Hull Crown Court heard that Spencer was a mother of three young children and that many of the attacks on her husband had taken place at the family home.
It was described as a “great irony” that Spencer had done so much work investigating the impact of custodial sentences on the family in her senior role within HM Prison and Protection Service.
Spencer, from Bubwith, East Yorks, was a project manager in the department’s strategy and performance directorate and had boasted to friends that she was “two down” from former prime minister Boris Johnson in that area and spoke as if he were a friend.
Within months of becoming a couple in 2000, Mr Spencer began to endure his wife’s violent rages, which happened whether she was drunk or sober.
“I complied with Sheree’s demands”
Mr Spencer told the court that despite being bigger and physically stronger than his petite wife, he did not fight back when she started attacking him.
He said that he became almost immune to the physical abuse, despite Spencer causing intense pain by sinking her teeth into him, but that the mental scars left by the attacks would leave the most lasting effect.
Spencer was arrested in June 2021 on suspicion of assaulting her husband.
Mr Spencer told the court last week: “Little by little, I lost my independence and my willpower and just accepted that this was how my life was going to be. I complied with Sheree’s demands and she controlled most aspects of my day-to-day life. , including things like what activities I could participate in and when, what room I could sleep in, even which toilet I could use.
“I gradually became isolated from family and friends and fell deeply into debt and felt trapped.”
Mr Spencer said holding his wife down was his only hope of avoiding serious injury – but the act of holding her down made her angrier.
He told the court: “I’m physically bigger and stronger than Sheree so I could hold her if the pain got too much; however, I could only hold her for so long, and when the time came to let her go, it would be uniform. angrier and the injuries she would cause afterwards were always worse.
“After a while, I learned to cover my face with my hands and curl up in a fetal position to try to avoid visible facial injuries so I could still take the kids to school and nursery.”
The worst attack with an empty wine bottle
The worst of the attacks against him occurred in April 2021, when his wife attacked him with an empty bottle of wine.
The court heard that Spencer hit him with the bottle all over his head and body but left him with a serious ear injury which required hospital treatment.
Richard Pratt, KC, said he could say nothing to mitigate Spencer’s treatment of her husband and described her professional achievements as “ironic”.
She said it was “almost impossible to recognize” her practitioner as the same woman who subjected her husband to the “shocking and painful” attacks.
The court was told that on some days Spencer would drink up to three bottles of wine.
Spencer admitted coercive and controlling behavior and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The charges could only cover a five-year period dating back to when the Control and Coercive Behavior Act was passed in late 2015.
But Judge Rayfield said she took into account her persistent behavior towards her husband because it highlighted his vulnerability as her victim.
Judge Rayfield jailed Spencer for four years.