Helen Bailey: Moment killer fiancé of children's author is arrested for her murder

Hatty Collier23 February 2017
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This is the moment the fiancé of children’s author Helen Bailey feigned shock as he was arrested for her murder.

Bodycam footage filmed by police showed the moment he was detained on suspicion of murder at the £1.5m home he had shared with 51-year-old Ms Bailey.

Stewart, who was barefoot and wearing a bathrobe, uttered the words “you’re joking” as officers confronted him during a dawn raid at the couple’s Royston home in July last year.

Arrest: Ian Stewart, 56, is detained on suspicion of murder 
Hertfordshire Police

The killer is seen clutching at the banister to his left before sitting down on the stairs and asking “bloody hell, why?” and “what’s happened?” after the police informed him they had obtained a search warrant for the home.

He is then told by an officer that he will have a chance to discuss the case at the police station.

In a key piece of evidence later used in court, Stewart then said: “The garage door is open” as he was led upstairs to get dressed.

Ian Stewart, left, pictured with children's author Helen Bailey. Her body was found in July 2016

The video emerged for the first time today as 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.

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

Guilty: Stewart was convicted following a trial at St Albans Crown Court
Hertfordshire Constabulary/PA

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

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.

The footage of Stewart’s arrest emerged as Hertfordshire Police also released images of the cesspit where her body was found.

Detectives work to recover the body
Tania Butler/Hertfordshire Constabulary/PA

Detectives were forced to dig down many feet beneath the garage to recover the body.

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.

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

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

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.

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