Blowtorch thugs secretly tortured my girl to death for years… I mistook decline for drug abuse until true horror emerged
WHEN Lloyd Camacho met up with his daughter three days before her 35th birthday he was so shocked by her appearance, he thought she had become a drug addict.
Mum-of-two Shakira Spencer wasn’t the vivacious, care-free woman he’d watched grow up. Instead she was scarily thin and acting shifty.
When she denied she was taking drugs, Lloyd begged her to see a doctor, fearing that she might be seriously ill because she’d lost so much weight.
The reality was much more horrific. She was being starved and tortured by a trio of twisted people she thought were her best friends.
Shakira, from Ealing, West London, had been preyed upon by Ashana Studholme, Lisa Richardson and Shaun Pendlebury, and over the course of a few years they took over her life.
They cut her off from her family and friends, took control of her flat and her finances, leaving her with no money to eat, feeding her packets of tomato ketchup instead.
And in a sick power trip they tortured her, burning her feet with a makeshift blow torch and scolding her with boiling water before bludgeoning her over the head and stuffing her into a cupboard to die alone.
Her body was only discovered two weeks later when neighbours smelt rotting flesh and spotted maggots under her front door.
In his first interview about his daughter’s tragic murder, Shakira’s father says he stills struggles with the anger he has towards her killers.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Lloyd said: “Those three were monsters, pure evil. I’d say they were animals but that would be insulting to animals.
“Even animals don’t treat their own the way they treated Shakira.
“Day after day, going to their trial and seeing them, they had this kind of don’t care, don’t give a damn attitude, especially Ashana, she had not a flicker of concern.
“It was just a day out for her. I mean, that’s just pure evil, isn’t it? Pure evil.
“I was angry. I was heartbroken, if there was no barrier between me and them, you know, I could have done them harm.”
Power trip
The true horror of Shakira’s final moments and how the police nailed her killers is being told in a new documentary, Crimes That Shook Britain, on Crime+Investigation.
In March this year the trio were sentenced to 34 years each after being found guilty of Shakira’s murder.
While it brought an end to the horrific case for the police, for her loved ones, it was the start of a nightmare because it was only during the trial that they discover the true trauma inflicted on Shakira.
Ashana, considered the ringleader of the group, had befriended Shakira, but not for any sisterly-style bond.
It was a power trip.
She wanted access to Shakira’s flat and her finances. And with the help of her boyfriend, Shaun, and her friend, Lisa, they groomed Shakira.
They made her think they were best friends who always had her back, when in reality they were slowing cutting her off from those who really loved her.
And when COVID hit, they used the cover of lockdown to ramp up their plan.
All the while, Shakira’s family had no clue what was going on behind closed doors.
Lloyd, 69, said: “Nobody suspected what they were doing to her because when we met them, particularly Ashana, she always came across as quite helpful.
“No one suspected what was really going on behind closed doors.
They brainwashed her into thinking they were doing right by her.
Dad Lloyd
“But I suppose that was the grooming part, they used COVID to cut her off from everyone who loved her and poured poison in her ear.
“Ashana made her feel like she was the only one who cared.”
Drug den
Lloyd had travelled to see relatives in Guyana in early 2020 and got stuck there as global travel ground to a halt during the pandemic.
As lockdowns came into force he decided to stay there, a move he regrets dearly now because he says he might have been able to save his daughter.
He added: “Those three made her feel like she had found a group of friends that she was a part of. They brainwashed her into thinking they were doing right by her.
“She was such an innocent, forgiving person. She did not realise they were grooming her to get her place to use as a drug den, to take her money and control her life.
“They broke her soul. They grabbed the opportunity to take away Shakira’s life, took away her bank card and everything.
“All her money that she was getting for the kids going into her account, they were just spending it and not giving her any.”
When Lloyd returned to London in 2022 he tried to reach out but couldn’t understand why she wasn’t as responsive as she used to be on the phone.
He had no idea Ashana was controlling who she spoke to and would often reply on Shakira’s behalf.
But when Lloyd did see her for the first time in two years, he was stunned.
He explained: “When I came back and I saw the state of her, I was in tears.
Condemed by court
At the trial of Pendlebury, Studholme and Richardson, Judge Angela Rafferty KC said the following after sentencing them to life:
“Images of Shakira before she fell under your influence show her full of life, healthy and smiling.
“She is unrecognisable at the end, emaciated and broken.
“All who watched it will be slow to forget the CCTV footage of her trying to walk on scalded feet in the middle of the night.
“Leading up to her murder she was routinely and continually humiliated, degraded and dehumanized.
“The lack of pity, empathy or decency towards Shakira was marked in everything you said, even when on trial in front of a jury.
“None of you take any responsibility and continue to blame each other.
“You have no remorse.
“Your only concern continues to be for yourselves
“She was loveable, soft and trusting, easy to take advantage of and she needed a lot of help and support.
“She was sweet natured and adored her two children.
“She was no match for the three of you.”
“I said, ‘What’s going on? Are you on drugs?’ I had no idea of what she was going through, the brutality and all that, because I didn’t see any outward bruises.
“She hid everything so well. I had no idea they were starving her, taking her money and feeding her only ketchup.
“It makes me sick thinking about that. She honestly looked like a drug addict.
“She promised me she wasn’t on drugs, she said she’d been exercising a lot. I told her that kind of weight loss wasn’t normal and I begged her to see a doctor thinking she might be really sick.
“But I think she was scared of what they would do to her.”
Sickening torture
Recalling the last time her ever saw Shakira, he added: “It was just a few days before her birthday.
“I went over to see her but she wouldn’t let me in the flat. She said it wasn’t convenient to let me in.
“I wanted to respect her privacy thinking maybe she had a boyfriend up there. Maybe it was Shaun and he was threatening her not to let me in, I’ll never know.
“So I met her in the foyer. The first thing she said to me was, ‘Why are you here, you don’t love me, nobody loves me’. I was shocked.
“I said to her, ‘If I don’t love you why would I be here now?’ I couldn’t believe it, I was looking at her and it was like the light had gone out inside of her.
“I could see she was nervous and scared of something but she wouldn’t let me know what it was.
“I couldn’t drag her out of there and take her home with me, I could have been accused of kidnapping my own daughter.
They had poisoned her mind and made her feel like nobody loved her, even though I did.
“But that’s what I wanted to do and I really wish I had. I asked her to come by my house to talk, she said she would, but I’m convinced any time I text her after that that it was them who were replying.
“They had poisoned her mind and made her feel like nobody loved her, even though I did.”
Lloyd and Shakira’s sister, Ereena, didn’t stop trying to get through to her and police suspect that it was when she started to push back that she suffered the devastating attack at Ashana’s flat that ended her life.
Ashana, Lisa and Shaun used a make shift blowtorch to burn her feet, melted her skin with boiling water and then they savagely beat her over the head.
Shockingly, Shakira didn’t die instantly of her injuries.
They managed to bundle her in their car and get her back to her own flat where they locked her in a cupboard to die alone and in pain.
Police launched a murder investigation after her decaying body was discovered two weeks later in September 2022.
Investigators looked at the trio as their prime suspects because Shaun actually confessed to his mum what they had done to Shakira.
While his mum told him to go to the police, he refused, so she told his uncle, who then shopped him to the police himself.
Stolen future
In Crimes The Shook Britain the police reveal how they nailed them using CCTV, ring doorbell footage, text messages and DNA evidence that linked them all to the murder.
While Ashana and Shaun had deleted their text messages to try and cover their tracks, Lisa hadn’t and police read the extent of what they had done to Shakira.
Not only had they been starving her, stealing her cash and living in her flat, they had been encouraging her into sex work to help fund their lifestyle.
The horror of what Shakira went through was so traumatic that Lloyd was left physically sick listening to the details during the trial.
He said: “I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t really function. I was so angry at how they had bullied her, brainwashed her and murdered her in cold blood.
“No father should ever have to live through that. And the most awful thing? They gained nothing.
“It’s not as if they were living this high lifestyle and they were making loads of money out of Shakira or whatever. They were making nothing. She was living on benefits.
“How much could they be getting? They destroyed a beautiful woman for a few pounds.
“Shakira had her whole life ahead of her and they stole it from her.
“Their reaction to being found guilty summed them up. Shaun said something we couldn’t hear and walked out, Ashana just nonchalantly took it on the chin. You know, that’s her attitude.
“And Lisa kind of looked lost in it all.
“I was pleased they got 34 years each. The crazy thing to think about is they are going to be treated better in prison than they treated my daughter when she was alive.
“But I suppose that is society, we can’t sink to their level of wasteland, to their level of humanity.
“I just hope that they are never allowed to go up for parole. I want them to die in prison.
“I don’t want them to come out because they may well be a danger to somebody else, even at the age they’d be when they get out, because they’d be in their 60s.
“If you are that evil, age doesn’t change you. That’s who you are, they could do it to someone else.”
Reliving the horror of what Shakira went through for this new documentary has been tough for Lloyd and the entire family.
But he says they agreed to it in the desperate hope it might help someone else from becoming a victim.
Lloyd said: “For me, nothing is going to bring Shakira back but I want this documentary to show youngsters watching that they need to be aware of predators, people who are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“I really hope by telling Shakira’s story we stop a few young ladies or young people from falling into that trap.
“I really hope Shakira’s story is a warning and maybe someone might see the signs they are being brainwashed, cut off from the family like Shakira was and they can make a change before it’s too late.”
Crimes That Shook Britain is on Crime+Investigation, Monday at 9pm.