The jury returned a unanimous verdict at the end of a four week trial.
Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.
Oliver Leader de Saxe reports.
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00:00Maureen, hello. So the time is 12.23, so I'm placing you under suspicion of fraud, false
00:11representation. So the circumstances are you're using your husband's card of our permission
00:17to make purchases.
00:18Here is the moment that 50-year-old Maureen Rickards was taken into police custody last
00:24summer on suspicion of fraud, six days after her husband was reported missing. By the afternoon
00:34she would be re-arrested on suspicion of his murder.
00:41Footage released by Kent Police from that first arrest shows how they had to drag her
00:47into custody from the back of the police van.
00:50Maureen, come on. Are you going to come and help us? We can see your eyes twitching.
00:57I am not moving from here. You tell the government. You tell my university. You tell Dr. Chima.
01:02You tell your company.
01:04Now, after a four-week trial, it took the jury at Canterbury Crown Court just under six
01:11hours to unanimously find her guilty of stabbing 65-year-old Jeremy Rickards in the chest five
01:20times.
01:21It was on the 11th of July last year that Kent Police searched Ms. Rickards' university
01:27accommodation on St. Martins Road in Canterbury. And it's there, hidden beneath a mound of
01:34grass clippings in the back garden, the body of the geologist was found in a nylon holdall.
01:42A video uploaded by the killer before her arrest shows her zooming in on the spot where
01:49he was buried.
01:50Other recordings were found on Ms. Rickards' phone.
01:54Operation, let's clean this garden.
01:56In one, you can hear the sound of the Christchurch law student dragging the bag containing Jeremy's
02:03body and concealing it.
02:08In the month leading up to his murder, the court was told how a frail and vulnerable
02:13Mr. Rickards was subjected to weeks of domestic abuse.
02:18CCTV shows him sitting with facial injuries in his local Wetherspoons, and the court heard
02:25In a video transcript from June 7th, Jeremy pleading with Maureen as she threatened to
02:33kill him, saying, please stop hitting me, love. Please stop it.
02:40The pain and suffering subjected to Jeremy Rickards in his final days, it's quite horrifying,
02:46cruel, and I hope that they can find some solace in this outcome today.
02:52What this has raised, once again, unfortunately, is the danger of domestic violence in our
02:55community and how severe it can become.
02:58Throughout the trial, Maureen maintained she did not kill him and was not responsible for
03:03any of the injuries that the prosecution say she had left.
03:08And in one outburst, proclaiming, good riddance to bad rubbish.
03:13Rickards was impassive in the dock as the verdict was read out.
03:17She will now be handed a mandatory life sentence, and it will be up to the judge at sentencing
03:23whether or not she will be eligible for parole.
03:27Oliver Leader, The Sacks, for KMTV.