SHOCK, anger and disbelief were the main emotions among Eckington's villagers as they struggled to come to terms with the knowledge an abusive mother had been living in their midst.

The Spry family lived in Gloucestershire but, from the late 1980s, also stayed on and off at a house on Pershore Road, Eckington, where Spry acted as a housekeeper and later carer for the man living there.

After his death, the family spent more time at the Eckington house which they were renovating.

One villager May Stephens said: "I'm horrified.

"You go by that house now and you think whatever those children went through I don't know. I'm so pleased those children got together somehow.

"She had all that land, no one could have heard if they screamed."

Another villager, who asked not to be named, said of the prison sentence: "She should have had longer to me and I hope they torture her in there.

"If you'd have seen those children you wouldn't have seen anything wrong. They looked happy children, always smiling, lovely dressed. You would not have thought it.

"She used to say, all my children are so dear.' It's hard to believe."

Jane Judge, owner of the LK One hair studio, said: "I think she's a twisted old witch. When I first heard about it, it was oh my god, what if she'd come in here.

"A lot of people have got a bit of a guilty feeling that they didn't pick up on it."

Meanwhile, Kate Ricketts, who was born and bred in the village, said: "I think they should bring back hanging."

She added that Spry should never return to the area saying: "This is a close knit village. A lot of people have lived here for years.

"They don't take kindly to things like that."

Melanie Fenton, also from Eckington, said: "It's hard to believe that something like this has gone on in your village."