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

[Alyce]

Jeremy Vine (Radio 2) said he had a copy of J. Bright's summing up and it was available 'on line' - but I thought Alice had posted it all on WS previously (or was that pasting all Journo's quotes onto one cohesive statement?)

It was Tortoise who posted the full sentencing remarks -

If you go back to Post 918, the link is in T's post

I just put up Tara's blogs from court, and put them into one post

 

[ZaZara]

Isn't it, and frightening when it's put like that.

I guess that IS' memories of Diane dropping dead inspired HB to make a will in iS favour. The official reason being that she would not have him go through all she had had to go through. But would that have been all there was to it? IMHO what happened to Diane played a big part. Maybe it wasn't that obvious, but it must have been firmly in the background.

Never waste a good story. He should have gone into recycling management with his talent for Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

 

[cottonweaver]

Thanks for that Alyce. Just finished listening. Bill says Diane wonderful lady and very popular, fit, never ill, Bill had no idea about epilepsy, IS bought MG within 1st year of her death, seen with other women - one he referred to as his wife, IS tight with money, left bowls club after Diane's death. Boys very nice. Bill says IS has destroyed 3 families.

Thanks for this Alyce and anyone else who has linked to it. Just listening to the intro at 17.mins in. Justin Dealey's great - he says he's had to " bit his tongue for a while" on this case due to sub judice.
Anyone else got the feeling Justin's been on WS?

Anyway well done these local journalists as they're putting the national papers in the shade.

ETA - Tx for that transcript Alyce - just catching up on posts, hadn't seen that. Still on J.Dealey show and his crazy jingles.

 

[jessie]

Jeremy Vine (Radio 2) said he had a copy of J. Bright's summing up and it was available 'on line' - but I thought Alice had posted it all on WS previously (or was that pasting all Journo's quotes onto one cohesive statement?)

Thanks Joely. Tortoise did post a link after my question. It must have been Jeremy Vine where I heard "4 pages".

When he = J Vine = said available on line he was probably referring to WS and Tortoise's post !!!!

 

[Squamous]

The sentencing remarks, like many others, are on the Judiciary website:

https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgment-jurisdiction/crime/

 

[Tiny]

Hi all,interesting comments once again. Alyce thank you for putting up the transcript of the comments made by the old friend from the bowling club. You were right when you said that Diane and Helen had similaries. Both naturally friendly warm ladies. I have question marks about Diane's epilepsy.
I also did think you need some "arm power" to play bowls.
Reading some of the articles about Helen, makes this situation all the more desperately sad. She was simply a lady in love with such a generous heart.

Will be be interesting to see if any of tomorrow's papers can shed any more light although I do hope any article produced will be respectful to Helen obviously.

 

[jessie]

The sentencing remarks, like many others, are on the Judiciary website:

https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgment-jurisdiction/crime/

Thanks for that link Squamous, a very interesting site indeed, now 'bookmarked' for me. Highly recommend to others.

 

[faybradshaw]

What if Diane was wanting to divorce him - he didn't work, he stood to lose the income she generated plus her pension and insurance policy. He enjoyed his lazy, seemingly good for nothing lifestyle and had no inclination of finding himself a job after so many years. All this would have changed if Diane had divorced him. By killing her, it solved all those problems. He then meets Helen, is attracted by her wealth and starts living a privileged lifestyle far greater than he ever dreamt of. Somewhere along the way, Helen is starting to realise his true colours and he sees that the relationship might not last and all that he stands to lose. He has no intention of giving this up. He has got away with it once, so easily, he kills again...
We'll never find out what his actual motive was of course, but this is one theory.

 

[Squamous]

Thanks for that link Squamous, a very interesting site indeed, now 'bookmarked' for me. Highly recommend to others.

I love sentencing remarks, they're fascinating. Some judges have a brilliant way of getting to the heart of the issue. Judge Bright's weren't classics but I think no-one can really completely understand IS' motivation or timing with Helen's death so he had an uphill job in being brief and incisive.

 

[Alyce]

Just to add, quickly, before I get dragged off my pc ! that the transcript I put up of Justin Dealey's show and the interview with Bill Manley............. I transcribed much of it, but there is more to hear if you listen to the whole prog

 

[jessie]

I love sentencing remarks, they're fascinating. Some judges have a brilliant way of getting to the heart of the issue. Judge Bright's weren't classics but I think no-one can really completely understand IS' motivation or timing with Helen's death so he had an uphill job in being brief and incisive.

It has a link to You Be The Judge http://www.ybtj.justice.gov.uk/ on there too, which I may try later !

 

[JudgeMental]

Helen seemed so scared and overwhelmed by her own grief that the fact that IS basically put up with it turned him into a hero in her eyes. The Broadstairs chapter talks about her being blindsided by the sight of John's soap in "his" bathroom and how amazing "Mac" is because he sat with her while she cried and then got her a glass of wine and went to the chippy. Which is totally unremarkable behaviour, really, but somehow he let her believe that he was the only man who would do such a thing for her.

I think you're absolutely right. When you're absolutely blindsided by grief, and perhaps not getting the support you'd want from friends and family, it makes you very susceptible to small acts of kindness. So he'd have known that and taken advantage of it. I disagree, though, with some of the newspaper commentators who have said she was naive or too trusting, because you can't go through life constantly being suspicious of people who are nice to you. Stewart didn't have a criminal record and there was no evidence that he was ever violent to anyone. Maybe she should have been wary of gold-diggers, but I can't see how she could have been prepared for the possibility that a man would seek out a relationship with her purely so he could murder her for her money. After all, how often does that happen?

There are loads of things that still puzzle me about it all. One is the lie Stewart told about the "note" - it would have become obvious to the police after a while that Helen wasn't coming back, therefore increasing the likelihood that Stewart had made up the story about the note. Also, if your partner had left a note stating their intention to go away for a few days, wouldn't you hold onto it rather than throw it out? So it was a stupid lie to tell, which lends support to the suggestion that he hadn't originally intended to kill her that day, but something happened to make him panic.

All the early reports of her disappearance mentioned the note - the police never said, "We haven't actually seen a note". Last May the chief inspector then in charge of the case did an interview with the Guardian in which she refused to say whether the note was handwritten or typed. It was only at the trial that it became clear that there had never been a note. It made me wonder how soon the police cottoned onto the realisation that he was the killer.

 

[Cherwell]

I love sentencing remarks, they're fascinating. Some judges have a brilliant way of getting to the heart of the issue. Judge Bright's weren't classics but I think no-one can really completely understand IS' motivation or timing with Helen's death so he had an uphill job in being brief and incisive.

I liked the way he included Boris at every opportunity. It may not have been practical to charge, convict and punish Stewart for what he did to this little dog, but Judge Bright certainly wasn't going to allow anyone to ignore it.

 

[cottonweaver]

Just finished the Justin Dealey.

He refers to the policies and CambsCC monies a few times, totalling £70K , give or take . However he has not added in the £43K that the last WPC mentioned. So we are looking at more of an incentive and still a big red flag for me is that he hasn't claimed that last portion of Helen's estate.

Fascinating that he made no attempt to hide his other women within months of Diane's tragic death and also that he immediately dropped off playing with that Bassingbourn bowls team and instead played some games with another club.

Little titbit about never paying any bill until a final demand/if he could avoid it. Again interesting in view of that full financial enquiry now.

In my mind there's no way this man wanted a new conservatory designing.( he said HB was stressed about that aka He was stressed about it. )

Re. the hand-over of the Treasurer's role ( club cheque books etc mentioned) , very soon after June 2010, he also is "too busy" going up and down to London, other women etc, says Bill Manley.
I wonder if this is well before autumn 2011 when he would have been up & down to London to see Helen?
Was he doing some other online dating based around London summer 2010 - autumn 2011. ( Of course I appreciate the 2 widows already mentioned could also have been London based. The lady who testified for Pros. ( S.Judd) says she had the one date around August 2011 IIRC. )
Not had much luck finding if he had other alt usernames on other dating/widows' forums.

 

[Milenalee]

What if Diane was wanting to divorce him - he didn't work, he stood to lose the income she generated plus her pension and insurance policy. He enjoyed his lazy, seemingly good for nothing lifestyle and had no inclination of finding himself a job after so many years. All this would have changed if Diane had divorced him. By killing her, it solved all those problems. He then meets Helen, is attracted by her wealth and starts living a privileged lifestyle far greater than he ever dreamt of. Somewhere along the way, Helen is starting to realise his true colours and he sees that the relationship might not last and all that he stands to lose. He has no intention of giving this up. He has got away with it once, so easily, he kills again...
We'll never find out what his actual motive was of course, but this is one theory.

I don't think she would have been pressing on with the wedding if she had doubts. At least I like to think she died believing she was happy and not realizing the terrible reality.

Maybe he killed Diane accidentally when giving her zoplicone in the same manner he gave it to Helen. Maybe he gets a power kick out of sedating his women. After Diane died he realized how much one could gain financially as a widower. And by killing Helen in his twisted mind he felt he was avenging Diane. .... Or maybe he was sexually abused and so wants to kill any woman he comes to love who has power over him, or seems to be winning in some competition he has in his head. He killed women who were doing well in the world, on the up and up. But almost anyone is more successful than he was. Still, both Helen and Diane were both exceptionally nice outgoing people, making him seem even more loathsome (failure) in contrast.

We can guess all kinds of theories but unless he decides to be honest and confess we will never know what was in his twisted mind at the time. There is no reason that makes sense anyway.

 

[Joely 123]

Just to add, quickly, before I get dragged off my pc ! that the transcript I put up of Justin Dealey's show and the interview with Bill Manley............. I transcribed much of it, but there is more to hear if you listen to the whole prog

Thank you for the transcript Alyce - and it is worth listening to the programme to hear Bill Manley's sincerity. He sounds very honest and reliable. Interesting that he, naturally, had to go home and not play bowls on the evening that he heard of the sudden and tragic death of Diane when compared to IS who went out to watch bowling and eat Chinese food after murdering Helen and Boris.

 

[JudgeMental]

At least I like to think she died believing she was happy and not realizing the terrible reality. .

I hope so. Though I think it must be quite hard to suffocate someone (assuming that's what he did) without them waking up.

I have been wondering why he disposed of the duvet at the dump if he simply used it to suffocate her. Did anyone else have any thoughts about that?

 

[Joely 123]

It was Tortoise who posted the full sentencing remarks -

If you go back to Post 918, the link is in T's post

I just put up Tara's blogs from court, and put them into one post

Double thanks to you and Tortoise, Alyce.

 

[neteditor]

I hope so. Though I think it must be quite hard to suffocate someone (assuming that's what he did) without them waking up.

I have been wondering why he disposed of the duvet at the dump if he simply used it to suffocate her. Did anyone else have any thoughts about that?

I presume it was do with what the body naturally does at the point of or after death.

 

[Legally Bland]

Finally caught up!

Many thanks for all the updates and comments.