A controlling and coercive woman who murdered her husband and hid his dismembered body in the garden has been jailed for at least 22 years.
Maureen Rickards, 50, stabbed former geologist Jeremy Rickards, 65, five times – including twice through his heart – at their home in Canterbury in June last year.
Her ‘ferocious attack’ came days after she filmed herself beating him, with frail Jeremy heard begging her to stop and chillingly predicting she would eventually kill him.
After murdering him in the attic, Rickards stuffed her husband’s body in a cupboard before dismembering it and placing the body parts inside a holdall which was hidden under grass cuttings in the back garden.
She then concocted a story claiming Jeremy had gone to Saudi Arabia and taken his own life.
In the meantime, she was using his cards to buy cleaning products to try and cover up the murder.
The grisly crime was only uncovered when Jeremy’s stepdaughter became worried about him and tried to track down where in Saudi Arabia he had travelled to.
When the authorities there said they had no record of him visiting, she went to Kent Police who sent officers around to the Rickards’ home.
Rickards was at the police station when police discovered her husband’s decomposing body, with the court hearing how ‘the overpowering odour made them feel ill’.
Jailing her for life, judge Mr Justice Kerr said: ‘Jeremy suffered both physically and mentally from your mistreatment of him in the weeks leading up to his death.
‘Your behaviour towards him was controlling and coercive. You brutally beat and injured him in the weeks before he died. You told him you intended to kill him, a threat he took seriously.
‘In the last video, he said you might kill him. You said you had “googled” how to do it. He was vulnerable and frail, partly because of your mistreatment of him. In the last video he pleaded to be taken to hospital because of his condition.’
The judge added: ‘Jeremy was a kind hearted, mild mannered, softly spoken man to whom you had been married for some 27 years when he died at your hands.
‘After the killing, you desecrated your husband’s corpse and took steps to conceal his body and remove forensic evidence from the attic room cupboard.
‘You must have disposed of the murder weapon which was never found.’
The court heard Jeremy worked all over the world in the mining of gold and diamonds.
He met his killer in Mali in 1997, with the couple marrying soon afterwards.
Jeremy took on his new wife’s daughter as his own, the court heard, and the family settled in the UK after following him wherever work took him around the globe.
The investigation found that, on May 17, Jeremy had been seen with bruising to his face in a pub in Canterbury and had told a member of staff he had been in a car accident.
Video clips found on Rickards’ phone dating from the end of May and the beginning of June showed her shouting at her husband and recorded the sounds of her beating him.
He had briefly moved out of their home in early June and had been seen with numerous injuries at the property he stayed in.
Based on the information from the pathologist and the last sighting, detectives believe Rickards murdered her husband on or around June 9.
This was also the date of his death which she had given in a message to a relative as she attempted to cover up her involvement.
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Prosecutor Paul Wakerley described the killing as a ‘ferocious attack’, adding the body was put in a bedroom storage cupboard before being wrapped in bin bags and moved into a large canvas bag, ‘possibly bought for that purpose’, and hidden at the bottom of the garden.
Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Colin McKeen said: ‘Maureen Rickards carried out the vicious murder of her husband Jeremy before attempting to hide his body in their garden.
‘She then sought to frustrate the investigation and has repeatedly refused to admit what she did, forcing a trial at which a jury saw through her deception.
‘She will now serve many years in prison.
‘I cannot imagine how difficult this investigation and trial has been for Mr Rickards’ family and I only hope that the conclusion of the case gives them some comfort as they continue to grieve.’
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