Writer’s fiance blames her death on two mystery men
He told his son that violent pair punched him in stomach and demanded papers
THE fiancé of author Helen Bailey told his son that two ‘violent men’ were responsible for her alleged murder, a court heard yesterday.
Ian Stewart is accused of smothering the children’s author and dumping her body in a cesspit.
But Stewart, 56, claims two men called Nick and Joe were responsible for her death, the jury was told.
He said the men visited their £1.5million home and punched him in the stomach where he had stitches from a recent operation. They demanded to see documents belonging to Miss Bailey, 51, and gave him a phone, through which they were instructing him, it was claimed.
Stewart’s youngest son Oliver, 21, told St Albans Crown Court that his father made the allegations when he visited him last month, six months after Miss Bailey’s body was found by police in the cesspit.
‘There was a conversation linked to Helen’s disappearance,’ Oliver Stewart said. ‘He said two men called Nick and Joe might have been involved. He said they had been to the house on a couple of occasions when me and my brother had been at work. Apparently on one occasion when they arrived, having known dad had had an operation, they decided to punch him in the stomach at least once.’
The trainee electrician said his father described one man as having tattoos and the other as bald. ‘The way dad was warning me of these two guys, I could tell this was no joke,’ he said. ‘There was fear in his face. He let me know that the men had given him a phone and were instructing him to do things.’
There was no direct discussion about how ‘Nick’ and ‘Joe’ allegedly killed Miss Bailey, he said. But he was told that he and his brother Jamie were safe as one of the men had been ‘dealt with’.
Prosecutors claim Stewart plied Miss Bailey with sedatives for more than a month before smothering her and dumping her and her dachshund Boris in a cesspit at their home in royston, Hertfordshire.
After calmly attending a doctor’s appointment, he drove to Cambridge to watch his son Jamie, 24, in a lawn bowls final before buying a Chinese takeaway. The computer software engineer allegedly carried out the murder so he could inherit her £4million fortune.
Four days later Stewart reported his fiancée missing. A month later, Stewart tried to persuade her solicitor to continue with the sale of one of her properties, a £185,000 flat in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
He allegedly told Timothy Penn he had power of attorney over Miss Bailey’s affairs. Mr Penn said Stewart was ‘very anxious and not at all pleased’ to be told the sale could not take place as ‘there was a question mark’ about her whereabouts.
Miss Bailey, who wrote the electra Brown and Daisy Davenport novels for teenagers, left Stewart £1.8million in her will plus their home in royston and a holiday home in Broadstairs, Kent. He was sole beneficiary of her £230,000 pension fund.
They had been due to marry in September. Stewart denies murder, perverting the course of justice, preventing a lawful burial and fraud. The trial continues.