Moment police arrest carer who forged woman’s will then starved her vulnerable son to death

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This is the moment police arrested a carer who today became the first person in more than a century to be jailed for forging the will of an elderly woman and starving her vulnerable live-in landlord son to death to steal from his £3.5million fortune.

Bodycam video shown at Reading Crown Court shows officers arresting social worker Lynda Rickard, 62, who has been sentenced to life for the murder of Anthony Sootheran, 59, after moving onto his £1.5million 60-acre estate to care for his mother Joy, who suffered from dementia. 

The cruel carer’s former US Air Force engineer husband Wayne, 66, was also jailed for 10-and-a-half years for allowing the death of a vulnerable person, but was acquitted of murder. 

Rickard had been paid £47,000 a year to look after Mr Sootheran’s elderly mother until her death aged 92 in 2012, and at High Havens Farm in South Newington, Oxfordshire before she and her husband were evicted in 2017. 

Jurors heard the social worker deliberately starved ‘reclusive’ Mr Sootheran to death, depriving him of food, drink and medical care as he withered away – dropping from 17 stone to barely nine stone. 

He was trapped in a squalid bedroom compared to a ‘foul cell’ and isolated from his family, dying alone in horrific conditions 18 months later. Mr Sootheran’s skeletal corpse was found lying on a mattress on the floor under a soiled duvet when a GP went to see him on March 18, 2014. 

After the murder, Rickard impersonated her victim to fraudulently claim over £14,500 in benefits for almost two years. The cash was used to fund her lavish lifestyle, including private school fees for her children.  

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

She had denied murder, claiming 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 last Friday in what prosecutors believe is the first successful conviction for murder by deliberate starvation in more than 100 years.

The jury heard how Mr Sootheran led a ‘reclusive’ life, and Rickard took advantage of his vulnerabilities, isolating him and keeping family and friends at arm’s length. 

Behind closed doors and out of sight of loved ones, the carer was able to deliberately deprive Anthony of food, drink, and medical care to the point that he starved to death.

Just 18 months after elderly Joy died having suffered with dementia, the skeletal body of her son was discovered. 

In a landmark trial, Judge Mr Justice Wall handed Mrs Rickard a life sentence, with a minimum term of 28 years, on Tuesday, telling her she had ‘cynically and systematically bled this family’ over a decade.

‘Your greed was such that when you thought Anthony Sootheran might act in a way which would derail your gravy train, you murdered him,’ he said.

‘You murdered Anthony in a most cruel and hard-hearted way. You starved him of food and left him on a mattress on the floor of his room to die.’

The judge said Rickard could have easily ended his suffering, but told her: ‘You were prevented from doing so only by your extraordinary greed.’

He added: ‘He died a man not only relieved of much of his money, but his dignity as well. You must have watched him die in that way.’

Wayne Rickard was jailed for a total of 10 and a half years after he was acquitted of murder but found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.

‘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.

Mr Sootheran’s accountant daughter Hannah Sootheran, who won a civil court fight for her father’s estate against the Rickards, said the impact on her and her family’s lives had been ‘heartbreaking’.

The court heard how Lynda Rickard isolated Mr Sootheran and stopped him from seeing his daughter.

‘I can’t comprehend how somebody who said they cared deeply for my dad left him to die in such horrible conditions,’ she said in a statement read in court.

‘I have not had the chance to grieve and get on with a normal life.’

The Rickards, of Edinburgh Close, Banbury, Oxfordshire, stood trial alongside friends Michael Dunkley, 49, Denise Neal, 41, and Shanda Robinson, 51.

Dunkley, of Brickle Lane, Bloxham, Oxfordshire, was jailed for two years, and Neal, of Radway Road, Lower Tysoe, Warwickshire, was sentenced to 27 months, after they were found guilty of fraud by falsely claiming a will in the name of Mr Sootheran was genuine.

Robinson, of Sage Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, was jailed for 32 months after she was found guilty of one count of fraud by false representation, and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, for falsely claiming a will in the name of Mrs Sootheran was genuine.

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 over the scam, and was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Peter Burt, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Thames and Chiltern Complex Casework Unit, said: ‘The sentences handed to Lynda and Wayne Rickard today reflect the extreme severity and cruelty of their crimes.

‘Though nothing will make up for Anthony’s death, we hope that these sentences go some way to delivering a sense of justice to Joy and Anthony’s family and friends.’

‘Lynda Rickard has consistently attempted to cover her tracks with a web of lies fed to friends, family, emergency service workers and financial professionals.

‘We are pleased the jury has convicted the Rickards of their crimes, in what we understand is a landmark case, and we hope that this brings some sense of justice to Joy and Anthony Sootheran’s loved ones.’

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 Mr Sootheran had been severely neglected in the weeks leading to his death, and that he had starved to death.

Mr 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.’

Lynda Rickard earlier pleaded guilty to four fraud charges, two counts of forgery, two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, possession of articles for use in fraud and obtaining benefits by deception.