Homeschooling’s 

Invisible Children

Victoria Evans, Alloma Gilbert, and Christopher Spry

Content note: Case narratives include descriptions of severe violence inflicted on children, including abuse and neglect, sexual violence, torture, and murder, as well as mentions of suicide and domestic violence. They also include photos of victims and perpetrators of violence.

spry
Victoria Evans (left, b. 1986), Alloma Gilbert (center, b. 1986), and Christopher Spry (right, b. 1989) were tortured, starved, and imprisoned by their adoptive mother, Eunice Spry. All three were homeschooled starting in 1994. Spry’s other children—two older biological daughters; two adopted daughters, Charlotte and Sarah; and others—were not abused.

Spry took Victoria in as a baby, later officially adopting her, while she took in Alloma and Christopher as foster children in 1992. After Spry moved them to an isolated farm in Eckington, Worcestershire, removed them from school, and changed their names, the abuse began in earnest. Spry beat them, strangled them, and prevented them from getting medical care for their injuries. Sometimes she starved them; at other times she forced them to eat cat food, vomit, and feces. She punished them with extreme physical labor and made them sleep in the barn or locked them in the attic for months. When Victoria was injured after a car accident, Spry forced her to remain wheelchair-bound for years despite her recovery. Spry, a devout Jehovah’s Witness, was convinced that Victoria, Alloma, and Christopher were “Devil children”.

The abuse came to light in December 2004 when Victoria reported it to a friend at church, who helped her escape and tell the police. Spry was arrested in February 2005 and convicted of child abuse in 2007. She was released from prison in 2014.

Date: December 2004
Location:
Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK

Documents: Date:
Timeline: Carer abuses children 2007-03-20
Two decades of abuse went unseen 2007-03-20
Carer guilty of abusing children 2007-03-20
Jehovah’s Witness tortured foster children 2007-03-21
Sadistic foster mother's 19-year reign of terror 2007-03-21
Council ‘sorry’ for tortured children 2007-03-22
Foster mum jailed after decades of cruelty 2007-04-19
Foster mother jailed for ‘sadistic torture’ 2007-04-20
Sadistic foster mother sentenced to 14 years in jail 2007-04-20
How I survived being starved, beaten and tortured by my Jehovah’s Witness foster mother 02-01-2008
Abused foster son publishes book 2008-03-06
My torment at the hands of evil foster mother 03-06-2008
I grew up living with a sadist 04-09-2008
'Sadistic' carer's sentence cut 2008-09-26
‘She forced a stick down my throat and made me eat my own vomit’: Daughter abused by adoptive mother for 20 years tells of torture and fears over her imminent release from prison 06-02-2014
She was fed cat food, whipped and kept in a wheelchair to claim benefits. Now as her sadistic mother is freed from prison, Victoria Evans, 28, is in terror again 07-18-2014
Made to sleep in a barn, eat vomit and suffer vicious beatings: Why the UK’s ‘most sadistic mother’ should never have been let out of jail – by the three children she abused 03-13-2015