My wife abused me and screamed for help as a victim, but I had her jailed after police saw horrific nanny cam footage
TO the ignorant outside world, Richard and Sheree Spencer looked like they had the perfect life.
Three beautiful daughters, a seven-bedroom house in a leafy village nearby York and a Jaguar parked in the driveway.
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But behind closed doors, Richard, 47, had secretly suffered what a judge would later describe as “the worst case of controlling and coercive behavior” she had ever seen.
During her two-decade reign of terror, sadistic Sheree, 46, repeatedly threatened to go to the island Police she claimed her helpless husband abused her – even shouting for help to make the neighbors believe this was the case.
She was only jailed after a shocked friend of Richard’s saw some of the nanny’s CCTV footage and sent it to police.
Now the shocking videos – which show Sheree holding a meat cleaver to her husband’s throat – have been made public as Richard relives his ordeal in Channel 5 documentary My Wife, My Abuser: The Secret Footage, which airs on Monday.
In total, police received 36 video clips, nine phone audio recordings and 43 photographs of injuries as evidence.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Richard said: “Looking at the images has made me emotionally detached.
“I see it’s me and I see the kids in the background.
Stab it with forks
“But I feel like I’m watching something about someone else.
“I felt so trapped for all kinds of reasons. If it wasn’t for my friend, I’m not sure what would have happened.
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The couple met in a nightclub in 2000 before marrying nine years later in the Phi Phi Islands Thailand.
They bought the nanny camera, as seen in Netflix hit Fool me oncestarring Michelle Keegan – shortly after Sheree, a senior project manager for HM Prison and Rebation Service, gave birth to their eldest daughter in 2015.
Richard, works at BT in network design explains, “We had two: one in the playroom and one in the bedroom.
“They were there for reassurance, to keep an eye on things, because it is a big house.
“It was on a roll of about 28 days, where as something new came in, the old footage was removed.”
He says that after his eldest child’s first birthday, he began secretly keeping images of his abuse as “insurance” for fear he would not be able to see his beloved children.
The attacks started just a few months after the couple married relation.
Richard recalls: “It started with pushing, shoving and hitting, but she said all couples argue.”
Over the years it got worse and worse. Sheree stabbed him with forks, spat on him and locked him out.
During one attack, she hit him so hard with a wine bottle that his left ear was permanently disfigured.
He says his wife also controlled him financially, adding: ‘Sheree wanted to keep going holidaysso I had to take out loans.
“She manipulated me into taking them out in my name. We lived beyond our means.”
He earned £45,000 debt and she often did not contribute to bills as an act of “punishment.”
Little things made her explode in anger.
In one video, she slaps a defenseless Richard on the playroom couch for not making dinner yet, barking at him, “Go in there and put that damn chicken in there, you fat bastard.” Keep going, motherfucker. You lazy b*****d.”
Richard reveals that he began to notice a pattern in the abuse.
He says, “There would be a tension building phase caused by something she wasn’t happy about.”
At 6-foot-1, Richard says he was “physically much bigger and stronger” than Sheree at 6-foot-4. But he reveals that if he tried to control her the abuse would be “ten times worse”.
Richard says: “The way I would deal with the physical abuse would be to curl up in the fetal position and put my hands in front of my face because I had to take the kids to school without people looking at me.
“If I tried to control her, she would get angry and what would happen next would be ten times worse”
Richard used it too think up trying to hide his injuries.
One of Sheree’s ways of exerting control was to threaten to go to the police and accuse Richard of abuse.
He says she would also threaten to smash her face into the bathroom mirror and send pictures to a friend.
Richard recalls: “She would often open the window, lean out and shout, ‘No Richard, stop, you’re hurting me,’ so the neighbors could hear.”
Richard’s case is unusual because both men and women suffer domestic violencewomen are significantly more likely to be victims of men.
Twist the truth
One in four women will experience domestic violence during their lifetime.
The truth only came to light after Sheree contacted one of Richard’s friends and claimed he was drunk and she was afraid he would do something.
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Worried, the friend ran to him.
While alone with Richard, he asked how he got the bruise on his face – and then Richard came clean.
He showed him one of the recordings he had saved and the friend was so shocked by what he saw that he sent it to the police. Police.
In June 2021, officers arrived to arrest Sheree, and PC Adele Jenkinson admits in the documentary: “When we got to the door I thought we had gone to the wrong house.
“These videos could not have come from a home like this.”
The documentary also contains police bodycam footage. It shows Sheree looking disheveled in just a t-shirt and ruffled panties.
After she gets dressed, her biggest concern is that the neighbors will see her as she is put in the back Police van.
She asks, “Can you push me in quickly before anyone sees me?”
At the police station, bodycam footage shows her trying to flirt with the custody sergeant and asking him, “Are you married?”
Sheree is also interviewed in the documentary Police as she calmly and convincingly claims to the officers that Richard abused her.
She continues to twist the truth when they show her a recording of her holding a knife.
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While watching it, initially without the audio, she claims that she was so broken that she begged him to let her end her life.
But she looks defeated as the video is replayed with the audio clearly showing that she is lying.
Sheree was jailed for four years at Hull Crown Court in March last year after admitting coercive and controlling behavior and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Judge Kate Rayfield told her the abuse was: “The worst case of controlling and coercive behavior I have seen.”
Richard decided to share his story and the images to raise awareness.
He says: “The reasons for making the documentary are hopefully to have a positive impact on other people who might experience something similar.”
He has also worked with A charity called ManKind Initiative, which supports male victims domestic violence.
And Richard has now found love again. He says: “I am lucky to have met a new partner.
“She is the opposite of Sheree in every way possible.
‘She couldn’t have been more understanding.
“Where I previously thought they were feelings of love and infatuation, I now know that was not love.”
- My Wife, My Abuser: The Secret Footage airs Mondays at 10pm on Channel 5. For more information about the ManKind Initiative, visit humanity.org.uk.