The lover of a sadistic prison reform boss who subjected her husband to a 20-year campaign of torture threatened his estranged wife if she gave evidence.
Adrian Taylor, 52, turned up at the home of businesswoman Caroline Grant and warned of ‘repercussions’ if she spoke out against merciless Sheree Spencer, Hull Crown Court heard today.
Spencer, 45, made her husband Richard Spencer’s life a living hell with daily beatings and abuse that left him cowering on the floor in the foetal position.
She was jailed for four years in February over what a judge termed ‘the worst case of controlling and coercive behaviour I have seen’.
Hull Crown Court heard that after Spencer’s arrest last year, Taylor, a father-of-six, warned Ms Grant if she was lined up as a witness over the case.
The court heard he turned up at her home on October 27 and warned her of ‘repercussions should she be a witness’.
Ultimately, no witnesses were needed because Spencer, a senior Prison Service manager who bragged of a friendship with Boris Johnson, pleaded guilty to all charges.
Taylor appeared at Hull Crown Court today to admit threatening unlawful violence.
Judge John Thackray, KC, said the remark was made in the ‘spur of the moment’.
He told Taylor: ‘It was extremely foolish behaviour by you.
‘Comments like that lead to people being charged with perverting the course of justice and then very significant sentences follow.
‘As it happens you didn’t interfere with the court process because she wasn’t a witness.
‘If she was, serious charges could have followed and you would have been in serious jeopardy of a custodial sentence.’
Taylor, from Barmby Moor, East Yorkshire, was handed a two-year conditional discharge and told to pay £1,250 in fines and costs.
He was also ordered not to contact Ms Grant and to stay away from her address.
Taylor, who was said to be ‘remorseful’ had initially been charged with witness intimidation but the count was not proceeded with Dale Brook, defending, told the court: ‘He is 56 and works as a baker. He’s never been in trouble before. He’s got no previous convictions.’
Spencer, of Bubwith, East Yorkshire, made 46-year-old Richard’s life a living hell over the course of two decades.
On one occasion she defecated on the floor and forced him to clean it up and on another she beat him with a wine bottle so badly it permanently disfigured his ear.
She admitted assaults against Richard and controlling and coercive behaviour across the duration of their relationship which began in 2000 and led to marriage in 2009.
They split in 2021 when Richard could no longer hide the appalling abuse he had suffered at her hands.
Taylor accompanied Spencer to hearings at Hull Crown Court which resulted in her being jailed on February 24 for four years and being handed an indefinite restraining order.
Spencer’s brother, Sean McCann, is also set to go on trial after allegedly trying to warn off witnesses who might have been called to give evidence against her.
McCann, 44, of Rugeley, Staffordshire, will appear at Cannock magistrates on June 12 accused of intimidating a witness – Mr Spencer – on October 10 last year.
