike, as being ‘beautiful, happy and smiling’, she always went out of her way to make others loved, before herself. Her mother said “she was lovable and trusting, but vulnerable and needed support”, as being born with some learning difficulties, Shakira was registered disabled, but this never stopped her living her life, as blessed with a bubbly spirit, she approached each hurdle life threw at her with a beaming smile. And keen not to stifle her but to give this young woman a chance at independence, her family gave her the space to step beyond the confines of her disability, and in her new life, she would flourish. Leaving school, Shakira worked at a nursery as she loved children, she later became a sales assistant as although on disability benefits, she wanted to give something back. And always dressing well in fashions which proudly accentuated her ‘curves’ and ‘voluptuous’ size 16 frame, she aided her sister by selling cosmetics online and she had the confidence to post make-up tutorials on YouTube. With grit, guts and a beaming smile, although quiet and shy around those she didn’t know, she succeed in living an independent life thanks to her infectious confidence, her wonderful warmth, her boundless energy, and a ‘can do’ attitude which those without her difficulties could have done with learning. In her twenties, Shakira found love, together with her partner, they had two wonderful children who she adored, and in 2013, her perfect little family moved into Flat 35 of Forest House in Ealing - just off Northfields Avenue and one street from Holbeck Road, where her new flat was yet to be built. Shakira loved people. Her mother said “she loved having friends, she always wanted to be liked, which made her keen to please people”, and although her family gave her the space she needed to live her life right, seen as innocent and trusting, “a calculated person could easily exploit her vulnerability”. That person came in the guise of a friend… and her name was Ashana. Formerly of Edinburgh, Ashana Kirsty Studholme was three years her senior, and although said to be harsh and hard faced, in 2015, also as a mother living in the same block at Forest House, Ashana was someone that Shakira looked up to, and the two became firm friends who were inseparable. Ashana, known as Shan or Shanti was a bad influence on Shakira. Described as “cruel, aggressive and manipulative”, she had many convictions for shoplifting, she’d served time for the violent assaults on women, she had a caution for neglecting her child who fell from a roof, and at least one child in care. Shakira’s partner knew it and disliked her, but with their relationship breaking down, Shakira wouldn’t listen, as like so many of us, she refused to see the glaring truth about her friend and had taken a side. In 2015, Shakira and her unnamed partner separated owing to the direction her life was going under the coercion of Ashana, with the court later told “once he was out of the flat, that left the way clear for her to move in on Shakira even more, until Ashana persuaded her to oust him all together”. With that love and companionship missing from her life, Shakira grew closer to her best friend; Ashana encouraged her to drink, to party late, to take drugs (although a toxicology report couldn’t verify this), and in 2017, even after Ashana was convicted of racially aggravated common assault in which she was jailed for kicking and punching a woman unconscious in the middle of a street, Shakira stood by her. “Shakira wanted to be liked”, her mother said, “this made her vulnerable”, especially to Ashana, who Detective Chief Inspector Brian Howie described as " cruel, manipulative, coercive and… a vile person". Only, it wasn’t just one vile person who would destroy Shakira’s life, but three. 26-year-old Shaun Pendlebury was Ashana’s boyfriend, who had prior convictions for supplying heroin and cocaine, handling stolen goods and the violent assault of two police officers; and 45-year-old Lisa Richardson whose flat was described as a ‘hive of anti-social behaviour’, she had one conviction for cultivating cannabis, and of her four children, two were in care, with two more suffering her neglect. The Crown Prosecution Service described all three as “weak separately” but Ashana was the leader of this band of truly damaged reprobates, with Ashana, Lisa & Shaun all angry at the world for their own failings and looking for someone weak, trusting and vulnerable who they could blame, beat, abuse… …and torture to death. In 2019, as a lone mother with learning difficulties who was caring for two young children, Shakira was moved out of the old, dilapidated flats at Forest House, and into the brand-new flats at Lambert House on nearby Holbeck Road, with two-bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, storage space and a fitted kitchen. It was exactly the kind of support her family had fought for, while ensuring her independence. And although Ashana had moved to 7 miles north to a crappy flat in a two storey, semi-detached house at 29 Greenhill Road just at the back of Harrow on the Hill tube station, the two stayed firm friends. Initially, their isolation of Shakira was slow and subtle, as like all manipulators, the cruel trio wanted Shakira to like them and trust them, while they eroded her faith in those who truly loved her - her own family. It was done in a way which (at first) even Shakira wouldn’t see as abuse, but then, on the 23rd March 2020, something happened which made it impossible to protect this vulnerable women. (Boris quote, “stay at home”). With Covid sweeping across the world, like most countries, Britain went into lockdown with the shops shut, the transport siloed, and families and friends separated for months on end. Many law-abiding citizens stuck to the rules, but with this trio intent on bleeding Shakira dry, they began holding parties in her new flat, and being too timid to speak up, Shakira said nothing as she didn’t want to upset them. Neither Ashana, Lisa nor Shaun were her friends, as in their phones they saved Shakira’s number under ‘gully’, which is slang for ‘gutter’ and ‘John Doe’, names which showed how little they thought of her. Over time, they made ever increasing demands on her, knowing she was desperate to please her “best friends”; every day they ordered her off to the shops to run errands, she made their meals on demand, and they’d wake her up early to clean their homes from top-to-bottom, as more and more, this vulnerable mother-of-two became little more than a live-in servant to three bullies who mocked her. She meant nothing to them, she was a nobody, and seeing her possessions as theirs, with Shaun being booted out of his mother’s house for smoking weed, having first slept on Shakira’s sofa and then taking her bed, showing nothing but utter contempt for their slave, often she was forced to sleep under newspapers in Ashana’s hallway, and other times, in the cold and damp bike-shed beside her own flat. Every day, they maliciously humiliated, degraded and dehumanized her, by breaking her spirit, erasing her smile, and making her feel as if she was no longer a bright and bubbly woman, but their plaything. Over a year, they not only broke her mentally but physically, as although for months she had made their meals, they insisted that she live only on a diet of sachets of tomato ketchup. In March 2021, she was Size 16 and 74kgs (or 11 stone 9 lbs), but barely a year later, she was Size 6 and not even 6 stone. “She was just skin and bone, gaunt and skeletal, bruised from head to foot, with hollowed black eyes”. Shakira, who just 15 months before, was described as ‘curvy and ‘voluptuous’, now looked as if she had been rescued from a Nazi concentration camp, “she became like a ghost and aged 30 years”. Her neighbour texted her to ask if she needed help, but she said no. Her dad tried to take her home, but she rejected him. And although the police did a welfare check at her flat, being so broken down all she thought of was protecting her abusers, she denied anything was wrong, and no-one could be charged. The nearest she got to escaping was when she went to her local surgery to seek medical assistance to her swollen and bloodied ear. But she never said how it had happened, and nothing could be done. In July 2022, with the lockdowns over, as we all enjoyed our first summer without any restrictions, Shakira’s physical abuse continued unabated, with the trio cataloguing their assaults in text messages. On the 14th July to an unnamed friend who (like others) was invited to participate in the abuse, Ashana wrote “I’ve just f**ked this b**** up, she ain’t going nowhere. I’m going smash her up, nah joke”, bragging “I’m gonna mash her”. The next day, another text read “she got everything she deserved… I didn’t beat her much, just a few tappy-tappy”, as if her torture was a silly game. And by the week’s end, Lisa sent a photo of Shakira lying on her bed - either asleep or unconscious - with a smashed nose, her face badly beaten, her eyes black and swollen, with a cruel message which read ‘look who I got’. That was a regular week for Shakira, being beaten, starved and tortured, as a pack of jackals laughed as they took turns to assaulted her, and – seeing her as little more than an outlet for their own sadistic fun – they filmed the abuse on their phones and sent it to each other, like this was a competition to see who could hurt her the worst. But by then, she was too weak to scream, and too numb to cry. By the end of August 2022, Ashana had full control over Shakira’s body, brain and life, having taken her bank book and disability allowance, and with her emaciated hostage reduced to a shuffling zombie who did as they said, to make some extra cash for themselves, they had her sell her body for sex. In a voice note to Ashana, Lisa laughed “oh yeah, shit, I beat her up and made her prostitute herself”. Shakira was a broken shell of a woman, with nothing to look forward to, but her death. Only her end wouldn’t be mercifully swift, but the epitome of sadistic cruelty. The morning of Friday 9th of September 2022 began like any other, as Ashana texted Lisa in a typically illiterate and self-serving way, it read; "I buss up her head, I need you here, I will go to jail". Like a clarion call to her callous cohorts, being a pack of hungry jackals who smelled blood, Lisa & Shaun arrived in Ashana’s squalid little flat at 29 Greenhill Road in Harrow, and that’s exactly what they saw. Out of spite or boredom, she had beaten Shakira over the head with a bottle, severely lacerating her scalp and spattering her blood up the bedroom wall, as the scrawny woman lay weak and dazed. If any of them had even an ounce of compassion, they could have got her help and she’d be alive today, but no longer seeing her as human - just an object to be humiliated, spat at and hit - instead this trio would subject Shakira to a long weekend of violence and torture, which continued for four whole days. As their slave, regardless of her head hurting, her hair matted with blood and her limbs trembling with exhaustion, still she had to cook and clean, and as she got slower at her chores, the more they hit her. To demean her further, they forced her to strip. Initially down to her bra and knickers for the first two days, then completely naked, as they mocked the sagging skin which hung off her emaciated bones. We know this, because they filmed it on their phones like a sadistic souvenir to savour later, but also, being the epitome of a bad mother, like many times before, Lisa had brought her kids with her, and the young impressionable minds of Child A aged 12 and Child B aged 10 would witness this abuse. Using crayons, one drawing shows Shakira in the kitchen, her face sad, as an angry Ashana makes her cheeks and mouth bleed. Another shows Shaun “whacking” her with his bare hands as bloodied saliva drools from her slack mouth. And a third shows Lisa “squishing her head like it was a banana”, as she was repeatedly beaten with fists, belt and an electrical massager, taking her to the brink of death. And then, possibly exhausted from the violence they’d inflicted upon her, they had Shakira make their dinner, as they sat like a normal family gorging on chips and pizza, as Shakira lay naked and broken in the hallway, their hunger giving her a brief respite from their brutality… but only for a short while. The last sighting of Shakira was that evening as they’d sent her on an errand, and a CCTV camera had captured her crossing Greenhill Way; with her hood up, her head down, and her walk slow and pained, as she dejectedly returned to the scene of her unimaginable cruelty, where there would be no escape. In court, they all denied their part and blamed each other; whether slapping, kicking or dragging her by the hair, but it was futile as every video told the cruel truth, as did the words of their child witnesses. Three days after it had begun, her slow and painful death would culminate on Monday 12th, in what was described as “frenzied climax”. To trained officers, Child A said the torture began in the kitchen, they were laughing and cussing her, as Shaun told Shakira to kneel. Smacking her hard over the head with a bottle, he kicked her so she fell, and as all three circled her, they pounced, kicking her as she howled in pain, pleading for them to stop. But still they kept kicking, her tears only goading them on. Child A then told the court about the “blowtorch”. Grabbing an aerosol can and a lighter, Child B said “it made a whooshing noise, as the fire hit her face”; torching her skin, singing her lashes, brows and hair, and causing painful welts and blisters to form, as she crumpled in a shaking ball of bare flesh. They only stopped when their fingers hurt from holding the red-hot lighter, and when the gas ran out. But the torture wasn’t over. Far from it. Child A was ordered to boil a kettle. With her held down, as steam spewed, Shakira screamed as the boiling water was poured over her feet, the pain so intense that she passed out, her injuries so severe that the pathologist said “her feet had been almost entirely degloved”. And having dragged her into the hall, there she slept in her own urine, and what Child A described as “the smell of burnt dead skin”. By the night, she was alive, in pain, but unable to speak. Treated like a sack of rubbish, they loaded her into the boot of a red Honda Civic, and at 9:28pm, instead of leaving her somewhere she could be found like a hospital, CCTV captured her stumbling and falling as Shaun led her to her flat, where he dumped her in her hallway cupboard, and locked it. She was too weak to scream, too exhausted to cry, in too much pain to move, and no-one could hear her, and with her burned, broken body dehydrated and emaciated, at some point, her heart gave up. Aged just 35, Shakira died alone, in the dark, her children left without a mum. After, Ashana & Shaun bought kebabs, she texted Lisa bragging “I’m knackered babe”, as Lisa joked “we got a babysitter and a rat sitter. lol”, as they cared about her less in death than they did in life. 11 days later, Ashana texted “just had fucking Shakira’s mum ring to abuse me about where Shakira is… she’s a fucking horrible bitch… a pure cunt. I’ve done everything for Shakira, but no-one sees that”, as she continued fleecing her bank account, stating of her torture “she deserved it”, and realising she was dead, they moved her body onto her son’s bunkbed and tried to make it look like natural causes. Arrogant and selfish to the core, as they used bleach to wiped away whatever evidence of their crimes they found, Ashana was heard shouting "I can't go back to prison", but it as where they all belonged. On Sunday 25th of September 2022 at 4.38pm, almost two weeks after her disappearance, neighbours noticed a foul smell, they spotted maggots crawling under her flat’s front door and called the police. Even for a qualified pathologist, it proved impossible to identify her cause of death owing to the extent of her decomposition, “she had extensive degloving to the hands and feet, six full thickness lacerations to the skull, numerous wounds to her arms, legs, buttocks and chest, a fractured left eye socket, her left ear had been crushed having been stamped on”, and she could only be identified by her teeth. The investigation headed up by Detective Chief Inspector Brian Howie was simple but thorough. Suspicion instantly fell on Ashana, Shaun and Lisa, and although a trail of evidence would convict them, with Shaun having confessed to his uncle, on Monday 26th September at 10am, all three were arrested, and being arrogant and self-serving to the last, they turned against each other and the trio collapsed. Like cowards, they stuck to their half-baked alibis to squirm out of their crimes; Shaun denied any part in her death suggesting that with his “low IQ and anxiety” that he was merely Ashana’s patsy, Lisa said “I haven’t seen her in weeks” and that Shakira’s black eyes “was cos she prostituted herself out”, but most callous of all was Ashana, who had the audacity to blame Shakira for her own death, stating “I’d been her friend for nine years… she’d got into sex work and had been assaulted by punters. I last saw her on 10th or 11th September, I knocked on her door, she was fine… I would do anything for Shakira”. Anything, except treating her like a friend, a mother, a daughter, or even a human being. As much as they lied, the evidence spoke the truth. In Ashana’s flat, they found Shakira’s bank account and benefits books, hidden under a mattress and in a bag emblazoned with the words: 'It wasn't me'. Although they’d destroyed their phones, specialists recovered texts, call logs and many distressing images which catalogued their systematic brutality of Shakira over the years, and they pieced together an accurate timeline using CCTV and more than 50,000 10-second clips from the Ring doorbell camera at the flat in Harrow, as well as statements from the children who had witnessed her torture. (End) Tried in Court One of the Old Bailey, on the 4th of October 2023, all three pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges of preventing a burial and murder. Described as "a pack of feral savages", across the 12-week trial, so shocking was the evidence that the judge excused the jurors from jury service for the rest of their lives, and on 11th December 2023, after 18 hours of deliberation, all three were found guilty. Sentenced on the 1st of March 2024, Judge Angela Rafferty KC told Ashana Studholme, Lisa Richardson and Shaun Pendlebury, “you have shown no remorse for our actions, your only concern was for yourselves… the levels of brutality were wholly exceptional, and Shakira’s suffering was extreme. As I have said it was proved beyond doubt that this was a sadistic murder. Therefore your sentence is life imprisonment”, with the minimum term before the parole can be considered being 34 years. The earliest they could ever hope to get out would be 25th of March 2056, when Shaun Pendlebury is 59, Ashana Studholme is 72, and Lisa Richardson is 77, although it’s unlikely they will ever see freedom. At the trial, Shakira’s son read an impact statement, he said “I’ve suffered with daily nightmares and anxiety over what happened to mum. I can’t get the horrible image of her looking skinny and unwell out of my head. I cannot believe people she thought were her friends would ever do this to her. I hope that every day they feel bad for the choices they have made. These people are cruel and evil, they do not deserve to live a normal happy life again”. And luckily, they won’t, as their lives are over, for good. Shaun Pendlebury was imprisoned at HMP Wandsworth in South London although it’s likely he’s been moved on, with Ashana Studholme and Lisa Richardson at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, where prisoners have described her as “nasty and unpleasant”. Being so hated, we can only hope that such despicable scabs on society spend the next 34 years of their lives being treated as Shakira Spencer was by them; being abused, beaten and bullied, unable to escape, and suffering a daily diet of sadistic cruelty. The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
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AuthorMichael J Buchanan-Dunne is a crime writer, podcaster of Murder Mile UK True Crime and creator of true-crime TV series. 
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