Chilling never-before-seen footage from a nanny cam has revealed the moment a battered husband cowered on the floor while his wife hurled abuse at him and brandished a knife in their home during her 20-year reign of terror.
Damning videos of Sheree Spencer’s attacks on husband Richard at their seven-bedroom home in Bubwith, East Yorkshire, were captured on cameras the couple had installed to monitor their children.
And explosive clips from police interviews show Sheree casually lying about her husband being the abuser, only for her face to turn ashen when confronted with the footage.
On one occasion she defecated on the floor and forced him to clean it up, and on another she beat him with a wine bottle so hard it permanently disfigured his ear.
Sheree, 45, was jailed for four years at Hull Crown Court in March 2023 by Judge Kate Rayfield, who told her: ‘This is the worst case of controlling and coercive behaviour I have seen.’
Now, Mr Spencer is sharing his story in vivid detail in Channel 5 documentary My Wife, My Abuser: The Secret Footage, which airs on Monday.
And today, MailOnline can reveal Sheree went to desperate lengths through the courts in a bid to stop the documentary being broadcast.
Damning clips of Sheree Spencer’s attacks on husband Richard at their seven-bedroom home in Bubwith, East Yorkshire, were captured on cameras the couple installed to monitor their children
The hidden nanny cam gave a vital way out for battered husband Mr Spencer after he endured years of physical and verbal abuse from his wife, that sometimes left him ‘broken’ in a foetal position
Sheree’s reign of domestic terror finally ended in June 2021 when the police were called to their family home by a concerned welfare worker
The couple met in 2000 in a nightclub and married in Thailand in 2009 before having three daughters
Sheree’s reign of domestic terror finally ended in June 2021 when the police were called to their family home by a concerned welfare worker
Footage showed furious wine-fuelled tirades, in which Sheree would call her husband ‘fat boy,’ ‘a pussy’ and ‘dumb dumb’ and inflict bruises and scratches
Sheree tried desperately to stop nanny cam footage of her attacks being broadcast in the documentary, Mailonline can reveal.
Mr Spencer felt the footage should be seen to raise awareness of the type of abuse men can suffer in their daily lives at the hands of violent partners but Sheree tried to block it.
He told Mailonline: ‘Sheree tried to stop the documentary being broadcast in the crown court but failed, then she applied for a prohibited steps order through the family court, which luckily was rejected and thrown out at the first hearing.
‘The broadcast has been delayed due to the legal challenges for about six months, but now it is finally going to be shown.
‘I’m hopeful that the film will be well received and will make a difference.’
The hidden nanny cam gave a vital way out for battered husband Mr Spencer after he endured years of physical and verbal abuse from his wife, that left him ‘broken’ on the floor in a foetal position.
Mr Spencer had met his wife in a nightclub in 2000, and the pair married on a Thai beach in 2009.
After they welcomed the eldest of their three daughters in 2015, Mr Spencer installed the nanny cam so they could keep watch over her.
Instead, footage showed furious wine-fuelled tirades, in which Sheree would call her husband ‘fat boy,’ ‘a p**sy’ and ‘dumb dumb’ and inflict bruises and scratches that he would need to cover with make-up before going outside.
Mr Spencer told The Sun: ‘We had two [cameras] — one in the playroom and one in the bedroom. They were there for reassurance, to keep an eye out because it’s a big house.
‘It was on something like a 28-day roll, where if something new came in it would delete the old footage.’
When police finally became involved, Mr Spencer handed over 43 images of his bruised face, taken on different dates following savage assaults he had suffered.
Equally explosive clips from police interviews show Sheree casually lying about her husband being the abuser, only for her face to turn ashen when confronted with the clips
Mr Spencer, now happily settled with a new partner, decided to take part in the Channel 5 documentary to help other abused men speak out
Mr Spencer handed police 36 photographs he took of himself, showing cuts and bruises to his face and body
Sheree Spencer, 45, was jailed for four years for making her husband Richard’s life a living hell with daily beatings and verbal attacks that left him cowering on the floor in the foetal position
Richard Spencer, pictured, secretly recorded video and audio of his wife’s attacks on him for years. When police became involved he handed over 43 images of his bruised face and body
A police officer tells the documentary: ‘This has been going on for such a long time, that this is who he is. Withdrawn and broken.’
Mr Spencer says: ‘I just wanted the abuse to stop. I was in a situation and there was no way out.’
Hull Crown Court heard that mother-of-three Sheree had carried out most of the attacks on her husband in the family home.
Sheree worked at the highest levels for HM Prison and Probation Service and bragged to friends that she had the ear of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
She was a project manager in the department’s directorate of strategy and performance.
A former friend said: ‘She would brag about being only two down from the Prime Minister in her field and had meetings with Boris Johnson, who she spoke of as though he were a friend.
‘She was bragging about her high flying career while subjecting her poor husband, a lovely man, to daily abuse, degradation and humiliation.’
It was described as ‘a great irony’ that Spencer had done so much work aimed at investigating the effect of custodial sentences on the family.
Within months of becoming a couple in 2000, Richard Spencer endured her violent rages, which happened whether she was drunk or sober.
The worst of the assaults on him happened in April 2021 when his wife attacked him with the empty wine bottle.
Mr Spencer, who stands at 5ft 10in, told the court that although he was bigger and physically stronger than his petite wife, he did not fight back when she began to attack him.
He said he became almost immune to the physical abuse she meted out, even though she would cause him immense pain by sinking her teeth into him.
But he said the mental scars left by 16 years of her hate-filled attacks were what would leave the most lasting effect.
Sheree’s reign of domestic terror finally ended in June 2021 when the police were called to their family home by a concerned welfare worker.
Her arrest that day on suspicion of assaulting her husband opened a door into the hell he had kept private for his entire married life.
Mr Spencer said: ‘In trying to block the footage being shown, she continued trying to exert control even from jail, but fortunately justice prevailed.
‘It’s astonishing to me that she’s living a relatively easy life in prison, having been moved to an open jail after six months of her sentence.
‘The judge in her case described it as the worst case or coercive control she had ever seen, so why she was considered for open prison so early is beyond me.
‘She is due for release next February but she is able to go out for family and friend meetings and has been working in a cafe.
Spencer worked at the highest levels for HM Prison and Probation Service and bragged to friends that she had the ear of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Hull Crown Court (pictured) heard that Spencer was a mother of three young children, and that many of the attacks on her husband had occurred in the family home
The court heard that Spencer beat him with the bottle all over his head and body, but caused a serious injury to his ear, which swelled dramatically
‘It doesn’t seem a just sentence for someone who committed such serious offences.’
Since his ex-wife’s imprisonment, Mr Spencer has joined a campaign called ManKind Initiative, which supports male victims of domestic abuse.
He has also found love again and told media he is happily settled with his new partner.
Speaking to media after Sheree was jailed last year, he said: ‘I have become resigned to the fact that I will never fully recover from her abuse and that it will have a permanent damaging impact on mine and my family’s life.
‘Sheree’s abuse towards me evolved and escalated over time, she used repeated acts of physical assault, threats, verbal abuse, and humiliation to punish and exercise control over me.
‘The abuse was hidden from the outside world, including friends and family. Sheree manipulated me into believing that I was a responsible and willing participant in the abuse. She remorselessly proclaimed that I deserved to be punished, and that it was a justifiable consequence of me disappointing her in some way.
‘Little by little, I lost my independence and willpower and just accepted that was how my life was going to be. I complied with Sheree’s demands, and she controlled most aspects of my everyday life, including things like what activities I could participate in and when, which room I could sleep in, and even which toilet I could use.
‘Gradually I became isolated from family and friends and was left deep in debt causing me to feel trapped.’
‘After a while, I learnt to cover my face with my hands and curl up into a foetal position to try and avoid sustaining any visible facial injuries, so that I could still take the children to school and nursery.’
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