Robert Rickerby beat girlfriend Jessica Geddes to death before going out for pizza
A killer who beat a young mum to death in Endeavour Hills went to pick up pizza before returning to the house and discarding a half-eaten slice next to her starved and lifeless body.
Victoria
Don't miss out on the headlines from Victoria. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Confessed killer Robert Rickerby beat his girlfriend Jessica Geddes to death before going out for pizza, with a half-eaten slice found next to her starved and lifeless body.
For years, the drugged up loser denied his relationship with the young mum was ever abusive, but finally admitted last month he bashed her before leaving her to die as he went to Dominos, on November 6, 2022.
Police later found two pizza boxes on the couch of their squalid Endeavour Hills bedroom that had several slices missing, while a munched piece lay on the floor next to Ms Geddes’ body.
The 27-year-old died from complications of multiple blunt force injuries, with an autopsy finding she’d suffered years of abuse, with fresh and healing fractures all over her body, and weighed just 46kg.
During a pre-sentence hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday for the killer who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, Ms Geddes’ young daughter gave a heartbreaking victim impact statement.
“The day I turned cold was the day you hurt my mother,” Arianna-Leigh Geddes said in a statement read by her grandmother, Saasha Brimble.
“When I lost you mummy I felt there was nothing to enjoy any more.”
Rickerby for years lied to the police saying he didn’t know how his girlfriend died, that she was “fine” at about 6pm when he drove off for pizzas.
But finally, when he pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month on the eve of his murder trial, Rickerby admitted he beat his girlfriend, possibly for hours, before he called his father to buy him two pizzas for pick-up from Dominos.
As Rickerby drove to the nearby takeaway store, Ms Geddes was dead or dying from his repeated blows, later found naked from the waist down on the floor of their bedroom.
The pizza pick-up was a “ruse”, the prosecution initially claimed, to remove him from the scene after Ms Geddes died.
But on Monday, barrister Campbell Thomson, for the prosecution, retracted that position, stating they can’t say exactly when Rickerby became aware of his girlfriend’s death.
Half an hour after returning home with the pizzas, Rickerby finally called for an ambulance after being urged to in phone calls he made to both his mother and father.
Justice James Elliott asked Rickerby’s defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, what he “should do with that evidence” of the half empty pizza boxes strewn on the couch, a partly eaten piece next to Ms Geddes body.
“Nothing,” Mr Mandy replied.
Rickerby, now aged 30 and no longer the slim meth head he once was, sat in the Supreme Court dock wearing a suit and tie, with glasses adorning his freshly plumped up face.
As Ms Brimble walked to the bar table, just metres from her daughter’s killer, to tell the court of the impact he’d caused their family, she said she never wants to “eat or see pizza in my home ever again”.
The court heard how the pair would call her from QLD and ask her to order them pizza from Dominos as she would hear Rickerby abusing both her, and her daughter, in the background.
“You better f***ing help us out this time … she’s so f***ing skinny,” the killer would yell.
Ms Geddes would sob and cry for help from her mum, who on one occasion heard Rickerby assault her daughter while they were on the phone.
“Please stop hitting me Rob, I’m trying to talk to my mum,” Ms Geddes told him.
Mr Mandy claimed his client’s prospects of rehabilitation were “good”, and that he entered a guilty plea “with remorse for his conduct”, which “resulted in the unintended death of his partner, and he’s haunted by that”.
Justice Elliott, who is expected to hand down his sentence next week, replied that Rickerby’s conduct almost a year after his arrest was “inconsistent” with remorse.
Manslaughter carries a maximum 25 years jail.
Originally published as Robert Rickerby beat girlfriend Jessica Geddes to death before going out for pizza
New Lord Mayor launches bid to keep top job
Nick Reece has revealed his long-term vision, including a $10m plan to light up the city, as he launches his campaign to lead Melbourne for the next four years.
‘I’ll beat this’: Rocca reveals cancer fight
Collingwood great Anthony Rocca has revealed his shock cancer diagnosis, urging others to listen to their bodies and seek medical advice if something feels amiss.