THE HUSBAND of a killer who forged a wealthy landowner’s death then starved him to death will appeal his 10-and-a-half year sentence for causing the death of a vulnerable person.
Wayne Rickard’s wife, Lynda, was the carer to victim James Sootheran’s mother, Mary, until her death in 2012. She was handed a life sentence last summer for murdering the former auctioneer’s clerk, 59-year-old Mr Sootheran, at High Havens Farm, South Newington, near Banbury, in March 2014.
The couple, Lynda and American-born Wayne, continued living at the farm after Mrs Sootheran’s death in 2012 and her son’s death from starvation in 2014.
READ MORE: Sootheran murder trial: Accused couple put up a 'wall of silence', court hears
Wayne Rickard had been accused of murdering Mr Sootheran. He was acquitted of that charge but convicted of an alternative count of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult after a trial at Reading Crown Court.
On Thursday, he will seek to persuade the Court of Appeal to grant him permission to appeal his conviction and sentence for causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. The case is expected to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London at 10.30am.
Last June, Rickard’s wife got a life sentence from trial judge Mr Justice Wall, accusing her of murdering Mr Sootheran when she feared he might ‘derail her gravy train’.
Sending the husband down for 10-and-a-half years in June 2021, Mr Justice Wall said: “You were the only person who could have saved Anthony Sootheran, but instead of doing so you left him to die the most horrible of deaths,” the judge told him
“I can only conclude 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 couple were also both found guilty of fraud by false representation, relating to a £33,000 Mitsubishi Shogun paid for with Mrs Sootheran’s money in 2010, while Wayne Rickard was convicted of a charge of perverting the course of justice.
READ MORE: Will forger starved victim to death over £3.5m inheritance
During the trial, Lynda 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. That was despite her being paid £47,000 a year to look after Mrs Sootheran until her death in 2012.
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.
Mr Sootheran, who owned the farm, including 60 acres of land, was more than six feet tall but weighed less than nine stone, having lost so much weight due to malnutrition, when he was found dead on March 18, 2014.
Lynda Rickard 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.
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