Robert Rickerby: Killer picked up pizza order as Jessica Geddes lay dying or dead

After bashing his partner, a meth-addicted man left to go get pizzas while she lay dying or dead at their home.

Robert Evan Rickerby, 30, showed no emotion but was blinking rapidly as he was jailed for 15 years and six months after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Jessica Geddes, 27, through unlawful and dangerous acts.

Sentencing Rickerby, Justice James Elliot said Ms Geddes was an “extremely vulnerable” person who was dependent on him when he took her life in November 2020.

The former painter was initially scheduled to face a murder trial this year before prosecutors accepted a manslaughter plea a day before the trial was set to begin.

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Robert Rickerby pleaded guilty to Ms Geddes’ manslaughter earlier this year. 9News Credit: Supplied

Justice Elliot said Rickerby called emergency services on the evening of November 6, claiming he’d arrived home and found Ms Geddes unconscious.

Paramedics arrived to find Ms Geddes already dead, with bloodstains all over the “squalid” Endeavour Hills home they shared.

But phone records showed he’d been home for 30 minutes and placed calls to his parents who’d advised him to contact triple-0.

The court was told the pair had met in Queensland in 2017 on a dating app before deciding to move together to Melbourne, where Rickerby was raised, within days.

Justice Elliot said Ms Geddes’ body was found to be in a “deplorable state” with significant injuries from the past days, weeks and months.

He said no particular injury was identified as the cause of death, but the evidence showed her death was “not rapid” and her physical state would have declined over hours.

The court was told Ms Geddes suffered significant mental health issues. Supplied Credit: Supplied

Rickerby, the Supreme Court judge said, had lied to investigators that he did not harm Ms Geddes and found her with injuries after returning from the local pizza shop.

Justice Elliot said Rickerby was only out of the home for 11 minutes to pick up pizzas he claimed were for the couple’s dinner.

“Although your relationship might be described as turbulent … nothing could be said to justify or excuse your conduct,” he said.

“Having severely beaten her, you failed to contact emergency services … Incredibly, you left to go get pizzas.”

Rickerby now claims his recollection of the attack is “vague and incomplete”.

The court was told the couple had severe methamphetamine addictions, with Ms Geddes weighing just 46kg, down from 70kg when she left Queensland.

Her family described her as a cherished daughter and mother. Supplied Credit: Supplied

In the months prior to her death, Ms Geddes had regularly been seen dishevelled and with physical injuries begging around Endeavour Hills.

“Cases involving domestic violence have justifiably attracted significant opprobrium,” Justice Elliot said.

“Violence inside the home is totally unacceptable and your sentence must make this plain.

“You have brutally taken the life of someone that had trusted you and moved far away form her family to be with you.”

The court was told Rickerby had been kept in protection units in custody since he was extradited from Queensland to face trial after receiving a “hostile response” from other inmates due to media coverage.

He will be eligible for parole after serving 11 years.