Woman found guilty of starving man to death to inherit part of £3.5m fortune
A woman has been found guilty of murdering a wealthy landowner after starving him to death to inherit a slice of his £3.5 million fortune from a forged will.
Former auctioneer's clerk, 59-year-old James Sootheran, known as Anthony, was found dead in his bedroom at High Havens Farm in the village of South Newington, Oxfordshire, on March 18 2014.
Mr Sootheran, who owned the property, including 60 acres of land, was more than six foot tall but weighed less than nine stone, having lost so much weight due to malnutrition. His death was not initially treated as suspicious, but prosecutors urged police to investigate after Lynda Rickard, 62, was found to have used his bank account after he died.
She had been paid £47,000-a-year to care for his elderly mother Mary Sootheran, known as Joy, until her death, aged 92, in 2012, and lived rent free at the farm with her American-born husband Wayne Rickard, 66, before they were evicted in 2017.
Mrs Rickard admitted helping herself to tens of thousands of pounds of the Sootherans' money, which was used to fund her family's lifestyle, including private school fees for her three now-adult children.
She also accepted forging the mother and son's wills, which would have entitled her to half of Mrs Sootheran's £1.5 million estate and a third of Mr Sootheran's £3.5 million fortune.
Mrs Rickard did not give evidence at a trial at Reading Crown Court but claimed the death of Mr Sootheran - described as "a recluse prone to gross self-neglect" with "complex mental health issues" - was a result of how he chose to live his life. But she was found guilty of murder following a retrial today (28/05).
Her husband was acquitted of murder but found guilty of the lesser charge of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.
The pair were also both found guilty of fraud by false representation relating to a £30,000 Mitsubishi Shogun paid for with Mrs Sootheran's money in 2010, while Mr Rickard was convicted of a charge of perverting the course of justice.
Mrs Rickard earlier pleaded guilty to four fraud charges, two counts of forgery, two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and possession of articles for use in fraud.
The judge, Mr Justice Wall, remanded the couple in custody ahead of sentencing on Tuesday. Senior Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutor Robbie Weber said: "This is a landmark case."
The Rickards, of Edinburgh Close, Banbury, stood trial alongside Mrs Rickard's godson Michael Dunkley, 49, Denise Neal, 41, and Shanda Robinson, 51.
Dunkley, of Brickle Lane, Bloxham, and Neal, of Radway Road, Lower Tysoe, Warwickshire, were found guilty of one count of fraud by false representation between January 28 and May 31 2014 after falsely claiming a will in the name of Mr Sootheran was genuine.
Robinson, of Sage Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, was found guilty of one count of fraud by false representation, after falsely claiming a will in the name of Mrs Sootheran was genuine, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
June Alsford, 78, of Little Lane in Aynho, Northamptonshire, previously pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
How the case was proved?
To bring the case to court, the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed more than 20,000 pages of evidence, submitted detailed medical, financial and handwriting evidence, and relied on the accounts of several hundred witnesses.
Medical evidence played a vital part in proving that Anthony Sootheran had been severely neglected in the weeks leading to his death, and that he had starved to death.
Senior Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutor Robbie Weber explained: “Medical experts confirmed that, in the weeks before his death, Anthony would have been immobile and therefore totally reliant on Lynda Rickard for food, drink and sanitation. But she deliberately neglected him, and his health rapidly declined.She made no attempt to get help for him in the last days of his life when medical treatment would have saved his life. This is because, having forged his will, she needed him to die so that she could claim their inheritance for her family. In the case of Wayne Rickard, we were able to prove he played a part in Anthony’s death, because despite living in the same house as Anthony, he failed to take steps to protect him when it would have been obvious that his wife was putting his life at risk.”
This videos shows a fly-through of Mr Sootheran's vast estate and the state the house was left it after he died:
Ahead of the trial, Lynda Rickard admitted to several charges relating to her use of the Sootherans’ money as well as forged wills and tenancy agreements, after evidence considered by financial and handwriting experts revealed the extent of her lengthy campaign of fraud while living at High Haven Farm. Her friend, June Alsford, pleaded guilty to fraudulently signing the wills Mrs Rickard had forged and trying to pass them off as genuine, charges which the jury found another friend Shanda Robinson guilty of at trial. Two further friends, Michael Dunkley and Denise Neal were also convicted for fraudulently signing the forged wills.
In addition, the jury convicted both Lynda and Wayne Rickard for fraudulently using Joy Sootheran’s money to buy a Mitsubishi Shogun worth around £30,000, and Wayne Rickard of perverting the course of justice.