Woman guilty of starvation murder in bid to inherit slice of £3 5m fortune sthelensstar.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sthelensstar.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Wayne and Lynda Rickard A Banbury couple accused of starving their live-in landlord to death in order to inherit a slice of his £3.5million estate - refused to give evidence in their murder trial, instead putting up a wall of silence, a court heard today. Lynda and Wayne Rickard moved into High Havens farmhouse in South Newington, owned by James “Anthony” Sootheran in 2006 and, with 62-year-old Lynda Rickard as the driving force, they planned to defraud his estate and the estate of his elderly mother Joy, a jury heard. Mother-of-three Rickard had previously admitted forging the will of pensioner Joy where she was set to gain half of her £1.5million estate.
12:00 EDT, 26 April 2021
A doctor was left horrified after finding the body of her grossly thin millionaire patient next to a doughnut in an unusually tidy room at his £1.8million farmhouse, a murder trial has heard.
Lynda Rickard, 60, and her husband Wayne, 64, isolated their friend James Anthony Sootheran in his remote home and starved him to death in order to inherit a slice of his wealthy estate in South Newington, Oxfordshire, a prosecutor alleged today.
General practitioner Dr Hilary Edwards discovered the body of the frail father-of-one on March 18, 2014, after she decided to check on him at his home.
Retired auctioneer s clerk Mr Sootheran weighed 17 stone in his younger years but when he was found dead his severely malnourished body weighed a meagre nine stone.
Millionaire was starved to death in foul cell by carer who planned to steal fortune dailystar.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailystar.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.