Wayne Rickard Wiki

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Who is Wayne Rickard ?

The husband of a carer is appealing his conviction for allowing him to deliberately starve a vulnerable man for a share of his £3.5m fortune.

Former US Air Force engineer Wayne Rickard was jailed for 10 1/2 years in June 2021 after he was found not guilty of murder but convicted of allowing the death of 59-year-old Anthony Sootheran.


Wife Lynda Rickard

His wife, Lynda Rickard, was sentenced to life in prison for Anthony’s murder after moving into her 60-acre £1.5m estate to care for her elderly mother Joy, who suffered from dementia.

The Rickards moved to High Havens Farm in South Newington, Oxfordshire, in 2006 as paying tenants and were later paid £47,000 a year to care for Mr Sootheran’s mother. Lynda Rickard forged the dementia victim’s will before Mrs Sootheran passed away aged 92 in 2012.


On Thursday, Wayne Rickard will try to persuade the Court of Appeal to grant him leave to appeal his conviction and sentence during a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

During a trial last year, jurors heard that after Ms. Sootheran’s death, social worker Lynda Rickard deliberately starved “reclusive” 6-foot Mr. Sootheran, depriving him of food, drink and care. medical as he fainted, falling from 17 stones to just nine. Rock.

He was trapped in a miserable room compared to a “filthy, unsanitary cell” and isolated from his family, dying alone in horrific conditions 18 months later. Mr Sootheran’s skeletal corpse was later found on a mattress on the floor under a dirty duvet when a GP came to see him on March 18, 2014.

Murder


After the murder, Lynda Rickard posed as her victim to fraudulently claim more than £14,500 in benefits over nearly two years. The cash was used to finance her lavish lifestyle, including private school fees for her children.

Police initially believed that the father of a Mr. Sootheran had died of natural causes before Lynda Rickard began using her bank account as her own after her death. Detectives reopened the case after discovering that she had stolen large sums of money and forged wills.

Lynda Rickard admitted helping herself with tens of thousands of pounds of the Sootherans’ money and also agreed to forge the wills of the mother and son, which would have entitled her to half of Mrs Sootheran’s estate and a third of Mr Sootheran’s £3.5 million fortune.

She gave no evidence and denied the murder, stating that the death of Mr Sootheran, described as “a severely neglect-prone inmate” with “complex mental health issues”, was the result of how he chose to live his life. .

But she was convicted in what prosecutors said was the first successful murder conviction for deliberate starvation in more than 100 years.

Wayne Rickard was also jailed

Wayne Rickard was also jailed for a total of 10 1/2 years after being acquitted of murder but found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.

Sentencing him at the time, the judge, Judge Wall, said: “You were the only person who could have saved Anthony Sootheran, but instead you let him die in the most horrible way.”

‘I can only conclude that you decided not to help him because you hoped to profit from his death when, as you expected, your wife inherited a substantial sum of money from him.’

The pair were also found guilty of false representation fraud, in relation to a £33,000 Mitsubishi Shogun paid for with Ms Sootheran’s money in 2010, while Wayne Rickard was convicted on one count of perverting the course of justice.

Wayne Rickard Quick and Facts


  • Wayne Rickard jailed for 10 and a half years for allowing vulnerable man’s death
  • His wife Lynda Rickard was sentenced to life for Anthony Sootheran’s murder
  • His skeletal remains were found under a mattress by a GP on March 18, 2014
  • Jurors heard Lynda Rickard wanted to get a slice of Mr Sootheran’s £3.5 fortune
  • Today, Wayne Rickard will seek permission to appeal sentence and conviction

Source: https://wikisoon.com/