A former prison boss who beat her husband in a sustained campaign of abuse was finally exposed by a “nanny cam” that captured the behaviour, a documentary has revealed.
Sheree Spencer made her husband Richard Spencer’s life a living hell with physical attacks and verbal humiliation at their seven-bedroom home in Bubwith, East Yorkshire.
On one occasion, the former prison reform chief beat him with a wine bottle so hard it permanently disfigured his ear.
Spencer was jailed for four years at Hull Crown Court in March 2023 by Judge Kate Rayfield, who said: “This is the worst case of controlling and coercive behaviour I have seen.”
Unknown to Spencer, her abuse had been captured on a security camera that the couple had installed to monitor their three young children.
The footage is now being released for the first time in a Channel 5 documentary My Wife, My Abuser: The Secret Footage, in which Mr Spencer is sharing his story.
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.”
For years, Mr Spencer secretly recorded video and audio of his wife’s wine-fuelled tirades, in which she would call him “a p—y” and “dumb dumb”, and caused bruises and scratches that he would cover with make-up before taking their children to school and nursery.
Some of the attacks were caught on two cameras in the playroom and bedroom of their home and Mr Spencer would also take photographs of the injuries he suffered.
Recorded her violent assaults
He would email the pictures and videos to himself and delete them from his phone so his wife did not realise he was recording her assaults.
After police were called to the family home in 2021 by a concerned welfare worker, he handed over 43 images of his bruised face taken on different dates.
Speaking after Spencer was jailed, 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.”
My Wife, My Abuser: The Secret Footage will air on Channel 5 on Monday night at 10pm.
