A foster mother who subjected three children in her care to a "horrifying catalogue of cruel and sadistic treatment" has been jailed for 14 years.
Eunice Spry, 62, from Gloucestershire, routinely beat, abused and starved the vulnerable youngsters over a 19-year period.
The devout Jehovah's Witness forced sticks down their throats and made them eat their own vomit and rat excrement, Bristol Crown Court was told.
As punishment for misbehaving, she would beat them on the soles of their feet and force them to drink washing-up liquid and bleach.
A jury at Bristol Crown Court last month convicted her of 26 charges, ranging from unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation.
The offences took place in two of Spry's homes in Gloucestershire between 1986 and 2005.
Judge Simon Darwall-Smith told Spry that it was the worst case he had come across in 40 years in law.
He told her: "Frankly, it's difficult for anyone to understand how any human being could have even contemplated what you did, let alone with the regularity and premeditation you employed."
The slight figure in the dock looked on impassively as the judge sentenced her.
He also ordered Spry to pay costs of £80,000, which he said would inevitably mean she would have to sell at least one of her two properties in Gloucestershire.
Spry staunchly denied all the claims made against her and insisted the only physical punishment she ever used was "a smack on the bottom"

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One of the victims of Eunice Spry, the foster mother convicted of cruelly treating children in her care, has spoken exclusively to Sky News about his treatment at her hands. The man is known only as "Victim C".