Helen Bailey: Fiancé Ian Stewart jailed for 34 years for murdering children's author

Convicted: Ian Stewart with Helen Bailey
Hatty Collier23 February 2017
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The fiancé of children’s author Helen Bailey has been jailed for 34 years for her murder.

Ian Stewart, 56, was found guilty on Wednesday of drugging and suffocating his partner before hiding the body in a cesspit at the couple’s home in Hertfordshire.

Driven by greed, Stewart secretly spent months poisoning the Electra Brown writer with his sedatives and smothering her once she had been stupefied in April last year.

A jury of five women and seven men found Stewart, of Baldock Road, Royston, Hertfordshire, guilty of murder, fraud, three counts of perverting the course of justice and preventing a lawful burial at St Albans Crown Court following a six-week trial.

Jailed: Ian Stewart (Hertfordshire Constabulary/PA )
Hertfordshire Constabulary/PA

Judge Andrew Bright sentenced the murderous computer expert, who refused to attend the hearing, to life with a minimum term of 34 years at the same court on Thursday.

He said: "I am firmly of the view that you currently pose a real danger to women with whom you form a relationship.

"Whilst we will never know whether you may have had some additional motive for killing the woman who loved you and wanted to be your wife, I am in no doubt this is a clear case of a murder done in the expectation of gain with aggravating features which make it difficult to imagine a more heinous crime."

Police said the "sudden, unexpected" death of Stewart's first wife, Diane - who was found in the couple's garden in 2010 - will now be re-examined.

Stewart scoped out vulnerable widow Ms Bailey on the internet in 2011 - earning his way into her trust and later her £3.3 million estate after launching a "love-bombing" offensive.

"She was being grossly deceived by someone who was preying on her," prosecutor Stuart Trimmer told his trial.

Over many weeks, Stewart surreptitiously fed Ms Bailey his prescription anti-insomnia drug, Zopiclone, possibly by slipping it into her morning scrambled eggs.

She soon became panicked by her deteriorating state of mind, searching online for terms such as "can't stop falling asleep" and expressing concern to loved ones.

Murder victim: Helen Bailey
Hertfordshire Police

A pillowcase found next to the author's body led the prosecution to suggest Stewart used a pillow to smother her while she was sedated.

Her lifeless body was dragged into a foul cesspit hidden deep below their luxury home, where her body lay undiscovered for three months.

The process of recovery of the body of Helen Bailey who was found in a cesspit deep below the couple's home
Tania Butler/Hertfordshire Constabulary/PA

Ms Bailey, known for her young adult stories and memoir on bereavement, was finally found submerged in a tank of human sewage underneath the couple's garage on July 15 last year.

Dead at her side was Boris the dog, her loyal companion.

Bodycam footage filmed by police has since revealed the moment Stewart feigned shock as he was arrested for her murder at the couple's home while he was barefoot and dressed in a bathrobe.

Convicted: Ian Stewart during his arrest interview
Hertfordshire Constabulary/PA

The author's shattered family welcomed the verdict, but said her death had left them lingering in a "long shadow of loss".

Ms Bailey's brother, John, sat in court for almost every day of her killer's trial, while their elderly mother Eileen broke down as she gave her testimony.

The family said in a statement: "Despite this victory for justice there can be no celebration.

"Our families have been devastated and nothing can ever bring Helen back to us, or truly right this wrong.

A forensic tent set up at the home in Hertfordshire 
Hertfordshire Constabulary/PA

"A long shadow of loss has been cast over the lives of so many who will always remember Helen with enduring love and affection."

Stewart sparked a major search effort after feeding Ms Bailey's loved ones the lie that she had left abruptly to seek some "space" at her seaside cottage in Broadstairs, Kent.

The former software engineer's deceptions culminated with a fantastical tale of a deadly kidnap plot by two mystery men called Nick and Joe.

The couple had met on a Facebook group for the bereaved and started a relationship within a year of Ms Bailey's first husband drowning on holiday.

Stewart soon became the chief heir to her fortune in a re-written will and gained power of attorney over her affairs.

He stood to gain around £1.8 million from her investment portfolio, plus the value of their home in Royston and her coastal cottage in Kent.

Hours after the murder, he also illicitly boosted a standing order to himself from her account.

This earned him an extra £12,000 over the three months following her disappearance, during which he played the part of a man wounded by his bride-to-be's abandonment.

He is likely to "end his days behind bars" due to a litany of health problems which have dogged him for decades, his defence counsel said on Wednesday.

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