Reading Crown Court on Thursday heard the case against married couple Lynda and Wayne Rickard. The couple and their three associates are being tried for fraudulence and murder. Lynda and Wayne reportedly starved their landlord, James Anthony Sootheran, to death after the death of his mother, Mary Joy Sootheran. The couple forged the Sootherans' wills to try and get large portions of both their estates.

James was found dead in High Havens Farm at South Newington, Oxfordshire, on March 18, 2014. The man who used to weigh 17 stones had wasted away in his home while under the care of Lynda and Wayne. James, a 59-year-old former auctioneer's clerk, had a £3.5m estate which he inherited from his landowning family.

James and Mary had been living on the property since 2006. In 2008, the Sootherans decided to move to the secluded farmhouse. Since then, Lynda was being paid £900 per week to take care of Mary, who suffered from dementia. Lynda and her husband lived on the property rent-free. When Mary passed away in August 2012, the Rickard couple expected to inherit a lot of money. However, all the money went to James.

reading crown court
Reading Crown Court heard a couple starved their reclusive landlord and forged his will to inherit a part of his £3.5m estate. Harry Mitchell/Harry Mitchell [CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0]

While James and Mary were alive, the Rickards swindled thousands of pounds from them. Wayne even bought a car with money which Mary gave him, the Daily Mail reported. Prosecutor Oliver Saxby claimed that the couple decided to kill James for the money.

Saxby told the court that James was kept in an unhygienic room without any source of entertainment. The couple isolated the recluse further by ensuring he received no phone calls. Eventually, Lynda stopped giving food and water to James and Wayne aided her.

The couple forged the Sootherans' wills in an attempt to inherit half of Mary's £1.5m estate and a third of James' £3.5m estate.

According to The Telegraph, Lynda pleaded guilty to four fraud charges, two counts of forgery, two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and possession of articles for use in fraud. However, she refused the charges of gross negligence manslaughter claiming James died of self-neglect. Wayne has been accused of causing or allowing his death. The couple also stands accused of a single count of fraud by false representation relating to Mary.

The couple's three associates, Michael Dunkley, 48, Denise Neal, 39, and Shanda Robinson, 50, are being charged with fraud. All three supported the Rickards when they claimed that the fraudulent wills were real. The trial remains ongoing as those accused refused to plead guilty to their charges.