Pictured for first time, cesspit in garage ‘where fiance hid writer’s body’
JURORS in the Helen Bailey murder trial were yesterday shown the cesspit where her body was allegedly ditched by her fiance so he could win her £4million fortune.
They were given a tour of the £1.5million house which the author shared with Ian Stewart and his two sons from a previous marriage.
Pictures released yesterday show a hatch on the floor of the garage which leads to the cesspit where Miss Bailey, 51, and her beloved dachshund Boris were dumped.
After leaving the bodies in the sewage, Stewart closed the 22in by 27in hatch and parked a car over it so police would not spot it, the court heard. The children’s author may even still have been alive when her fiance put her in the 15ft deep cesspit, the trial was told.
When officers finally found the pit they asked a specialist fire and rescue team to carefully break surrounding brickwork to
‘She was excited about the future’
preserve her body for the post-mortem examination. The jury of seven men and five women travelled by coach from St Albans Crown Court to the detached house in Royston, Hertfordshire, yesterday.
They had already seen pictures of the house and cesspit, but were given a guided tour to help them understand the layout. Stewart, 56, is alleged to have increasingly drugged Miss Bailey with sleeping tablets over a month before suffocating her and dumping her in the cesspit on April 11 last year.
It is claimed he killed the dog to give credence to the theory that she had gone missing with him. The computer software engineer carried out the ‘cynically- executed murder’ to inherit her £4million fortune, it is alleged.
Miss Bailey, who wrote the Electra Brown and Daisy Davenport novels for young teenagers, signed a will before her death that left
Concealed: The hatch to the cesspit, circled. Inset: The excavated hole where the body was found Stewart around £1.8million. He was Bailey joked that the cesspit in her with one of her best friends about also in line to inherit their main garage was a ‘good place to hide a her wedding dress hours before she home and a holiday home in Broadbody’, it was said. was murdered. stairs, Kent. He was the sole beneThe jury was told that Miss Bailey Tracey Stratton, 53, was the last ficiary of her £230,000 pension fund. was making inquiries about wedperson to receive an email from Three years before her death, Miss ding venues and swapping emails Miss Bailey before she died. ‘There was nothing then to make me think there was anything wrong, she was excited about the future,’ she said.
Minutes later, Miss Stratton tried to call Miss Bailey on her mobile, but the call was not answered. She sent her a text, but got no reply.
‘This was unusual, she would be straight on the phone to me,’ she said. ‘I tried to call her throughout the day but it went to voicemail every time. I was immediately quite worried.’ Stewart denies murder, three counts of perverting the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial and fraud. The trial continues.