Shakira Spencer died after she was allegedly tortured, starved and beaten "to the brink of death" before being left to rot, the Old Bailey was told.

The 35-year-old was said to have fallen under the control of former neighbour Ashana Studholme, 38, her lover Shaun Pendlebury, 26, and their friend Lisa Richardson, 44.

Opening their trial on Monday, prosecutor Allison Hunter KC said: "For whatever was their unfathomable, cruel, sadistic motive, these three defendants tormented, tortured, starved, burned and eventually battered Shakira Spencer to death."

Ms Spencer was scalded on her feet and only fed ketchup from sachets, jurors were told.

Neighbours discovered her badly decomposed body after seeing maggots coming from her flat in Ealing, west London, last September.

A precise cause of death remains unclear due to the poor condition of her body.

However, the court heard that a post-mortem examination found crushing injuries to her ear, cuts to her scalp and scalding wounds to her feet.

Ms Hunter said: "In early 2021 Shakira Spencer had been a healthy - even voluptuous - size 16 weighing some 74kgs (11st 9lb).

"By July 2022 Shakira Spencer was just skin and bone. Gaunt and skeletal, bruised from head to foot, with hollowed black eyes.

"She was barely a scrawny size six in images taken by the defendants just before she died."

The abuse reached a 'frenzied climax'

Over a period of months Ms Spencer was allegedly subdued and dominated, mainly by Studholme and Richardson, to the point where she was under all of their "complete control", jurors were told.

She was isolated, prostituted and robbed of finances, it was claimed.

Ms Spencer would be woken up in the early hours of the morning to clean the defendants' houses and run errands, the court heard.

The abuse was said to have reached a "frenzied climax" on around 11 and 12 September 2022 when she was allegedly beaten "to the brink of death" at Studholme's home.

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Her body was later moved to the bottom of a children's bunk bed where it was left to rot, the court heard.

"It was only when neighbours saw maggots crawling out from under her door that the police were called to Ms Spencer's address on 25 September 2022 and the painstaking investigation which ensued revealed in detail what they had done," Ms Hunter said.

Pendlebury, of Ealing, Richardson, of Ealing and Studholme, of Harrow, west London are accused of murder as well as preventing Ms Spencer's lawful burial.

They deny the charges against them and the trial continues.