A remorseless wife has been found guilty of killing her husband and hiding his body under bushes in their garden.
Jeremy Rickards, who was 65, was found dead behind the property in St Martin’s Road, Canterbury on 11 July 2024.
His wife, Maureen Rickards, 50, had claimed he had gone to Saudi Arabia for work and had died there after he was reported missing by family.
But a jury at Canterbury Crown Court heard how she had directed oblivious gardeners to dump grass under her shrubs knowing it would help cover his body, which had been wrapped in binbags and put into a large canvas bag.
Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Colin McKeen said: “This was a horrific murder of a man who we believe had been a supportive husband to his wife, despite her violence towards him.
“Sadly, our investigation suggests that, rather than being a one-off incident, Maureen Rickards had attacked her husband on a number of occasions before this fatal assault.”
Police found no record of Jeremy Rickards leaving the country and found CCTV of Maureen Rickards using his bank card in shops to buy cleaning products.
She even messaged their daughter using her husband’s phone to say he had arrived in Saudi Arabia. Their daughter was concerned about the style of messages and asked if her mother had taken over her father’s phone.
After Rickards messaged her daughter to say that her father had taken his own life in Saudi Arabia, she reported her father as missing to the police.
Rickards was arrested for fraud with police searching their family home to find her husband’s body hidden in the garden.
When arrested, Rickards kept up the act, asking, “what body?”
He was found to have been strangled, having suffered five stab wounds to his chest, as well as other injuries associated with a campaign of domestic abuse.
Shortly before his death, Mr Rickards had been seen with bruising to his face in a local pub and had told a concerned member of staff he had been in a car accident.
The husband and wife lived in a private property and other tenants in the building saw Mr Rickards injured and described him as being in a vulnerable state, with some reporting shouting and sounds consistent with someone or something being hit. On one occasion, when asked about his injuries, he said, “Maureen was in a bad mood with me”.
Mr Rickards was last seen on 7 June and, after he was killed, a tenant heard something heavy being hauled down the stairs at night and saw Maureen Rickards in the garden.
Video clips found on Rickards’ phone showed her shouting at her husband and recorded the sounds of her beating him.
Pools of blood found inside the cupboard where he was hidden had spread with bloodstains also appearing on the ceiling of the flat below.
Detectives believe Maureen Rickards murdered her husband on or around 9 June, which was also the date she told their daughter he had died in Saudi Arabia as she attempted to cover up the murder.
Rickards was later charged with his murder and convicted by a jury on Thursday.
“She has never expressed any remorse for what she did and has repeatedly sought to frustrate the investigation and push blame onto others, including the victim himself,” Detective Inspector Colin McKeen said.
“The jury has seen through her lies and she will now spend many years in prison.
“This case shows that domestic abuse, whether committed by a man or a woman, can escalate and become fatal and I urge anyone who is experiencing violence at the hands of their partner to report it to the police. We will listen to you, support you, and take action to protect you from harm.”
Rickards will be sentenced next month.
