A woman who Googled how to kill her husband before ferociously stabbing him to death and dumping his dismembered body at the bottom of her garden has been jailed for life.

Former law degree student Maureen Rickards was not present in the court on Wednesday (April 9) to be told that she will have to spend a minimum of 22 years behind bars for the brutal murder of 65-year-old Jeremy Rickards.

The 50-year-old had briefly appeared at Canterbury Crown Court over video link from HMP Bronzefield. But the diabetic complained that she had not eaten, was "hypo" and her glucose level was low.

"Mentally I'm refusing the sentencing and physically I'm ill," she told the judge, Mr Justice Kerr.

He then allowed her 15 minutes to have some food but, having said he was not ordering her to attend or that she was "obliged" to do so, Rickards decided not to return to learn her fate.

Proceeding to sentence therefore in her absence - a day before her 51st birthday - Mr Justice Kerr said he was sure that she had intended her husband's death and "nothing less" when she stabbed him with "ferocity" in his chest.

He also told Rickards that her spouse, to whom she had been married for 25 years, had suffered both physically and mentally from her mistreatment in the weeks leading up to his murder.

But he added: "I accept you loved him. I don't know why you killed him. You have to live with the loss of him. You have shown no remorse."

During her four-week trial earlier this year, the prosecution detailed how a "callous and hate-filled" Rickards had subjected her "meek and mild" geologist husband to weeks of both physical and verbal abuse - some of which she had even recorded - before killing him last summer.

Having stabbed her spouse multiple times in the chest and caused fractures to his nose, neck and ribs, Rickards then stored his heavily-bleeding body in a bedroom cupboard in her cluttered loft room before wrapping him in bin sacks and stuffing him inside a holdall.

She then hauled the large, nylon-weave bag down two flights of stairs and out into the rear garden where, once tucked away under overgrown foliage, it was buried under a large mound of grass cuttings.

Her efforts to cover up her heinous crime included extensive cleaning of her bloodstain carpet and removing all his belongings from her room - including his passport, clothing and wedding ring - as well as creating a false narrative as to his whereabouts.

Using the dead man's phone, she sent WhatsApp messages to herself and to their daughter, Chima Rickards, making out he was working in Saudi Arabia.

In one particularly vitriolic exchange, Rickards then told Chima that she was to blame for her father killing himself while overseas, and gave his date of death as June 9.

However, suspicious about her mother's messages and worried for her dad's welfare, she reported him as missing to police.

Six days later on July 11, officers investigating his disappearance went to Rickards' shared accommodation in St Martin's Road, Canterbury - a stone's throw from the court building.

They noticed her room "smelt of death" and, having gone outside for fresh air, detected a distinct and overpowering "sickly" odour, leading to the grim discovery of the rotting corpse.

Prosecutor Nick Corsellis KC said at trial that despite the level of decomposition, a pathologist was able to conclude that Mr Rickards had suffered at least five stab wounds to his chest, two of which were 11cm deep and had penetrated his heart.

There was another wound to his head in which metal fragments, possibly from the tip of a blade, were embedded, and two possible stab wounds to his neck.

Mr Rickards had also suffered multiple fractured ribs, a neck fracture consistent with strangulation and a broken nose.

A number of "old, healed" fractures to his ribs and neck were also present and were estimated to have been caused up to 10 weeks prior to his murder.

Such injuries, together with eyewitness accounts and the killer's own recordings, were evidence of how Mr Rickards' came to be in a "battered, bruised and fragile" state in the last days of his life, said Mr Corsellis.

In the videos found on his wife's phone, she could be seen aggressively berating him as he lay dishevelled and confused on the floor.

In another clip lasting as long as 15 minutes, a distressed Mr Rickards could be heard repeatedly crying out in pain as he begged his spouse to stop striking him, only for her to sinisterly tell him she would kill him.

The court heard at the sentencing hearing that having voiced that intent to kill, she revealed to her husband that she had Googled how to do so.

Rickards was initially arrested on July 11 on suspicion of fraud after CCTV showed she had been shopping with her husband's bank card in the days he was reportedly missing.

Carpet cleaning products, stain remover and air freshener were among the products she bought.

The Canterbury Christ Church University student was, however, re-arrested and charged with murder after his body was found that same day.

Although Mr Rickards had last been seen on June 7, with his final phone use the following day, the exact date of his murder and the circumstances that led to the fatal injuries being inflicted could not be established.

The court heard that he would often spend months abroad with his work, specialising in precious metals, and then live with his wife in the privately rented, multi-occupancy house on his return.

Home to five tenants, all had been given notice to leave in July so it could be renovated. At the time of her arrest, only Rickards remained.

The police investigation revealed the geologist had unexpectedly phoned his brother Anthony Rickards in the north east town of Middlesbrough on June 2, telling him he was "having problems with Maureen again" and asking if he could stay with him.

But that was the last time his sibling heard from him, the jury was told.

Four days later he was sporting numerous facial injuries that included a large gash to his forehead, two black eyes and a "cauliflower" ear, and told a witness that his wife had been "in a bad mood".

It was on June 7 that Rickards recorded herself threatening to kill him as he pleaded with her "Please stop hitting me, love".

Police had first spoken to the Nigerian-born mum about her missing husband on July 7. She said that they were separated and she had not seen him "for weeks".

At trial, Rickards maintained she had neither beaten nor fatally stabbed her husband of 25 years.

She claimed his bruising and fractures resulted from falls or accidents when drunk, and pointed the finger at one of her fellow tenants for his death.

She also dismissively told the jury when being questioned about her husband’s demise: "Good riddance to bad rubbish".

It took the jury of seven men and five women just under six hours' of deliberations to return their unanimous guilty verdict. Four jurors returned for the sentencing.

Chima, who lives in Nairobi, did not give evidence during the trial but in a statement read to the jury on her behalf she described her parents' marriage as an "unpleasant representation of love".

Neither she nor her father's brother provided the sentencing hearing with victim impact statements, having chosen to grieve privately, it was said.

The court heard Rickards suffers from poor health and was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis last year.

Ian Henderson KC, defending, described the defendant's relationship with her husband as one that was not "straightforward", with its "ups and downs" and aspects that were "at odds with each other".

But his submission that the killing was "spontaneous" rather than significantly planned and premeditated as alleged by the prosecution was rejected by the judge.

In accepting that "very little" could be said on her behalf in mitigation, Mr Henderson did however add that her attempts at covering up her crime were "unsophisticated".

Rickards will have to serve 22 years, less the 273 days already spent on remand, before she can be considered for release by the Parole Board.

Mr Justice Kerr said a copy of his sentencing remarks would be provided to her.

He also commended the police investigation team, and said he hoped Mr Rickards' family would find "some sense of relief" now that the court proceedings had concluded.

In his sentencing remarks, he described how during the Rickards' marriage they had travelled the world together with his work before settling back in the UK.

“Your behaviour towards him was controlling and coercive…”

He also said that although their relationship had been both "loving and turbulent", he accepted she had not "habitually" abused her husband.

However, in detailing Mr Rickards' last few weeks alive and the day he was murdered, the judge told the absent killer her victim was in frail health, in "low spirits" as he neared retirement age, and "defenceless" against her.

"You stabbed him to death in the attic room...I am sure you intended his death and nothing less. The wounds could not have been inflicted by someone only intending really serious harm," he said.

"You were beating your husband and abusing him in the last month or so before he died...He suffered both physically and mentally from your mistreatment of him.

"Your behaviour towards him was controlling and coercive."

But while he accepted there was "limited" planning and premeditation, he said her threat to kill him, and her reference to having Googled how to do so, was taken seriously by her victim.

Further aggravating factors, said the judge, were the ferocity of her attack, the "desecration" of his corpse and the steps taken to cover-up what she had done, including the disposal of the knife used to murder Mr Rickards.