Anthony Sootheran's murder: Wayne Rickard fails in appeals bid

The husband of a murderer who starved her landlord to death to inherit part of his £3.5m estate has failed to have his conviction and sentence overturned.

Wayne Rickard, 67, was jailed for 10-and-a-half years in June, in part for allowing Anthony Sootheran's death at his Oxfordshire farm in 2014.

His wife, Lynda, 63, was jailed for at least 28 years for murder and fraud at the same trial at Reading Crown Court.

Mr Rickard's appeals were dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

The Rickards, from Banbury, were Mr Sootheran's tenants at High Havens Farm in South Newington.

Mrs Rickard "ruthlessly exploited" the reclusive millionaire and his mother, Joy Sootheran, who died in 2012, the court heard during the trial.

She took up to £300,000 from their accounts, forged both of their wills and isolated the vulnerable Mr Sootheran by discouraging visitors, prosecutors said.

His "severely emaciated" body was found in his room in March 2014.

A combination of malnutrition and a deep-seated pressure sore led to a fatal lung infection.

Lady Justice Macur, Mr Justice Griffiths and Mr Justice Eyre found no errors had been made during the trial in respect of Mr Rickard's conviction or over the length of his eight-year sentence for allowing Mr Sootheran's death.

He was also jailed for a total of 30 months in prison for fraud and perverting the course of justice.

Mr Sootheran's death was initially treated as non-suspicious but was reinvestigated when his bank account was used after he died.

The Rickards later went to court to try to uphold his forged will but failed to inherit any part of the Sootherans' estates.

While she was found guilty of murder, Mrs Rickard also admitted forging the wills, four counts of fraud over their bank accounts, two counts of conspiring to pervert the course of justice, one of possessing forged documents and one of housing benefit fraud.

Three people who denied signing fraudulent wills were jailed. Another woman who admitted doing so was given a suspended two-year sentence.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].