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

[neteditor]

It was Nick. He was there when the air ambulance landed, as it was in the field next to his house. He also made some remarks about IS. I won't requote as he may be coming back as a witness.

Thank you Alyce, I'm so grateful I can rely on you to prop up my dire menopausal memory! I bet Nick is still raging!

 

[KarenUK]

The trial is the main story on the Anglia News tonight, it's nice to see Diane getting air time

 

[Cupcake25]

I hope that the Cambridge News starts a live feed as they did during the Helen Bailey trial.

 

[Beachdreams]

I hope that the Cambridge News starts a live feed as they did during the Helen Bailey trial.

Me too!

 

[Scratchingmyhead]

After last time, I would be very surprised! Last time he was absolutely sure he could talk his way out of anything. Now he knows different.

At the trial I was surprised at how little IS said while on the stand. Very short, simple answers and a lot of "I don't remember. My head was all over the place"
I thought afterwards that probably his counsel advised that the less he said the better....bare minimum answers only because anything he said could, and would be ripped to shreds.

 

[ZaZara]

Clue in preserved brain ‘shows Helen Bailey’s killer also murdered his first wife’, court told

Stuart Trimmer QC, prosecuting, told jurors that Mrs Stewart was cremated but she had donated her brain to medical research and, "by a stroke of fortune", brain tissue was kept.

BBM


Well done, Diane.

At a first glance, today's opening of the court session seemed like something out of a bad novel with implausible plot twists, but once you know that it was Diane herself who decided this, it somehow follows. Many people with a condition find a way to support science and research into that condition.

I would have loved to be in the room the moment the Prosecution discovered that brain tissue had been kept. Fingers crossed that we'll hear more about that.

And a big thanks to everyone here at WS for the updates!

 

[Scratchingmyhead]

Thank you Alyce, I'm so grateful I can rely on you to prop up my dire menopausal memory! I bet Nick is still raging!

Anyone remember that very comical moment when they brought in an elderly witness who stated he saw Helen in her car (after she had died!).
He was given something to read while giving evidence but due to his poor eyesight the judge had to lend him his glasses

 

[joe jones]

wrong forum post, deleted

 

[Tortoise]

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...

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

BBM

I could be wrong, and maybe he didn't have a mobile phone, but mention of "the cordless house phone" jumps out at me as another extraneous detail in his story telling.

Perhaps I'm too suspicious but I wonder if he did have a mobile phone and if he is hiding that from investigators in case they can track that it never left the house, or that he was using it at home at the time he was supposedly out.

 

[Tortoise]

"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."


Man who killed children's author Helen Bailey on trial for wife's murder | Daily Mail Online


Another detail to cover up not having proof of buying anything.

 

[Alyce]

BBM
I could be wrong, and maybe he didn't have a mobile phone, but mention of "the cordless house phone" jumps out at me as another extraneous detail in his story telling.
Perhaps I'm too suspicious but I wonder if he did have a mobile phone and if he is hiding that from investigators in case they can track that it never left the house, or that he was using it at home at the time he was supposedly out.

That also stood out to me, the extra detail from IS - always with an ulterior motive.

 

[Alyce]

The washing line was on the garden area, not on the patio.




He said Stewart gave “differing accounts” of what happened, including that he had been out to Tesco and came back to find his wife outside on the ground, and that she had been hanging washing out and he found her lying next to the line.


He answered no comment in police interview, instead providing a prepared statement which said: “On that day I had left our home and, when I returned a short while later, I found Diane lying unconscious on the patio.


Helen Bailey's vile killer Ian Stewart on trial over murder of first wife Diane

 

[Beachdreams]

That also stood out to me, the extra detail from IS - always with an ulterior motive.

I’m always suspicious when such perfect and precise details are given in 999 calls. If I walked in and found my partner (or anyone) apparently dead on the floor I’d make the call but I’d be barely coherent, I’m sure. IS has well rehearsed his dealings with the authorities, in this and the first trial, along with the crocodile tears.

 

[neteditor]

I’m always suspicious when such perfect and precise details are given in 999 calls. If I walked in and found my partner (or anyone) apparently dead on the floor I’d make the call but I’d be barely coherent, I’m sure. IS has well rehearsed his dealings with the authorities, in this and the first trial, along with the crocodile tears.

Absolutely! Pure arrogance wasn't it? He literally thought he was smarter than everyone, yet tied himself in knots with the things he said. Consider the rank stupidity of inventing two perpetrators but basing them on actual people he knew well. If he killed Diane (being careful here, considering the case is live) I think he was emboldened by getting away with that. Along with learning that it would be easier if no body was found the next time.

 

[Beachdreams]

Along with learning that it would be easier if no body was found the next time.

He had also had time to think about this second murder: he had to change the circumstances to deflect attention away from the assumed sudden unexplained death of Diane, so came up with the ruse that Helen had gone missing. And, knowing he had poisoned her, he had to dispose of the body somehow, and the second cess pit, in the garage, was the perfect disposal site. The more so given there had been a previous discussion between him, Helen and the previous house owner about that being the perfect place to hide a body!! He’s very good at making up fairy stories, isn’t he? I wonder what he will say if he does give evidence this time? I’ve just checked back over the 999 call he made to the police when he finally reported Helen as missing some days after her death - even then he had planned it, even referencing a note he said she’d left to say she needed space.

Helen Bailey murder suspect's desperate 999 call where he reported children's author missing played to jury

 

[foxed]

Giving inconsistent and irrelevant details surrounding a moment like that is very strange. I've been in the horrible situation of having to call emergency services when someone has died. It was years ago but I still remember everything about that day as clearly as if it were yesterday...

Very glad that this case is being brought to trial now.

JMO

 

[Cherwell]

He’s very good at making up fairy stories, isn’t he?

No - he isn't. That's why he's where he is now.

 

[Alyce]

This repeats some of the evidence from yesterday and adds a few more details.





Mrs Stewart's sister, Wendy Bellamy-Lee, was asked by the prosecution: "Would it be fair to say that you always had concerns about the cause of Diane's death?"

She replied: "Definitely. There was an element of suspicion because Ian had been on his own," and said that she called the coroner's office days after her sister's death to ask for more information.

She said she "did not think it was fitting to ask a grieving husband how his wife had died".

Ms Bellamy-Lee said she felt she needed to let Stewart know she had contacted the coroner, and she called him.

"He was really, really cross with me," she said. "He was so cross with me. Then I felt really bad that I had done that and I had to tell him.

"I felt really bad that I thought I had upset him because he was so cross with me."

Reading from her witness statement, she said Stewart told her that calling the coroner was "inexcusable".

"I think he put the phone down on me, very blunt," she said.

Ms Bellamy-Lee clasped her hands together and trembled while giving her evidence.

She said her sister had collapsed at the checkouts at a supermarket in 1992, but said it "wasn't a major thing".

"Diane wasn't an epileptic person," she said. "She didn't suffer from epileptic fits throughout her life.

"Diane was fantastic. She was my older sister. She was the sister that I looked up to."

She added that Diane was three years older than her, and described her as "strong, healthy and active".

Asked if she could remember Stewart's demeanour when she saw him in the days after Diane's death, she said: "Just very calm."


Murder trial told Ian Stewart was 'so cross' after sister-in-law called coroner

 

[Tortoise]

The man convicted of killing children’s author Helen Bailey in 2016 was “in bits” following the death of his wife six years earlier, his youngest son said.

Oliver Stewart was 15 at the time of his mother’s death and said he was brought home from school by a neighbour. [...]

Wiping tears from his eyes, he told the jury he identified her body.

“She had foam coming out of her mouth,” he said, adding his gave his mother “one last kiss”.

Asked by defence barrister Amjad Malik QC how his father was at that point, Oliver replied: “In bits.”

[...]


more to read at link - Evening Standard

Ian Stewart was ‘in bits’ after death of his wife, their son tells murder trial

 

[Tortoise]

Oliver said someone from either the police or ambulance service told him his mother was dead.

[...]

The couple’s elder son Jamie Stewart, who was 18 at the time, told jurors he was taking his driving test on the morning his mother died.

“My driving instructor had driven us back from Cambridge. Then, when we pulled into our street, there were three ambulances outside our house,” he said.

Jamie said his father was “in tears and very upset and I think the neighbour and paramedics were trying to console him”.

Jamie said he knew his mother was epileptic and took two tablets every morning, but had not seen her have a fit “in my lifetime”.

He said he remembered there were “raised voices… between my mother and father” when he was at home on study leave for A Levels the week his mother died.

Questioned by Mr Malik, Jamie said he “couldn’t hear what was being spoken about”.

He said he had seen his parents argue over the years but it “wasn’t a regular thing”.

Asked to describe how his father was at the funeral, Jamie replied: “Devastated.”


more to read at link - Evening Glasgow Times
Ian Stewart was ‘in bits’ after death of his wife, their son tells murder trial