GUILTY UK - Helen Bailey, 51, Royston, 11 April 2016 #1

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The contrast between John, the caring brother and IS, the partner and alleged fiance, stands out a mile.


Doesn't it just Alyce (and all here!). I was stricken by an obviously a very close relationship, very caring. I'm still catching up unfortunately.
 
Mr Bailey is continuing to give evidence.

He said: “When I had returned from the seafront there was a man standing near the house smoking a cigarette. I exchanged hellos and put the note through Helen’s door.

“He followed me down the alleyway that the houses are in and he asked me if I was looking for anyone.

“I didn’t know him, but I said I was looking for my sister.

“He appeared to know those who lived in the cottage opposite my sister’s. The door was ajar in their house and he popped in, he was asking on behalf of me if they had seen my sister.

“From there I went back to the station, I phoned my mum again, again a conversation which did not give away where I was. She still hadn’t heard from Helen.

“Ian had sent me one text message asking me if i’d seen Helen yet, but I delayed calling him until I got to the outside of Broadstairs station. I called him and told him there was no sign of her.”


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
Brother tells Stewart to report Helen missing

Mr Bailey said the next day, Friday, he asked Stewart via text message if the cleaner had a key to the house, and whether the cleaner could go in.

“He got the cleaner’s phone number and got in touch with the cleaner. By lunchtime on Friday, he got in touch with me and said that the cleaner had been in and there was no sign of Helen,” Mr Bailey added.

Mr Bailey said he also phoned Helen’s friend Tracey, telling her he hadn’t managed to find Helen.

“Since the cleaner had confirmed there was no-one at the Broadstairs house, I went back to London at mid-afternoon on the Friday.

“Whilst waiting at the station for a connecting train to London, I spoke to Ian.

“There had been a conversation where I had said to Ian if he could contact Helen’s counsellor and see if she knew anything we didn’t.

“Ian told me that the counsellor had no information. I said to Ian: ‘It’s been long enough now, we’ll have to report Helen missing’ - which Ian said he would do.”


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
Stewart 'sounded panicky'

“Ian sent me a text the next day at 8.10am saying he was on his way to Broadstairs.

“I called him and he was en route. He was at a petrol station near Stansted.

“I didn’t feel there was a need for him to go to Broadstairs because I had checked the house as best I could, and a cleaner had checked as well. It was quite clear to me she wasn’t there. I felt if he thought he should be doing something, then I didn’t have a problem if he wanted to drive over there.

“Ian sounded quite panicky.”


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
Her disappearance is announced by police

“We had had discussions about publicity. That is one of the reasons we had delayed slightly reporting it to the police because we wanted to be absolutely sure we didn’t know where she was before we reported it to police because it would gain media traction.

“We were hopeful she was going to return, so we didn’t want that.

“There was further discussion on the Saturday and Ian and I agreed to let the police make it [Helen’s disappearance] public.

“On the Saturday, I received a text from Ian saying he had arrived and he hadn’t seen her.

“He said that maybe, just maybe, some of Helen’s clothes were missing.”


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
I thought, initially, that he turned Helen's phone on - to check that the text he had sent had been received ok - and I thought what an idiot.

But, from reading the reporting ( which has been sometimes muddled - the cleaner information for a start, which will hopefully be clarified once the cleaner or cleaners give evidence ) it seems that Helen's phone connected to the wifi at the cottage. So I don't believe he necessarily turned it on, just that her smart phone recognised a known location for her ( she would have had her phone, ipad etc all linked to the router at Broadstairs ) and pinged.
Again, as a computer expert, he should have known this might happen.

RSBM - I actually think this might be part of an initial plan to make it look as though Helen had been at Broadstairs, as this was just a day after Ian reported her missing and he would't have been up to his neck in it at that point - he might have been just trying to throw police off being concerned.


Asking for the bedsheets to remain unchanged makes me think that he wanted there to be evidence that Helen had done exactly what she said she had done and left to go to Broadstairs and she was, in fact missing from there and not their shared home.


Turning on her phone there was possibly with the intention that her phone 'pings' in that loaction and to therefore make police think that she has been at Broadstairs as per her note and there's no need to worry. Then the plan goes as follows:


- The phone pings to the wireless network at the house and indicates Helen is alive and well and taking time out in Broadstairs.


- Search doesn't die down, in fact it ramps up.


- It becomes clear that Helen hasn't been in Broadstairs at all and is missing from their home.


- IS removes the router upon realising that this bit of evidence now incriminates him rather than relieves suspicion.


The reason I think he's smarter than we're perhaps giving him credit for is the fact that he removed and hid the router. He knew the router could be matched up with that connection on her phone (possibly hadn't realised it already had been), so he will have known what he was doing with it in the first place. There's no other reason for him to have removed the router than to hide that one connection to it.


Unless he forgot that it would automatically connect to the wireless network in the home... BUT in that scenario, he would know the messages from people trying to get in touch with her would come through to him at Broadstairs also and that would also show the phone in that location. So, it leads me to think he was initially trying to build on the narrative that Helen just wanted time out.
 
I suppose John didnt think it at the time, but in hindsight, everything was being driven by him. A caring partner would already have phoned the Broadstairs cleaner to check if Helen had been there.
Also surprising, given that Helen was friendly with her Broadstairs neighbours and is on record as saying that they kept an eye on the cottage for her , that IS did not have any contact numbers for them.

And finally, when he is pushed to action , IS does the one thing that does not need to be done...goes to the cottage.

Most likely to check there is nothing there to give him away.
 
Missing appeal

“On the Saturday, I received a text from Ian saying he had arrived and he hadn’t seen her.

“He said that maybe, just maybe, some of Helen’s clothes were missing.

“At that stage I wasn’t aware if Ian had tried to contact Helen by phone.

“We were in a position where a note said not to contact her, but that was written to Ian. I thought that I was able to contact her if Ian wasn’t.

“Looking for hope at this stage, Ian’s text telling me some of Helen’s clothes were missing gave me the impression that Helen may have been at the Broadstairs house.”

During the missing appeal, Mr Bailey was asked to look at photos of a woman at Broadstairs station. At the time he said he thought it might be Helen, but now he said he feels differently.

“When you have a loved one missing, hope trumps everything, to be honest.”


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
Author's eating habits discussed

He is now talking about Helen’s eating habits.

“Helen ate mostly healthy food, she didn’t like spicy food, but she wasn’t a fussy eater.

“She liked wine and sherry, she would have tea but it would be very weak or decaf tea. She didn’t like coffee.

“When she was at her home in Highgate for many years she would use tea granules.”

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
Author 'was under a large amount of stress'

Mr Bailey admitted that in the months before April 2016, Helen was under a large amount of stress. She had been very anxious about Ian, and the fact he was meant to have an operation. A holiday in January 2016 had to be cancelled because of the discovery of his illness. The promotion of her book was also causing her considerable anxiety and stress, she was appearing in newspaper, TV and radio interviews. Mr Bailey said Helen was having to ‘repeat a lot of stuff that was very painful’ and that it was ‘grinding her down’.


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
Couple planned to marry in September

Mr Bailey said he wasn’t aware of any problems between Ian and Helen. Helen was extremely fond of Stewart’s two sons, he said.

Mr Bailey said Stewart and Helen planned to marry in September 2016 and he was asked to keep dates free.

“Helen was becoming more anxious and somewhat forgetful”, he said.


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178
 
Do we have any proper information about Ian's illness? How serious was it really?
 
Picking parts that are standing out:

“Looking for hope at this stage, Ian’s text telling me some of Helen’s clothes were missing gave me the impression that Helen may have been at the Broadstairs house.”

I think this might fit with what I was saying earlier about IS trying to create a narrative of Helen having been at Broadstairs. It seems incredible to me, but it seems like they may be trying to imply she had been there... (also by bringing up the identification at the station by her brother) - maybe I'm reading too much into that?



“She liked wine and sherry, she would have tea but it would be very weak or decaf tea. She didn’t like coffee.”


Interesting, as I'd presumed the Zopiclone was masked by coffee. Presumably that's what is being angled at - if she liked quite bland food, disguising Zopiclone would be difficult.


...


They're going to try and suggest it was suicide, aren't they? :tears:
 
More on author's eating habits

Mr Bailey reiterated that Helen didn’t like heavily spicy food. He said she liked weak tea, and didn’t drink coffee. He is asked if Helen had a sensitive palate.

“I don’t know, I can’t answer that”, he said.

He said that he last saw Helen drink wine in November 2015 at a family gathering.

“My father always has a sherry just before lunch, and Helen followed in line,” he added.


http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/helen-bailey-murder-trial-day-12441178


I think this is cross exam from the defence
 
Do we have any proper information about Ian's illness? How serious was it really?

Helen's friend ( Pips ) who posted on here a few days back said he had part of intestine removed - suspected cancer
He did get the all clear though in early April.
 
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