GUILTY UK - Diane Stewart, 47, found dead, Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, 25 June 2010 *arrest in 2020*

[Alyce]

I've not seen anything further since that 2pm note.

 

[Legally Bland]

Not sure if they had an afternoon session.

Huntingdon Law Courts Crown Court 4 U20220001
Ian Stewart Case Number T20217021
Details: For Trial - Case adjourned until 14:00 - 13:00
For Trial - Case adjourned until 10:00 - 13:00

https://www.thelawpages.com/court-hearings-lists/Cambridge-Crown-Court.php

 

[Alyce]

Thanks for the update Legally…maybe they just did Jury selection

 

[neteditor]

Thanks for the update Legally…maybe they just did Jury selection

Jury selection doesn't take long at all, they literally call in 12 jurors from that day's list and ask each one if they know the defendant or anyone else in the court etc etc.

If nothing has been reported from today (I've not checked, sorry), then it's more likely there were legal arguments taking place.

 

[KarenUK]

I wish we had some idea of what is happening.... I'm very interested in what evidence they might have against him here as we have heard so little about it

 

[Tortoise]

A HUSBAND smothered or strangled his wife to death six years before he murdered his millionaire fiancée with a "choke hold", a court heard.

Ian Stewart, 61, allegedly killed Diane Stewart, 47, on the back patio of the home she shared with him and their two sons in Bassingbourn, Cambs, in 2010.

An inquest concluded the school secretary suffered a "sudden unexplained death through epilepsy".

But Huntingdon Crown Court was told a pathologist and scientists found the death was most likely caused by "a prolonged restriction of her breathing from an outside source".

[...]

Prosecutor Stuart Trimmer QC said: "His explanation for the circumstances of her death can be disproved by the medical evidence.

"In short, the Crown say, he killed her."

Jurors were told Stewart was convicted in 2017 of murdering his millionaire partner Helen Bailey, who was worth £4million.

more to read at link, restricted by 10% copyright

Fiance who murdered kid’s author Helen Bailey for £4m ‘smothered or strangled first wife to death 6 years earlier’

 

[Tortoise]

[...]

The court was told he was at home with his wife alone on the day she died and no one else had seen her that morning.

There had been "some arguing" between the couple in the week leading up to her death, it was said.

Stewart called an ambulance saying he had returned home from Tesco to find his wife unresponsive and not breathing.

[...]

There was also no evidence Stewart had left the house on the day she fatally collapsed, the court was told.

After her death, Stewart went out to buy a sports car and began embarking on new relationships.

Diane's remains were cremated but her brain was donated to medical research and brain tissue was also kept.

Scientists were able to use this to find her chances of dying from epilepsy were more than one in 100,000, it was said.

The court was told she had not suffered a seizure for 18 years and it was an "extremely low" chance epilepsy killed her.

Her brain also showed evidence of ischemia - when the brain is starved of oxygen for up to an hour, jurors were told.

Mr Trimmer said: “Helen Bailey’s murder is significant in this instance.

Helen Bailey's killer fiance 'smothered or strangled first wife to death'

 

[Scratchingmyhead]

Thanks Tortoise.

The court was told her remains were cremated but her brain was donated to medical research and brain tissue was also kept.

Scientists were able to use this to find her chances of dying from epilepsy were more than one in 100,000.

Well..well.. well....didn't see that one coming!!!
Answers the puzzle re evidence...

 

[Scratchingmyhead]

...and delighted - though don't understand how it was allowed - that the jury were told of his previous crime.

 

[Tortoise]

...and delighted - though don't understand how it was allowed - that the jury were told of his previous crime.

I think it's a double edged sword - imo he might claim it prejudices jurors but it is law that similar-fact previous convictions can be disclosed to the jury.

 

[Alyce]

The court was told her remains were cremated but her brain was donated to medical research and brain tissue was also kept.

Scientists were able to use this to find her chances of dying from epilepsy were more than one in 100,000.

Well..well.. well....didn't see that one coming!!!
Answers the puzzle re evidence...

Oh that sounds interesting - is there a live blog ?

 

[KarenUK]

The Trimmer is back!

 

[Alyce]

He murdered her mid-morning and murdered her by restricting breathing, probably by a choke hold.


I seem to remember the air ambulance arrived late afternoon ?

Helen Bailey's killer fiance 'smothered or strangled first wife to death'

 

[Tortoise]

I'm trying to remember if we knew why Diane wasn't at work that morning. Calendar I've looked at says it was a Friday. Perhaps she did a job share at the school office.

 

[Beachdreams]

I certainly didn’t see this coming. How on earth was this not picked up when Diane died?!

 

[Tortoise]

[...]

"Stewart called an ambulance saying he had returned home from Tesco to find his wife unresponsive and not breathing."

Helen Bailey's killer fiance 'smothered or strangled first wife to death'

So he was giving irrelevant detail in the emergency call. Red flag! imo. I wonder if they still have the recording.

 

[Alyce]

I certainly didn’t see this coming. How on earth was this not picked up when Diane died?!

Exactly. They spent so much time on that autopsy and only ended up with the SUDEP decision after they had ruled out everything else and it became almost a default setting because of Diane's - alleged - history.

 

[Tortoise]

"Mr Trimmer said the amount of ischemia discovered could not have happened in such a short space of time and were 'wholly inconsistent' with Stewart's account.

Stewart was arrested and questioned by police and gave a pre-prepared statement but refused to answer questions or offered 'no comment', Mr Trimmer said.

According to Stewart's statement: 'On that day I had left our home and when I returned a short while later I found Dianne lying unconscious on the patio.

'I went inside to get the cordless house phone and dialled 999.'

Mr Trimmer added :' There is no evidence beyond his word that in fact he left the house at all, no one saw him - both his sons were away from the house...

'In their variations and inconsistencies on such an important and life changing event, it might be though he was lying.'

[...]

"'Friends of Dianne recall his behaviour at the funeral as being unusual, ' Mr Trimer said.

The jury heard there had been various differing accounts given by the defendant about events of the morning his wife died - telling some people he had been at home, but others that he had been out shopping before returning to collect his wallet.

He told one woman, Debbie Priest, that Ms Stewart died whilst putting the washing out and that he found her slumped in the garden.

Stewart told his son, Jamie, that he had been out to Tesco and returned to find her dead."

Man who killed author Helen Bailey on trial for wife's murder

 

[KarenUK]

So he was giving irrelevant detail in the emergency call. Red flag! imo. I wonder if they still have the recording.

And again with the Tescos - didn't he say on his call about Helen that she'd been to Tescos the morning she went missing and returned distressed and upset?

 

[Tortoise]

And again with the Tescos - didn't he say on his call about Helen that she'd been to Tescos the morning she went missing and returned distressed and upset?

I can't remember... dang it.