Maureen Rickards killed her husband, Jeremy Rickards, in the home they shared in Canterbury, Kent. She kept his body in her cupboard for a few days before burying it in the garden
Police bodycam shows moment Maureen Rickards arrested
A 50-year-old woman has been convicted of murdering her frail husband and hiding his body in their garden.
Jeremy Rickards, 65, was found dead behind the home in Canterbury, Kent, on July 11, 2024. His wife, Maureen Rickards, was charged with his murder and convicted on Thursday following a trial at Canterbury Crown Court. She will be sentenced next month.
Pictures have now emerged of the rented terrace house where the horrific crime took place. Rickards shared the house with four other tenants and every bit of her bedroom was covered in piles of clothes, make-up and rubbish.
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After stabbing her husband in the chest and heart, Rickards took off his clothes, leaving him wearing only his underwear and storing his body inside her cupboard for several days. When police carried out a search of the property, they said the bedroom, resembling a hoarder’s stash house, “smelt of death.”
To reach the bedroom, she had to go up two narrow flights of stairs that were wrapped in a black speckled carpet. The room overlooked the garden, where she eventually hid the victim’s body. One of her housemates, Danny Matcham, said he heard “bumping” noises before spotting Rickards in the garden, Mail Online reported, meaning she would have dragged her husband’s lifeless body down at least thirty stairs before burying it in a bag under grass cuttings.
Rickards was arrested after she messaged the couple’s daughter, Chima Rickards, using her dead husband’s phone to say that her father had arrived in Saudi Arabia, where he was working. Canterbury Crown Heard that the daughter was concerned about the style of messages and asked if her mother was using her father’s phone.
The evil wife then messaged her daughter to say her father had taken his own life – and at that point, Chima reported Mr Rickards as missing. Kent Police said that analysis of Mr Rickards’ phone showed he had last topped it up on June 8, 2024, which was the last record of him having been alive.
While the missing person investigation was being carried out, Rickards used her husband’s bank cards to purchase items including Vanish carpet shampoo, Febreze air freshener and stain remover. These purchases were made between June 20 and June 30, the police said in a statement this week.
She was arrested for fraud on July 11 and as police carried out a search of the property, they found Mr Rickards’ body in the garden. Kent Police said the victim was found to have suffered five stab wounds to his chest, as well as non-fatal injuries sustained around 10 days before his death, and others thought to have been inflicted at least five weeks earlier.
The woman was then arrested on suspicion of murder and a homicide investigation was launched. While working to build up a picture of the couple’s relationship in the previous weeks and months, police discovered that the victim 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 the woman’s 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, Kent Police said. The force added that the man had briefly moved out of their home in early June and “had been seen with numerous injuries at the property he stayed in.” Police believe Rickards murdered her husband on or around June 9.
It also emerged that eight days after her husband was reported missing, Rickards uploaded a haunting video to YouTube, giving her followers a tour of the garden. In the clip, she zoomed in on a pile of dry grass which was concealing her husband’s body before making a sick comment about him and saying: “Hubby is always traveling, so I’m all alone.”
Following her conviction this week, 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.
“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. 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.”
