Stewart ‘love bombed’ writer to get his hands on £4m fortune
IAN STEWART “wormed” his way into Helen Bailey’s life by “love bombing” her with emails and text messages as she struggled to come to terms with the death of her husband, police said last night.
The IT expert, whose wife died suddenly, met the author in an online bereavement forum, where he quickly began bombarding her with intensely affectionate messages.
Dubbing him her GGHW (Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower), she quickly fell under his spell and within a month of them first meeting the couple had become intimate.
They sold their respective homes and bought a £1.5 million property in Royston, Herts, where they began planning their wedding. But detectives believe Stewart never intended to go through with the marriage and started planning to kill his partner after realising she was worth almost £4 million.
Det Ch Insp Jerome Kent, who led the investigation, said: “He is a very persuasive person. He charmed her, he wooed her and he wormed his way into her life quite early on.”
Describing their relationship in court, Stuart Trimmer QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “This defendant was intimate, that is the phrase we will use, with Helen Bailey one month after they first met face-to-face. It is perfectly plain she was completely overwhelmed by what some people might call ‘love bombing’.
“She was absolutely besotted with him – the ‘Gorgeous, Grey-Haired Widower’. It is a matter of common sense and knowledge that someone shortly bereaved might not have the logical equipment to see she was being deceived. And the Crown say she was being grossly deceived by someone who was preying on her.”
Stewart had certainly started to put his deadly plan into operation last January, when he began to administer sleeping pills to Ms Bailey, in ever in- creasing doses. The sedatives left her feeling disorientated and left her questioning her state of mind.
When detectives examined her computers after she disappeared they discovered searches on “why do I keep falling asleep?”
She had also confided in her brother and mother that she was concerned because she had been forgetting things and was constantly tired. Her mother said: “She would say, ‘Mum, I don’t even recognise my own hands’.”
He is thought to have killed her on April 11 last year before dumping her body and that of her pet dog Boris in a cesspit under the garage. Later he went to the bank, a solicitors and a recycling plant. He watched a bowls game and then ordered a Chinese takeaway.
Mr Kent said there was no question in his mind that Stewart had any affection for his victim whatsoever.
He said: “What he did with her body shows what he thought of her. You would not put a loved one in a cesspit.
“I do not believe he ever wanted to go through with that marriage. He never bought the engagement ring even though she had chosen the stone and the setting.
“To hide the body in the well knowing every time you went to the loo, where that was going.
“He had no love for that woman whatsoever and held her in utter contempt.”