WRITER ‘KILLED FOR HER £4M FORTUNE’
Mil’s a sheer delight Fiancé ‘drugged and dumped her in cesspit’
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THE lover of author Helen Bailey plied her with sedatives and “probably suffocated” her before dumping the body in a cesspit, a court has heard.
Ian Stewart is accused of murdering his fiancée at her £1.5million mansion to “get his hands on her £4m fortune”.
He is also said to have killed Ms Bailey’s beloved dog Boris to make it look like she had gone missing. She was well-known to go nowhere without the pet.
The 51-year-old was found in the grounds of her estate in Royston, Herts, in July last year – three months after Stewart reported she had disappeared.
He was arrested and charged with her murder. Prosecutors claim the 56-year-old “secretly administered” a sleeping drug to his partner over many months.
Stuart Trimmer QC told St Albans Crown Court: “The crown say this was simply a long-planned, deliberate killing, a cynically executed murder that had money as its driving motive.”Tired
Stewart denies murder, preventing a lawful burial, perverting the course of justice and fraud.
As Ms Bailey kept feeling tired, her internet search history showed she had typed into Google “Why do I keep falling asleep” and “I’m so tired”.
Unaware of the alleged plot to kill her, the writer was “incessantly” looking at potential wedding venues online, even in the minutes before she died.
Ms Bailey had “secretly” been given the anti-insomnia drug Zopliclone.
Jurors were told Stewart even altered a monthly standing order from Barclays bank to their joint Santander account from £600 to £4,000 on the afternoon he is said to have murdered her.
The novelist, most famous for the Electra Brown series aimed at teenagers, earned royalties from her books worth £5,000 a month. Stewart is accused of sending a series of “cynical” texts and emails “professing his undying love” for his brideto-be when he had already killed her.
He was also set to inherit Ms Bailey’s second home in Broadstairs, Kent.
The trial, which is expected to last seven weeks, continues.