Author’s killer faces probe over wife’s death
As Ian Stewart is convicted for killing his author fiancée, police to examine earlier ‘unexplained’ death
Police are re-examining the death of the first wife of Ian Stewart, who was found guilty yesterday of murdering the children’s author Helen Bailey. Stewart was convicted of killing Ms Bailey, 51, and dumping her body in a cesspit under their home in a plot to get his hands on her £4 million fortune. His former wife, Diane, died in mysterious circumstances in 2010. Police have confirmed they are re-examining the case.
POLICE are re-examining the death of the first wife of Ian Stewart after he was found guilty of the “cold blooded” murder of celebrated children’s author, Helen Bailey.
He was convicted of having plied Ms Bailey, 51, with sleeping pills for months before killing her and dumping her body in a cesspit under their Hertfordshire home as part of a plot to get his hands on her £4 million fortune. Ms Bailey had published more than 20 books including the Electra Brown teenage fiction series.
St Alban’s Crown Court heard how the 56-year-old inveigled his way into the writer’s affections after meeting her in an online bereavement forum after her husband drowned in Barbados in 2011.
His wife, Diane, had died in mysterious circumstances the year before, aged 47, and Hertfordshire Police have confirmed they are now “re-examining” the case, fearing that he may have also killed her. Mrs Stewart, who had suffered from epilepsy since childhood, was found dead in the garden of their country home in Bassingbourn in June 2010. An inquest held three months later concluded that the school secretary had suffered “sudden unexpected death from epilepsy”. But relations have expressed “huge concerns” over the circumstances and have backed the fresh police inquiry.
One family member, who requested anonymity, said: “We were told at the time it was an unexplained death and it has worried me, it has been on my mind that it was unexplained.
“He [Stewart] was the only one there when she died… I know her brother and sister have been very concerned. Her mother has been very concerned too, it has been awful for her.
“Diane’s mother never knew how she died, he [Stewart] never showed her Diane’s death certificate even when she requested it and he just said it was unexplained. We hadn’t a clue, we just thought he was suffering grief afterwards. He didn’t say much at all but he had always been a quiet sort of bloke.”
Another relation added: “I just don’t think her death was explained enough at the inquest. It was presumed to be epilepsy but it was not 100 percent certain of that. It makes me wonder, could they have diagnosed or found anything deeper?”
Following Mrs Stewart’s death her husband “received a number of lump sums” including £28,000 from Cambridge county council – which employed her as a school secretary – and a £33,000 life insurance policy.
Det Ch Insp Jerome Kent, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said: “Diane Stewart died in 2010. There was a coroner’s investigation and a postmortem done and it was concluded that she had died of natural causes. But you would expect me to have a look back over the case to see what happened.”
However, the fact that she was cremated may hamper the new investigation. Stewart now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of Ms Bailey’s murder, preventing lawful burial, perverting the course of justice and also fraud. His fiancée disappeared from the sprawling £1.5 million home in Royston that she shared with Stewart, on April 11 last year. He did not report her missing for four days and then told police she had left a note appealing for some space.
For the next three months he played the part of the concerned partner, while her family were left desperate for any news of her whereabouts. But all the time her body and that of her beloved dog, Boris, lay in a tank of effluent beneath the property.
Stewart was arrested on suspicion of murder after three months, but refused to accept his guilt, concocting a story that his fiancée had been kidnapped by former associates of her late husband. He remained emotionless in the dock as the verdicts were delivered by the jury foreman and will be sentenced today.
His two sons, Jamie and Oliver, who gave evidence for the prosecution, were in court to see the verdict.
Ms Bailey’s brother, John, said the two boys were in the family’s thoughts having effectively lost both parents.
He said : “Our thoughts are very much with Ian’s family. Although this is a 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.”