Banbury murder-accused cancelled daughter s visits to victim
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image captionLynda and Wayne Rickard are accused of murdering their wealthy landlord
A woman accused of starving her millionaire landlord to death cancelled his daughter s visits and kept her locked out of his home, a court heard.
Anthony Sootheran s body was found at High Havens Farm, near South Newington, Oxfordshire, in March 2014.
Lynda Rickard, 62, isolated and controlled the 59-year-old as part of a plan to steal his fortune, Reading Crown Court was previously told.
She and her husband Wayne Rickard, 66, both from Banbury, deny murder.
Mrs Rickard, who previously lived at the farm, admits forging wills in the names of both Mr Sootheran and his mother, Joy, as well as spending tens of thousands of pounds of their money, the jury has heard.
Landlord James Anthony Sootheran The daughter of a millionaire landlord found starved to death had been turned away by his controlling carer the final time she tried to visit him, a jury heard. Retired auctioneer s clerk James Anthony Sootheran weighed 17 stone in his younger years, but his malnourished body was found on March 18, 2014. A jury heard on Friday how the 31-year-old had been banished from her father s home in December 2013, under the pretence that he did not want to see her - according to his carer Lynda Rickard. On what would have been the last time she saw her father alive, the daughter left High Havens Farm in Oxfordshire in tears before receiving a phone call.
12:48 EDT, 16 April 2021
The daughter of a reclusive millionaire landlord was turned away by his carer when she arrived with a Christmas gift three months before he was found starved to death, a murder trial heard today.
The skeletal body of James Anthony Sootheran, 59, who once weighed 17 stone, was found in his squalid bedroom on March 18, 2014 at his farm in South Newington, Oxfordshire.
Lynda, 62, and her husband Wayne Rickard, 66, were arrested and jointly charged with murdering the retired auctioneer s clerk.
Mr Sootheran, a divorced father-of-one, had been sectioned for mental health problems and was prone to gross self-neglect , prosecuting Oliver Saxby QC has previously told the court.
13:26 EDT, 15 April 2021
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A millionaire landlord held captive in a foul, unhygienic cell was found starved to death after a controlling carer wanted a slice of his wealthy estate, a jury was told today.
Lynda and Wayne Rickard moved into a farmhouse at High Havens Farm, South Newington, Oxfordshire, set on 60 acres of woodland owned by James Anthony Sootheran in 2006.
The couple planned to defraud his estate and the fortunes of his elderly mother Joy, the court heard.
Lynda, 62, had previously admitted forging the will of 92-year-old Joy where she was set to gain half of the £1.5million estate.
Similarly, she conceded she had forged the will of the pensioner s only son Mr Sootheran - where she would inherit a third of his £3.5million fortune when he died.
Wayne and Linda Rickard at court A millionaire landlord held captive in a foul, unhygienic cell was found starved to death after a controlling carer wanted a slice of his wealthy estate, a jury was told today. Lynda and Wayne Rickard moved into High Havens Farm, South Newington, owned by James “Anthony” Sootheran in 2006 and planned to defraud his estate and the fortunes of his elderly mother, Joy, the court heard. Greedy Lynda Rickard had previously admitted forging the will of 92-year-old Joy where she was set to gain half of the £1.5million estate. Similarly, she conceded she had forged the will of the pensioner s only son Anthony - where she would inherit a third of his £3.5million fortune when he died.