Ian Stewart
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| “ | Have you got nothing better to do than make things up? What a bunch of rubbish. | „ |
| ~ Stewart's reaction to being charged with Bailey's murder. |
Ian Stewart is a British man responsible for the 2010 murder of his wife Diane and the 2016 murder of his fiancée, author Helen Bailey. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2022.
Murders edit
On 25 June 2010 Stewart called 999 and reported that his wife, Diane Stewart, had collapsed in their garden. He told the call handler that he had delayed from calling 999 because he was attempting CPR and had attempted to get help from a doctor and nurse living nearby before calling. He also claimed to be attempting CPR again during the call. Diane was pronounced dead by paramedics twenty minutes after they arrived. The cause of death was deemed to be epilepsy, and Stewart had her body cremated. Stewart received £96,607 from Diane's bank account, and a further £28,500 in life insurance.
In October 2011 Stewart met Helen Bailey, author of the young adult book series Electra Brown. They were engaged to be married, and Stewart was named as the main beneficiary of Bailey's £3.4 million estate in her will. He was also the sole beneficiary of Bailey's large life insurance policy.
On 11 April 2016 Stewart called the police and reported Bailey missing from their home in Hertfordshire. He claimed that he had last seen her going out to walk her dachshund Boris and had later found a note saying she was staying with her family in Broadstairs but had established this was untrue. On 11 July Stewart was arrested and questioned about Bailey's disappearence. He was released, and on 15 July the dead bodies of Bailey and Boris were found stuffed in a septic tank in Bailey and Stewart's home. A coroner concluded she had been smothered. The following day Stewart was officially charged with murder, perverting the course of justice and disposing of a body to prevent lawful burial. His trial commenced in January 2017.
At the trial, the prosecution argued that Stewart had spent several months drugging Bailey with sleeping pills before smothering her to death while she was "too drowsy to fight him off" and hiding her body in the septic tank, killing Boris to support his story that Bailey had disappeared while dog walking. They pointed to the fact that in the months before her death Bailey had been complaining of falling asleep too early and anti-insomnia medication had been found in her system. A police officer involved in the case testified that the broadband router in Bailey and Stewart's holiday home had been connected to Bailey's phone when Stewart visited five days after her disappearence, meaning Stewart was in possession of it. After Stewart was informed of this, he removed the router, further arousing suspicion that he was in possession of Bailey's phone. Bailey's brother testified that Bailey had joked about the septic tank being a good place to hide a body within earshot of Stewart. According to Stuart Trimmer QC, prosecuting, on the afternoon of Bailey's disappearence Stewart had attempted to use his power of attorney to sell a flat owned by Bailey, falsely telling the solicitor involved with the sale that Bailey was too ill to attend in person. He had also referred to Bailey in the past tense several times while talking to police before correcting himself.
The detective who led the murder inquiry called Stewart a "greedy, wicked narcissist". Neighbours related episodes when Stewart would fly into a rage for the smallest reasons. Members of Stewart's former bowls club recalled how he was "obsessed with money" and extremely parsimonious: he accounted for every penny he spent or was owed, he caused a scene at a bowls match when asked to pay for a cup of tea as he argued that it should have been covered in his membership fee, he refused to chip in a few pounds for unforeseen repairs to the bowling green for the same reason, and he refused to participate in whip-rounds for colleagues' birthdays.
On 22 February 2017, Stewart was convicted of Bailey's murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and was told he could only be relieved after a minimum of 34 years. Following Stewart's conviction police re-opened Diane's death. The investigation was hampered by the fact that her body had been cremated; however, Diane's will had stipulated that her brain was to be donated for medical research. Forensic neuropathologist Nathaniel Carey examined Diane's brain tissue and concluded that it had been deprived of oxygen, meaning she had been asphyxiated. Consultant neurologist Christopher Derry estimated that the chance of Diane suffering a fatal epileptic fit was one in 100, 000 due to her medication.
Stewart was charged with Diane Stewart's murder on 6 July 2020. At his trial, paramedics who responded to Stewart's 999 call testified that, despite his claims to have attempted CPR, Diane's body did not have any of the physical injuries usually associated with CPR. They also testified that Stewart had seemed oddly unconcerned when they arrived on the scene. Stewart was convicted on 9 February 2022 and received a second life sentence, this time with a whole-life order. Alongside Wayne Couzens, Stewart appealed his sentence as being too harsh. The British Court of Appeal sided with Stewart, reducing his sentence to life imprisonment with a minimum of 34 years.