Helen Elizabeth Bailey (22 August 1964 – c. 11 April 2016) was a British author who wrote the Electra Brown series of books aimed at a teenage audience.
Bailey was reported missing in April 2016; three months
later on 15 July, her remains were found hidden at her home. Her partner, Ian Stewart, was charged with her
murder and found guilty in February 2017; he was later found guilty of the
murder of his first wife, Diane.
Life and career
Bailey was born in Ponteland near Newcastle-upon-Tyne and
was brought up there. She later wrote of her experience at Ponteland High
School: "Whilst at school I used to
sit and stare out of the window, dreaming of anything but lessons, then go home
and write pages and pages in my diary of who did what to whom and (usually) why
wasn't I part of it."
She gained a degree in physiology at Thames Polytechnic in London, intending to become a forensic
scientist, before undertaking postgraduate research in a teaching hospital. She
then changed her career to work in the media and worked on licensing and marketing
campaigns for characters such as Rugrats and Garfield, and for Nintendo,
feature films, and cartoon characters. While working as a temporary secretary,
she met and, in 1996, married the head of a licensing rights company, John Sinfield. She moved from
Clerkenwell to Highgate around the same time.
Bailey wrote five books of "teenage angst" in the
Crazy World of Electra Brown series: Life at the Shallow End (2008), Out of my Depth (2008), Swimming Against the Tide (2009), Taking the Plunge (2009), and Falling Hook, Line & Sinker (2010).
She was nominated for a "Queen of
Teen" award in 2010. In Running in Heels (2011), she featured a new
character, Daisy Davenport. Bailey
also wrote books for younger children, including the Willow the Woodsprite
series, the Topaz series, and the Felicity Wishes series. In all, she had 22
books of short stories, picture books, and young-adult fiction published.
In February 2011, her husband John Sinfield drowned while
swimming when the couple was on holiday in Barbados. They had been together for
22 years, and married for the last 15. Her first book for adults, When Bad
Things Happen in Good Bikinis (2015), was based on her Planet Grief blog which
sets out her "journey through
grief" after he died. It was described in The Guardian as "a painful and companionable account of
coming to terms with life without her husband." The book also noted
her subsequent relationship, beginning in October 2011, with widower Ian
Stewart, a father of two adult sons. She appeared on television to talk about
the grieving process, and in October 2015, she discussed her experiences and
the book on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.
Disappearance and
death
Bailey was reported missing from her home in Royston,
Hertfordshire, by her partner Ian Stewart, after last being seen out walking
her dog on 11 April 2016. He claimed that a note was found, saying she was
going to stay at the family holiday home in Broadstairs, but it was later
established that she had not been there. Her brother and mother described her
disappearance as out of character, and the police described it as "perplexing".
On 11 July, police reported that they had arrested a
55-year-old Royston man, and questioned him on suspicion of murder and
disposing of a body. He was initially released on bail, but on 15 July police
reported that human remains, and those of Bailey's dog, had been found in a
hidden second septic tank at her house, Hartwell
Lodge, in Royston. Police confirmed that the remains found were those of
Bailey. Ian Stewart was charged on
16 July with murder, perverting the course of justice, and preventing a lawful
burial. He was remanded in custody and appeared at St. Albans Crown Court on 19 July. On 12 October he pleaded not guilty,
with his trial set for January 2017.
Murder trial
At the trial in January 2017, the prosecution alleged
Stewart had secretly drugged Bailey with zopiclone sleeping pills for several
months before suffocating her. It was later alleged that she may still have been
alive when dumped in the cesspit. During the trial, the prosecution claimed
that Stewart had inadvertently connected Bailey's mobile phone to the Wi-Fi
router in the couple's holiday home in Kent by visiting it the day after
reporting her missing, an event which prosecutor Stuart Trimmer called 'very
significant'. The jury was later told by Bailey's brother that during his
only visit to her home in Royston, she had joked about the cesspit in the garage
being a "good place to hide a
body", and that the remark had been made in "full earshot" of Stewart. The members of the jury
subsequently visited the site where her body had been discovered. They also
heard that it was alleged by the prosecution that Stewart had twice attempted
to use power of attorney to sell a flat owned by Bailey; these attempts
included one on the afternoon of the day on which she went missing when he
told the solicitor dealing with the sale that Bailey was too unwell to attend
in person. The jury heard that on the day she vanished Stewart increased a
standing order to transfer money from Bailey's bank account to their joint
account from £400 to £4,000 per month. The jury learned Stewart was the main
beneficiary of Bailey's £3.4 million estate, and would also benefit from a
large life insurance policy.
The jury was played a recording of Stewart's telephone call
to the police in whom he reported Bailey missing; when asked to describe her he
could not recall the color of her eyes, had to look up both her mobile phone
number and date of birth, and was unable to give the address of their holiday
home in Kent.
Helen's mother Eileen
Bailey testified that Helen had been concerned that she was sleeping
excessively, and about her state of mind. The prosecution stated that traces of
anti-insomnia medication had been found in Bailey's body. In the weeks before
her death, Bailey had made internet searches for "I'm so tired, falling asleep at work" and "falling asleep in the afternoon".
Giving evidence in his defense, Stewart claimed that Bailey
and her dog had been kidnapped on 11 April 2016 by two men called Nick and Joe,
saying that he had not told the police about this "to keep Helen safe" and that the kidnappers had demanded
a ransom of £500,000. He said that he had spoken to her for the last time on a
mobile phone belonging to one of the men on 15 April. He was subsequently
presented in court with two men who the prosecution alleged he had based the
descriptions of the kidnappers on Nick
Cook, Stewart's next-door neighbor, and Joe Cippullo, whom he knew from his former home in Bassingbourn.
Stewart admitted to knowing both men, but denied that they matched the
descriptions of the kidnappers which he had given to the police, saying "they don't compare at all".
The jury heard of several sightings of Bailey after the time
at which the prosecution alleged that the murder had taken place. One of
Bailey's neighbors gave evidence that she had seen the author walking her
dachshund Boris "between 15:40 and
15:50" on the day of her disappearance. Two other neighbours said they
had seen her walking her dog that day between about 13:20 and 14:20. A further
witness claimed to have seen Bailey in Broadstairs after her alleged murder,
but admitted under cross-examination that he had not thought about the sighting
until a journalist from The Sun had interviewed him; he accepted that the
sighting could have been in March before Bailey was reported missing.
In his closing statement, prosecutor Stuart Trimmer QC told
the jury that Stewart's version of events was "quite absurd" and that the accused had "grossly deceived" Bailey,
saying: "It is perfectly plain she
was completely overwhelmed by what some people might call 'love bombing'... it
is a matter of common sense and knowledge that someone shortly bereaved might
not have the logical equipment to see she was being deceived." In
response, Simon Russell Flint, the barrister acting for Stewart, dismissed the
prosecution's "highly speculative
theories", and asked, "What
possible motive could he have?"
On 22 February 2017, the jury found Stewart guilty of
Bailey's murder. At St. Albans Crown
Court the following day, Judge
Andrew Bright sentenced Stewart to life imprisonment with a minimum term of
34 years. Stewart was not in court to hear his sentence.
The detective who led the murder inquiry called Stewart a "greedy, wicked narcissist".
Neighbors-related episodes when Stewart revealed volcanic rages. 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.
Aftermath
Stewart was the subject of the first episode of the true
crime drama What The Killer Did Next, broadcast
in February 2019 and presented by Philip
Glenister.
Death of Stewart's
Wife (2010)
Following Stewart's conviction, the police began to
re-examine the death of his first wife, Diane, in 2010. On 21 August 2018, he
was arrested and questioned on suspicion of her murder. Subsequently charged
with his wife's murder, Stewart appeared at St. Albans Crown Court on 6 July 2020. He was remanded in custody
until a plea hearing scheduled for 21 September 2020. In November 2021, Stewart
pleaded not guilty to the charge.
On 9 February 2022, Ian Stewart was found guilty of Diane Stewart's murder. He was
sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order, meaning that he would
have served the sentence without the possibility of parole. However, Stewart
appealed his sentence, which was reduced to a 35-year minimum term by the Court of Appeal on 29 July.
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