‘It’d be very hard to abuse Helen – she’d come back at you strongly’
EXTRACTS from a phone call Ian Stewart made to police on April 15, STEWART: ‘Hello there, my partner has been missing since Monday and not contacted anyone. Said she was going away... hasn’t ended up where she said she was going so I, we’ve, decided we should report it.’ POLICE: ‘Oh, this hasn’t been reported already?’ STEWART: ‘No, it hasn’t.’ ÷ POLICE: ‘Erm… and she’s been missing since Monday?’ STEWART: ‘Yeah.’ ÷ POLICE: ‘And what’s her date of birth?’ STEWART: ‘Oh crikey... you’ve thrown me there…’ POLICE: ‘Right, so she’s gone away for work, business, sorry?’ STEWART: ‘No, no, she’s self-employed... she left a note. She said, something like, I need space and time alone, I’m going to Broadstairs, please don’t contact me in any way. We’ve got a cottage down there – people have been down there and she hasn’t been there.’ POLICE: ‘Any specific concerns? And by that I sort of mean any chance of the act of suicide or self-harm, anything like that?’ STEWART: ‘Well, I would say no, but she has ... she has been very, very anxious and very worried about lots of things and she’s a worrier. She’s a natural worrier.’ POLICE: ‘Is she likely to be a victim of any sort of abuse that you know of?’ STEWART: ‘No, I know she’s a very strong person. It would be very hard to abuse Helen. She’d come back at you very strongly.’ POLICE: ‘Is she likely to be involved or subjected to crime at all?’ STEWART: ‘I’m sorry, I heard the word crime but…’ POLICE: ‘Sorry, is she likely to be involved with or subjected to crime?’ STEWART: ‘No.’