Canterbury woman handed life sentence for husband's murder

KentOnline / KMTV

Maureen Rickards stabbed Jeremy Rickards multiple times and hid his body in a bag at the bottom of their garden. She faces a minimum of 22 years in prison. Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00She googled how to kill her husband, recorded herself abusing him, stabbed him and dumped

00:05his body in their garden, and now Maureen Rickards has been sentenced to life in prison.

00:10After her husband was reported missing for six days, Maureen was arrested last summer

00:15on July 11th on suspicion of fraud after CCTV showed she had been shopping with her husband's

00:20bank card after he had been reported missing.

00:23Carpet cleaning products, stain remover and an air freshener were some of the products

00:27she bought, but she was re-arrested and charged with murder on the same day once the body

00:32was found.

00:34During a four-week trial earlier this year, Canterbury Crown Court heard that Rickards had

00:38extensively cleaned her house to cover up her crime, including removing all his belongings

00:42like his passport, clothing and wedding ring and even creating a false narrative about

00:47her husband's whereabouts.

00:48She sent WhatsApp messages to herself and their daughter from his phone, suggesting he was

00:52working in Saudi Arabia, and when she began to accuse their daughter of causing her father's

00:57death, she reported him missing to police.

01:00Officers investigating his disappearance went to Rickards accommodation and said her room

01:04smelt of death and found the body at the bottom of the garden, tucked away under overgrown

01:08plants and buried under a mound of grass cuttings.

01:12The court heard how Maureen had filmed herself physically hurting and threatening to kill her

01:16husband, and revealed she had even Googled how to do so, with one of these videos lasting

01:20as long as 15 minutes.

01:23During the trial, Maureen was quoted as saying good riddance to bad rubbish, but said she had

01:28neither beaten nor stabbed her husband.

01:30In the end, she was found guilty with a unanimous verdict and will have to serve 22 years in

01:35prison before her release could be considered by the parole board.

01:39Finn McDermott for KMTV.

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