A methamphetamine-addicted killer went out for pizza after savagely beating his girlfriend and leaving her for dead.
A court was told the body of Melbourne woman Jessica Geddes, 27, appeared to be the victim of a car crash when forensic officers later examined her.
On Monday, His violent and controlling partner Robert Rickerby, 30, of Endeavor Hills, appeared before the Supreme Court of Victoria for a pre-sentence hearing for manslaughter after a deal to avoid a possible life sentence for the crime.
The court heard Rickerby had been serving a community corrections order on November 6, 2020 when he killed his partner in a fit of violent rage.
He had originally been charged with murder before the charge was downgraded to manslaughter on the eve of his trial in May, after he reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty.
Jessica Geddes, 27 (pictured), had been isolated and starved by her boyfriend, who also accepted her Centrelink payments, and abused and assaulted her over a three-year period.
Robert Rickerby has spent 800 days behind bars awaiting justice. He is pictured entering the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday.
On Monday, the court heard Rickerby brutally beat Ms Geddes after spending five hours in a web meeting with Corrections Victoria staff tasked with rehabilitating the thug.
Rickerby had been given the community order for a charge of recklessly causing serious injury to a victim he hit in his car.
The court heard Ms Geddes had already suffered countless beatings at the hands of Rickerby before she died.
A list of those injuries took Crown prosecutor Campbell Thomson about 10 minutes to describe.
Mrs Geddes suffered more than 50 skeletal injuries, according to a post-mortem examination.
Court documents stated his injuries included 16 rib fractures, four vertebrae fractures and 10 fractures to both hands.
Sitting in the back of the courtroom, Rickerby remained with his eyes closed for most of the hearing.
Police believe Rickerby hit Geddes after she was seen buying food at a nearby 7-Eleven that afternoon.
Customers at the store recalled seeing Ms Geddes in a distressed state, telling strangers that she was hungry and afraid.
Before joining Rickerby in late 2017, Geddes weighed between 70 and 79kg.
He weighed only 46 kg at the time of his slow and painful death.
Robert Rickerby (pictured) was accused of murdering his girlfriend Jessica Geddes, whom he met on a dating app. But he recently took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Robert Rickerby avoided a murder charge by pleading involuntary manslaughter
After criticizing Ms Geddes, the court heard the unemployed painter pestered his father to order him a couple of pizzas.
Rickerby was seen collecting those pizzas at 5:55 pm that day, while Mrs Geddes lay half naked and mortally wounded in bed.
Police later discovered that some of those pizzas had been consumed, and a half-eaten slice was found next to Ms. Geddes’ body.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by Ms Geddes’ mother, Saasha Brimble, the distraught mother said she would never be able to look at or eat a pizza again.
‘He had told me he would send my daughter home in a body bag. Which had come true,” she told the court.
Brimble said she was now struggling to get out of bed and the trauma of losing her daughter had ruined her financially.
“I have isolated myself from society and the world,” he told the court.
“I suffer from depression, anxiety and nightmares about the terror my daughter must have endured at the hands of a very evil man.”
Despite his horrific injuries, the court heard it was decided to offer Rickerby a manslaughter deal due to fears any murder conviction could be overturned on appeal.
Forensic experts believe it probably took “hours” for Ms Geddes to die.
“There would have been a gradual decline in her functioning, after which she was beaten, possibly for hours,” Mr Thompson said.
Rickerby’s lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, the same lawyer hired by alleged mushroom killer Erin Patterson, said his client deserved a discounted sentence for her guilty plea.
“The appropriate charge was always murder,” he said.
“The injuries that were caused are not consistent with murderous intent.”
Saasha Brimble (pictured with her granddaughter Arianna-Leigh at the funeral of her eldest daughter Jessica Geddes) said police failed her daughter and other women after it took 18 months to charge Rickerby with murder, following the media attention.
Mandy said her client accepted her actions caused her partner’s death and was now sorry for what she had done.
“His actions resulted in the involuntary death of his partner and that haunts him,” he said.
The court heard Rickerby had attempted to apologize to his victim’s family, but it was not accepted.
“Their anger and sadness means they don’t accept his expressions of regret and never will, and that’s something he will live with,” Mandy said.
Mandy said her client attributed his abhorrent behavior to her inability to cope with their “chaotic relationship.”
The court heard Ms Geddes had also struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues which led to her death.
This included allegations of self-harm that had previously seen her drive a car into a pole, punch holes in walls and “fight with invisible people”.
The court heard that while police had previously intervened in allegations of violence by Rickerby against Ms Geddes, they had allowed an intervention order to lapse at the time of her death.
Rickerby will be sentenced at a date to be determined.