THROUGHOUT the agony of their childhood at the hands of their evil foster mother Eunice, Christopher Spry remembers his eldest sister Alloma as his saviour.
“Alloma’s job was to always mop up the injuries and keep us alive,” recalls Chris. “She was the enforcer of the family who would also find clever ways to make sure we didn’t starve to death too.”
Eunice Spry was jailed in 2007 for 14 years[/caption]
The brutal abuse took place on a remote farm in Gloucestershire, which has been dubbed the ‘Hell house’[/caption]
It was Alloma Gilbert’s way of protecting her brothers and sister from the daily abuse and torture their sadistic foster mother Eunice inflicted on them.
Over a period of more than 15 years, the warped Jehovah’s Witness broke bones and routinely abused and starved them.
She devised twisted punishments that included forcing them to drink bleach, eat their own excrement and vomit and have chair legs forced down their throats.
One occasion, where Chris was left for dead, especially sticks out in his memory.
He recalls: “I was out in one of the sheds and Eunice basically hit me round the back of the head with a metal bar and knocked me out to a point where it looked as though I was dead. Then she just walked away.
“It was Alloma, literally beating the c**p out of me trying to get me to wake up, that brought me back round.”
Spry’s monstrous actions, when they came to light, appalled Britain.
In 2007 she was jailed for 14 years for 26 separate offences, following a trial that the presiding judge called the worst he’d had to sit through in 40 years.
Victoria, Alloma and Chris worked valiantly to build new lives.
Yet for Chris, now 35, happily married with a son and working in IT, he has had to contend with more than his fair share of tragedy.
Chris says it is only thanks to the actions of his older sister Alloma – who tragically passed away in July – that he is still alive[/caption]
Eunice with biological daughter Judith (top left), adopted kids Charlotte (top right) and Caleb (centre) and her foster children Victoria, Alloma and Chris[/caption]
In July, Alloma died in hospital from organ failure despite finally finding happiness and true love with a wonderful partner.
Her devastating death, aged just 39, came just weeks before the four year anniversary of his other sister Victoria’s suicide on September 22. She was 35.
Victoria was never able to truly shake off the legacy of Eunice’s barbarism.
Chris, who is now the last survivor of his foster mum’s abuse, admits: “If it wasn’t for Eunice Alloma would still be here too.
“I think Alloma had come to terms with her past, but the damage was done. Even though, mentally she had moved on, physically her body couldn’t recover.
“Her organ failure was heavily related to her childhood. She had gone through some substance abuse issues. She had struggled with alcoholism but she hadn’t been drinking for years when she got sick. The doctor said that, due to her childhood, she had little chance of recovering.”
Sadistic torture
To Chris, Alloma will always be his big-hearted protector whose cunning strategies kept the group alive.
Born in Cheltenham, where he still lives, Chris was three when he and older sister Alloma, six, were taken from their drug addict parents, in 1992, and placed in care with Eunice.
The horrific injuries of one of the girls – known as Victim A in the trial[/caption]
At first, they were overjoyed to be moving from the carpetless home where they had been neglected to the seemingly “strict but loving” environment at Eunice’s house in Gloucester.
But when they moved to an isolated farmhouse – later dubbed the Hell House – in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, the abuse escalated.
Alloma taught him how to read and write when Eunice pulled the children out of school in 1993 after questions were asked about bruises and – incredibly – she was allowed to “homeschool” them.
He says: “Alloma was the smart one. She planted potatoes. She’d make us flour and water pancakes when Eunice was asleep because flour was easy to nick.
After the court case, every time we met, we reminded each other of the abuse. It was just easier to move on
“We used to get bread delivered from the local shop and they would leave it on one of the gates outside. We would collect it and bring it to the farmhouse before Eunice woke up.
“Alloma would work out that she could take a piece out the middle of each loaf for our breakfast and Eunice would never know the difference, because she never saw the loaf.
“It was little things like that, that Alloma worked out, that allowed us to survive.”
Shared pain
By 2002, Alloma had become something of a burden to Eunice after running away from home and sparking a police hunt.
He says: “Eunice had decided she was becoming a risk. She cashed out £100 and drove down to Bristol and chucked Alloma out in a youth hostel and that was basically how Alloma got out because she was kicked out with barely anything.
“I know she went through a lot of trials and tribulations before landing on her feet and getting a council house.”
Chris was 16 when foster sister Victoria, then 19, broke down in church and revealed the abuse, leading to the arrest of Eunice in 2004. She was later jailed for 14 years.
The abuse was only meted out to the three foster children, while her biological daughter Judith and adopted children Charlotte and Caleb – Chris’s younger biological brother – escaped.
Tragically Judith and Charlotte later died in a car accident so only Chris and Caleb remain.
In 2008, Alloma wrote a book about her ordeal, called Deliver Me From Evil.
For years, the pain of their shared past affected their relationship. It was thanks to Alloma’s partner that Chris was called to his sister’s bedside shortly before her death.
He says: “After the court case, every time we met, we reminded each other of the abuse. It was just easier to move on.
“I’m lucky that I got to see her the night before she passed, because I hadn’t actually seen her in six months before that.
“Her partner called me and said, ‘you’ll regret not coming. She’s not in a great way.’
Eunice is out of prison and free but she’s cast this shadow over all of us
“So I did go to see her in hospital, not expecting her to die. We’d made arrangements to see each other, a couple of days later.
“We chatted about old times and some of the more funny things. I’d gone through a phase of having some horrific hairstyles, and she was just taking the piss out of that. She was happy to see me. I was happy to see her. There was a bit of a feeling of ‘why the fuck aren’t we talking?’
“She was actually doing pretty well. She’d met a lovely man and it’s the first time I’ve seen her in a happy relationship where someone actually cared for her as much as she cared for them.
“Then at four in the morning, she’d gone to go to the toilet and collapsed.”
Alloma had been working in a care home with disabled adults as she sought to find some normality.
Chris says: “Some of those disabled adults actually attended her funeral which was amazing but it was tough to be there and talk about her. I struggled to keep my composure. When you’re saying goodbye to a sibling it’s brutal, and I’ve said goodbye to two now.”
“Eunice is out of prison and free but she’s cast this shadow over all of us.”
Caleb Gilbert, who was one of the foster children of Eunice Spry, is Chris’s only remaining sibling[/caption]
Shock sighting
Eunice was released from prison on parole in 2014 after serving just seven years of her sentence.
She now lives under an assumed name just 24 miles away from Chris’ family home.
In August, while at a petrol station, he saw her for the first time in years.
He admits: “I totally froze in my car. I was about to get out and put fuel in it and she didn’t see me but was coming out.
“I didn’t feel fear, but I definitely felt uneasy. Then for the next couple of days there’s some horrific thoughts that go around your brain.
“It would be a dream just to erase every memory I have of her. I’ve just about started making a life for myself, and every once in a while, she just still manages to make my life hell.”
I’ve moved on but I do fear for other victims out there. If she gets to play with another family I do think she could be a threat of sorts
Despite her 80 years, Chris admits: “I think she’s still a threat in some ways.
“On the one hand she’s a little old lady now so I don’t necessarily mean she’d be a physical threat but she’s still a very nasty person.
“She never owned up to what she did or showed remorse.
“I’ve moved on but I do fear for other victims out there. If she gets to play with another family I do think she could be a threat of sorts.”
Eunice served only 7 years of her sentence, and was released in 2014[/caption]
Despite finding love with a new partner, Alloma passed away from organ failure related to the abuse she had received as a child[/caption]
He puts his own stoicism down to having a great support network – including his wife, whom he prefers not to name.
He is also dad to a three year-old boy, whose identity he also wishes to keep anonymous.
Previously, Chris tried to take his life several times. He says he owes his life to charities like Give Us A Shout for helping him through the dark times.
He lives with daily pain – a collarbone, in particular, where Eunice would beat him on the floor is a daily reminder of the torture he endured.
Victoria opened up about her tragic childhood in a book published in 2015[/caption]
The pain of his sisters’ deaths is still raw but he hopes their legacy will live on.
He says: “Victoria’s legacy is that she always tried to help others. Alloma’s was that she was an amazing mum and even though she had lots of, you know, lots of hardships and lots of curveballs thrown at her, her love for her kids was always true.
“It’s not that I’m even angry about the whole Eunice thing anymore. It’s just that it feels like there’s been an injustice; that lives have been taken that young due to stuff out of their control and that’s just so sad.”
He and younger brother Caleb now plan to go on a road trip together to bury the ashes.
He says: “We don’t know where, but both Victoria and Alloma were cremated and we’d like to go on a road trip to take Alloma’s ashes somewhere.
“Caleb is a father too now so we’ll be two dads putting the world to rights.”
If you’re struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts, go to giveusashout.org or call The Samaritans on 116 123.
