A 62-year-old carer and her husband, 66, have been arrested and charged with murdering their live-in landlord.
Lynda and Wayne Rickard reportedly starved 59-year-old James Anthony Sootheran to death as they wanted to inherit his £3.5 million estate.
The victim’s body was found in his bedroom in Oxfordshire in South East England. Lynda and Wayne watched as prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC told the court that the case is “casual, opportunistic greed.”
The couple reportedly moved into High Havens farmhouse in late 2006.
Their arrangement saw Lynda become a full-time carer for Sootheran’s 92-year-old mother Joy until she passed away in August 2012.
The couple then planned to take both his and his mother’s estates, forging the will of Joy, who suffered from dementia, so she could receive half of her £1.5million inheritance.
Lynda also admitted forging Mr. Sootheran’s will so she could take a third of his £3.5 million estate.
The couple denied murder and claimed Mr. Sootheran’s tragic death was “entirely coincidental.” Their defense counsel is set to claim that his death was caused by his own self-neglect.
The court was told how the landlord was kept isolated from his daughter Hannah and that Lynda turned away family and friends who wanted to see him.
The jury was also told how before Joy’s death, numerous cash withdrawals were made on a regular basis and hundreds of pounds were spent in supermarkets more than once per week.
On March 18, 2014, Anthony was found dead in his bedroom and his body was in a state of severe malnourishment.
“This is a case about greed. Casual, opportunistic greed,” Mr. Saxby told the court. “In simple terms, assisted by her husband, Lynda Rickard starved Anthony Sootheran to death thereby satisfying her greed and securing for herself and her family the windfall she craved.
“In short, for their own gain, they killed him – by isolating him, neglecting him, failing to obtain appropriate medical help for him and depriving him of food and drink.”
He added: “His being isolated suited Lynda Rickard – it allowed her to tighten the net around him and exert her control over him and his affairs, over what he thought and what he did.”
The court also heard that Mr. Sootheran’s ‘complex mental health issues’ gave the perfect cover for his death.
“(This) gave Lynda Rickard the perfect cover for precipitating his death, for setting him on a trajectory to die – something she was able to achieve behind closed door by isolating him, by utterly neglecting him, by failing to obtain appropriate medical care for him, by on occasion preventing medical assessments from taking place, by controlling him and his life and, ultimately, by depriving him of food and drink,” Mr.
Saxby added.
Lynda admitted to stealing money from Joy and Mr. Sootheran for personal gains.
Should the couple’s plans have succeeded, they were set to gain almost £3.5 million, the jury heard.
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Replaced!