00:00:03
[music playing] NARRATOR: In 2016, Helen
Bailey was reported missing from her home in
Hertfordshire, England,
00:00:11
by her fiancee. DISPATCHER 1:
Hertfordshire Police. How can I help? IAN STEWART: Hello, there.
00:00:16
My partner has been
missing since Monday and not contacted anyone. Said she was going away.
00:00:22
Hasn't gone-- ended up where
she said she was going. NARRATOR: 55-year-old
Ian Stewart
00:00:27
was later seen at the local
tip disposing of a duvet. PARM SANDHU: Why, if
your partner is missing,
00:00:33
why would you go and dispose
of a duvet the very next day? Surely you'd be sitting at
home waiting for your partner
00:00:39
to call or to come back. NARRATOR: After months
of intense searching, police discovered that
the missing author
00:00:46
had never even left the house. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
Helen's body is found in the cesspit along
with the dog, along with Boris.
00:00:55
It's a particularly
gruesome, grisly place to find a 51-year-old
woman's body, especially
00:01:07
one who's done
nothing but been kind, generous, and warm-hearted. NARRATOR: The writer's happy
ending had turned to tragedy.
00:01:17
And her murderous
fiance, Ian Stewart, was revealed as one of the
world's most evil killers.
00:01:24
[music playing] NARRATOR: In 2017,
Ian Stewart was convicted of murdering
his fiancee, Helen Bailey,
00:01:54
and sentenced to
34 years in prison. Helen wasn't the first
partner of Stewart's
00:02:00
to meet an early demise. The shocking murder prompted
police to re-examine the death
00:02:06
of his late wife, Diane. SAM RUSSELL: He'd
been able to live a normal life for six years.
00:02:13
And then his reaction when the
police were onto him about what had happened all
these years ago was
00:02:18
just to dismiss it out of hand. POLICE OFFICER 1:
--Diane Stewart-- You're joking.
00:02:21
POLICE OFFICER 1: --on Friday-- [bleep] You're digging desp-- POLICE OFFICER 1: --Friday
the 25th of June, 2--
00:02:25
[bleep] NARRATOR: As the details
of his actions emerged, family, friends, and
an entire community
00:02:31
were left stunned at how
Ian Stewart had been hiding in plain sight amongst them.
00:02:37
FIONA LEISHMAN: There was a
lot of shock in the community and a lot of people
asking questions
00:02:43
about how he had gotten
away with this for so long. There was a lot of disgust in
the community over what he had
00:02:49
done, over the way
that he'd done it, and how he had played it
off for all those years.
00:02:58
NARRATOR: This killer
story begins in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, in 1960. PARM SANDHU: We know very
little about Ian Stewart
00:03:06
up until he went to university. We know that he
was an only child. His mother passed in 2019, and
his father, who is retired,
00:03:14
is still alive. SAM RUSSELL: Ian
Stewart worked in IT. He had a fairly
unremarkable life.
00:03:21
He'd met his wife at
university in Salford. They moved in together. They went to live in
Cambridge, where he got a job.
00:03:29
And they married
in October 1986. NARRATOR: The newlyweds
settled down in Bassingbourn.
00:03:36
And by 1992, Diane
and Ian Stewart had started a family together. FIONA LEISHMAN: He had two
children with Diane, two sons.
00:03:46
And he was thought to
be quite a family man. He very much looks like
the stereotypical next door
00:03:52
neighbor, dad next door. You'll see him at the
football game or the weekend with a son sort of thing.
00:03:58
NARRATOR: In his
early 30s, Stewart was diagnosed with
a medical condition which led to early retirement.
00:04:07
SAM RUSSELL: I believe it
was called myasthenia gravis, a muscle weakening condition.
00:04:11
So he stopped work early. But he had a very generous
life insurance policy through work, which
paid him enough per year
00:04:20
to quite comfortably live on. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He
also had some difficulty sleeping, which becomes
important as the story extends.
00:04:29
And he got various
drugs to help him sleep. NARRATOR: With Stewart
no longer working,
00:04:36
his wife, Diane, took a job
at the local primary school as a teaching assistant and was
well-liked among colleagues.
00:04:45
She was a caring,
doting mother. She was a caring, doting wife. And she was very much
the typical woman
00:04:55
you would see walking down
the street in the village. SAM RUSSELL: I think they
were active with bowls,
00:05:02
and their sons were
in the air cadets but well-settled into
the community there.
00:05:07
PARM SANDHU: There were no
outward signs of any problems in their marriage, and they
seemed to be a perfect family,
00:05:13
you know, two children,
lovely home, lovely house. And they seemed to be happy. NARRATOR: But their
perfect family
00:05:20
would be torn apart with the
sudden and shocking events that unfolded on the
25th of June, 2010.
00:05:29
FIONA LEISHMAN: Diane
and Ian were at home. Their eldest son went
out for a driving test.
00:05:34
And while he was out
for his driving test, the youngest son was
at school, I believe.
00:05:38
And Ian went out to go
and buy some groceries. He said he'd
forgot his wallet, so he turned back
from the supermarket,
00:05:48
got back, found his wife
unresponsive in the garden. IAN STEWART: My wife's
had a fit, I think.
00:05:55
She's in the garden. She's in the garden. DISPATCHER 2: OK, but you need
to slow down, OK, because you--
00:05:58
IAN STEWART: She's--
she's in the garden. She's unconscious. DISPATCHER 2: Is she breathing?
00:06:05
IAN STEWART: I don't think so. I've tri-- I've
turned her to try and put her in the
recovery position,
00:06:09
but I can't do it, actually. She's just flopped back. I think she's had a fit. DISPATCHER 2: You
think she's had a fit?
00:06:16
IAN STEWART: Well, the think so. She does have epilepsy. Diane, as a child
or a teenager,
00:06:22
had had mild epilepsy. And she'd had a fit
or two, but nothing dramatic, nothing horrifying.
00:06:30
And it wasn't persistent. MAN: She hadn't had an
epileptic fit since around about
00:06:36
the time of their firstborn. And it was, by all
accounts, very well-managed with medication.
00:06:42
NARRATOR: An ambulance
raced to the family's home, as Stewart, husband of 23
years, remained on the line
00:06:49
to the call operator. DISPATCHER 2: Pump the
chest hard and fast at least twice per second.
IAN STEWART: Right.
00:06:54
Yeah. DISPATCHER 2: We're going
to do this 600 times or until help can take over.
00:06:58
IAN STEWART: OK. Doing it. The call taker
sort of took him through the process of
performing CPR, one,
00:07:05
two, three, four, on his wife. They arrived. Tried to revive her. Were unable to.
00:07:12
And she was dead in the garden. NARRATOR: Her sons arrived
home to the devastating news
00:07:19
of their mother's death. PARM SANDHU: They
actually were there when the body of their mum
was lying on the patio.
00:07:27
And what really got to me, what
really hurt me the most was a 15-year-old boy saying,
I was able to give
00:07:34
my mom a last kiss. That's just heartbreaking
for me, heartbreaking. NARRATOR: The explanation
offered by Stewart
00:07:43
was mirrored in the
postmortem, with Diane Stewart's death being recorded
as sudden death in epilepsy.
00:07:51
BRETT LOCKYER:
The suggestion was that she had an
epileptic seizure, or she had a seizure
which caused her death.
00:07:56
Because of that, her death
wasn't treated as suspicious. And therefore, she was subjected
to what's known as a routine
00:08:03
or a coroner's postmortem. NARRATOR: The
coroner's report left Diane's sister with questions.
00:08:12
She was then very
keen to understand how her healthy sister could
suddenly have died like this,
00:08:16
you know. She played sports. She had nothing wrong with her. And in her eyes, she just
couldn't get her head
00:08:22
around how this
could have happened, how she could suddenly be gone. NARRATOR: Stewart discouraged
Diane's sister from further
00:08:30
questioning the
report and stopped her from visiting the family home. Left to his own
devices, he planned
00:08:37
the funeral, making
arrangements for Diane's body to be cremated. Her life insurance provided
Stewart with 96,600 pounds.
00:08:48
And he appeared to
be quietly coping with the death of his wife. PARM SANDHU: You
can't always predict
00:08:53
how a husband or any
member of a family is going to behave or react
to a death in the family.
00:09:01
Ian seemed to be so
calm and in control because he's got two
young sons to look after.
00:09:07
He's dealing with the
funeral arrangements and the death of his
wife of many, many years.
00:09:13
NARRATOR: Soon after, he
joined a bereavement group. And in October 2011,
he was introduced
00:09:20
to fellow widower Helen Bailey. PARM SANDHU: Helen Bailey
was a very successful writer.
00:09:26
And she was at the
peak of her career. She had written a series of
books about a young teenager
00:09:31
and the coming of age
and different trials and tribulations that
a youngster would have.
00:09:36
So she was very
talented, very affluent, and very self-sufficient. FIONA LEISHMAN: She
was known to be a very
00:09:45
bright and bubbly person. She was well-liked
and well-loved. And one of her biggest
loves in her life
00:09:51
was her sausage dog, Boris. NARRATOR: 46-year-old Helen lost
her husband in February 2011,
00:09:59
when he tragically
drowned whilst the couple were on holiday in Barbados. The author started a blog
documenting her grief.
00:10:11
GEOFFREY WANSELL: She became
something of a celebrity talking about grief. She appeared on the radio.
00:10:16
She was regularly
asked about it. To some extent, she was
something of a public figure.
00:10:25
NARRATOR: The pair hit
it off straight away. And through their mutual
grief, they soon became close.
00:10:32
PARM SANDHU: So she's
gone to this group looking for consolation, friendship, and
other people who had suffered
00:10:39
the same way that she had. And she quickly
became infatuated by Ian, who seemed
to understand,
00:10:46
who seemed to, you know,
bombard her with messages, calls, presents. And she almost, you know,
became spellbound by him
00:10:57
because she was grieving,
and he filled that gap that was left in her life. NARRATOR: By 2013, the couple
had bought a 1.5 million
00:11:07
pound property together
in Royston, Hertfordshire. And three years later,
there was a proposal.
00:11:15
FIONA LEISHMAN: From
there, they actually ended up getting engaged. And it was somewhat quick,
given that they were both still
00:11:23
possibly grieving at the time. They were on this
bereavement page. They have both lost
people that they loved.
00:11:28
But they seem to really
gel quite quickly. NARRATOR: However, on
the 15th of April 2016,
00:11:38
the wedding plans
were put on hold. And Stewart found himself
once again on the phone
00:11:44
to the emergency services. He'd not heard from his
fiancee in four days. DISPATCHER 1:
Hertfordshire Police.
00:11:52
How can I help? IAN STEWART: Hello, there. My partner has been
missing since Monday
00:11:57
and not contacted anyone. Said she was going away. Hasn't gone-- ended up where
she said she was going.
00:12:02
So we've just decided
we should report it. PARM SANDHU: Now, four
days is a long time.
00:12:08
However, when cases like
this come in to the police, because Helen is an
adult, she would have
00:12:15
been considered as a low risk. IAN STEWART: So she--
no. She left a note. She said-- she said
in the note something
00:12:21
like, I need space
and time alone. I'm going to Broadstairs. Please don't contact
me in any way.
00:12:27
But in Broadstairs, she's got--
we've got a cottage down there. But we-- people have been
down there with neighbors,
00:12:33
and she hasn't-- she's not there. Hasn't been there either. FIONA LEISHMAN: There
was talk that she
00:12:39
had gone off somewhere. She'd vanished. She was thought to just be
off the face of the Earth,
00:12:44
unable to find her. DISPATCHER 1: Did
Helen go in a vehicle? IAN STEWART: No, she didn't.
00:12:49
She left her car here. She did take her dog with her. She's got a little dachshund.
00:12:54
PARM SANDHU: The fact that the
dog, Boris, was also missing would have created some
suspicions because how
00:13:00
was she feeding the dog? Where was she walking the dog? NARRATOR: Friends and family
became increasingly concerned
00:13:07
for Helen's safety as the police
investigation intensified. PARM SANDHU: One of
the biggest factors
00:13:13
was the fact that
she spoke to her mum every two or three days. And she was very
close to her brother.
00:13:20
There was no contact at all. And that would have
raised alarm bells. FIONA LEISHMAN: They
searched the Royston home,
00:13:26
and they made a
search of the area. They tried to really
find any evidence there.
00:13:32
But Ian Stewart and Helen
Bailey also had a holiday cottage together down in Kent.
00:13:37
And police went to the extent
of searching that one as well, thinking that maybe she
had just taken off there
00:13:43
to get away for a little bit. NARRATOR: With no sign of
Helen at either of her homes,
00:13:49
detectives began to delve deeper
into her digital accounts. PARM SANDHU: As
time passed, there
00:13:56
would have been more and
more suspicions aroused because there was that lack of,
you know, financial footprint.
00:14:02
There's no money being used. How can you live without your
credit cards or your money?
00:14:06
And bear in mind
that Helen was quite an avid user of social media. There were no posts being made
on any sort of social media.
00:14:15
NARRATOR: On the 11th
of May, four weeks after Helen had last
been seen alive, a public appeal was circulated.
00:14:22
And officers trawled
through hundreds of hours of CCTV
footage desperately trying to locate the author.
00:14:30
PARM SANDHU: The majority
of missing persons cases are solved within 24 hours. And if they go on any
longer, the risk increases.
00:14:39
So if a person has been
missing for weeks and months, it's not a good sign. NARRATOR: With no leads,
hopes of Helen's safe return
00:14:48
were fading, and
investigators revisited the couple's home in Royston
to interview Stewart.
00:14:55
POLICE OFFICER 2:
Helen was last seen on Monday, the 11th of April. Is that correct?
IAN STEWART: Yeah.
00:15:00
POLICE OFFICER 2: OK. I would like you to take me
through what happened that day.
00:15:05
IAN STEWART: This is what
I can't remember very well. I'll tell you what
I can remember.
00:15:08
But what some of
what I can remember is maybe what I've said
since and when I've looked
00:15:12
in the diary, things like that. POLICE OFFICER 2: OK. IAN STEWART: Just that day?
00:15:17
POLICE OFFICER 2:
Start with that day. Ian Stewart was going
about his day-to-day life.
00:15:23
He didn't seem to be that
concerned about the fact that his fiancee
was, in fact, missing
00:15:29
and couldn't be found and
couldn't be contacted. POLICE OFFICER 2: If
you're comfortable
00:15:34
starting with that day,
that's the day that we would like to concentrate
on for as long
00:15:38
as you're comfortable with that. FIONA LEISHMAN: He had
some strange activities,
00:15:44
such as taking the
duvet to the tip, which could be seen as
something suspicious.
00:15:51
NARRATOR: Stewart was very
quick to explain that away. IAN STEWART: I
remember bits of it.
00:15:57
The first bit I remember is we
loaded the car or Helen loaded my car with an old
duvet and some boxes
00:16:04
ready to take to the dump. NARRATOR: Detectives
found more suspicious moments in Stewart's timeline.
00:16:12
PARM SANDHU: So
one of the things that he did in the days
following was that he increased
00:16:16
a standing order,
which was 600 pounds a month into his account from
hers, to 4,000 pounds a month.
00:16:24
FIONA LEISHMAN: Unusual
behavior for somebody who is meant to be missing
his fiancee because he
00:16:30
can't find her anywhere. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Stewart not
only alters standing order.
00:16:37
Helen was paying him on the
day of her disappearance. That night, in an attempt to
appear as normal as possible,
00:16:44
he drives to Cambridge
to see his son playing in a bowls tournament. And afterwards, they have
a Chinese meal together.
00:16:53
PARM SANDHU: He actually
used her account to renew his season ticket to Arsenal.
00:16:59
I mean, surely, that
could have waited. It just shows how
unaffected he was. As the days increased
into weeks and months
00:17:07
and there was no
activity on her accounts, no activity on her social
media accounts, no sightings,
00:17:14
and no contact made with
other family members, that concern and that risk
would have been raised.
00:17:21
NARRATOR: When police learned
the details of Helen's will, they found a possible motive
for murder that might explain
00:17:28
Stewart's aloof behavior. GEOFFREY WANSELL: They've
only become engaged. They don't actually get married
before her disappearance.
00:17:38
But nevertheless,
he stands to inherit because Helen has
been overwhelmed by this fabulous
graying widower.
00:17:48
He's going to get
the insurance policy on her life and the house. Yeah, we're talking
about a lot of money,
00:17:55
several million pounds. NARRATOR: And it wasn't the
only house he stood to inherit.
00:18:02
PARM SANDHU: He actually
visited their solicitors to speed up the sale of
a house that Helen had
00:18:08
in North Shields, which was
worth about 185,000 pounds. So he actually went
to the solicitors
00:18:13
and tried to use a
power of attorney that she had given him
to speed up that sale.
00:18:19
NARRATOR: Police
needed more proof to confirm their suspicions. In search of the evidence,
they went back to the 101
00:18:26
call made by Stewart. DISPATCHER 1: And what's
her date of birth? IAN STEWART: Oh, crikey.
God.
00:18:32
You've thrown me there. 22nd-- well, just let me
double-check one second. Oh, god.
I'm sorry.
00:18:38
I'm just double-checking. As you asked that, it just
went straight out my head. DISPATCHER 1: And her eye color?
00:18:43
IAN STEWART: Her eye color. Oh my god. How do you forget these things? I don't know at the moment.
00:18:48
I'm sorry. It's just gone out my head. He can't remember
her date of birth. He can't remember the
color of her eyes.
00:18:55
PARM SANDHU: It was almost
like a wishy-washy call. You know, I've got
to make the call,
00:18:58
but I don't really want to. NARRATOR: All hopes of finding
Helen alive had now gone.
00:19:05
The missing person investigation
had become a murder case. On the 11th of
July, three months
00:19:12
after her disappearance, police
arrested their prime suspect, Ian Stewart. I'm arresting you on suspicion
of the murder of Helen Bailey--
00:19:22
You're joking. --and of disposing her
body in a manner that will likely obstruct the
coroner and the theft
00:19:27
of money of Helen Bailey. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm
your defense if you
00:19:32
do not mention when
questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may
be given in evidence.
00:19:37
Do you understand that? I guess so. NARRATOR: Police were now
convinced that Stewart
00:19:44
had murdered his fiancee. But without finding
Helen's body, they pin their hopes on
getting a confession.
00:19:52
INVESTIGATOR: You're the
last person to see her alive. You wait four days to
report her missing.
00:20:02
You're vague about your
movements on the 11th. At best, vague. Did you kill Helen Bailey?
00:20:09
Did you intend to kill her? Or was this an accident? What happened? Did you just lose control,
lose-- just lose it?
00:20:21
Some big argument,
and you killed her, and you've been
covering up ever since. Because if that's
what's happened,
00:20:26
you need to tell
us now because this could be your last opportunity
to speak to police about this.
00:20:32
You are here on
suspicion of murder. NARRATOR: With Stewart
giving nothing away,
00:20:38
police turn their attention
to a meticulous search of the two-acre property,
desperate to find
00:20:45
hard evidence. After 48 hours, they
came up empty-handed. As they prepared to pack
up, Helen's neighbor
00:20:54
informed them of
a second cesspit under the couple's garage. It appears that he's
parked Helen Bailey's
00:21:01
car over where the cesspit was. And there were two
cesspits in that house. So the police wouldn't
necessarily have known that.
00:21:08
And so they missed that cesspit
right from the initial search. NARRATOR: When investigators
reviewed the footage
00:21:15
from Stewart's
arrest, it appeared that he may have inadvertently
given himself away.
00:21:21
In amongst an upsetting
and stressful situation, Stewart asked a
strange question.
00:21:27
Is that why the
garage door's open? GEOFFREY WANSELL: On
the 15th of July 2016, Helen's body is found in the
cesspit, along with the dog,
00:21:45
along with Boris. It's a particularly
gruesome, grisly place to find a 51-year-old
woman's body, especially
00:21:59
one who's done
nothing but been kind, generous, and warm-hearted. PARM SANDHU: It is
extremely shocking
00:22:08
that after that three-month
intensive searching, CCTV trawling, you know, witness
appeals, you know, talking
00:22:16
to members of the community
and everything else that that happened, that she was
actually found in her own home.
00:22:22
She'd never left her
own home with her dog. NARRATOR: Ian
Stewart had concealed the manhole cover of the
cesspit with Helen's car.
00:22:33
But he couldn't
conceal the traces of the sleeping pill zopiclone
found during the postmortem.
00:22:41
PARM SANDHU: It had looked
like he'd been using this drug on her for many, many months.
00:22:45
And then finally, on
that day, he killed her. BRETT LOCKYER: So the fact
that zopiclone is detected
00:22:51
in the hair again
would support that she had been receiving zopiclone on
intervals prior to her death.
00:22:59
Toxicology results indicated
that zopiclone was so high that she was heavily
sedated, then
00:23:05
that would give an
indication as to why she may not have fought
back when she realized
00:23:10
what was happening to her. NARRATOR: Police learned that
Stewart had a prescription
00:23:14
for zopiclone
sleeping pills and had requested them from
his GP in the months before Helen's disappearance.
00:23:22
ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
So all this time, he is performing this role
as the devoted fiancee,
00:23:28
the caring person who makes
breakfast for their partner every morning. But with every serving
of the scrambled eggs
00:23:36
that she had every day,
he was slowly killing her. NARRATOR: Due to the
condition of the body,
00:23:42
the pathologist was
unable to determine Helen's cause of death. BRETT LOCKYER: The
forensic postmortem was
00:23:48
hampered by the decomposition. And if someone had
died in natural causes, in nonsuspicious
circumstances, then
00:23:57
you'd ask the question, well,
why is their body in a cesspit? NARRATOR: On the 10th
of January 2017, eight
00:24:06
months after Helen Bailey
had been reported missing, her fiance, Ian Stewart,
was charged with her murder.
00:24:14
The revelation that
this apparently doting fiancee and father of
two was actually a killer
00:24:20
shocked the community. PARM SANDHU: One of the most
awful things about this case
00:24:24
is that for three months,
Ian lied to family, friends, to the community, to
the police officers,
00:24:32
saying that Helen
was missing when he knew full well she was dead. FIONA LEISHMAN: When the
details of this case came out,
00:24:39
people were very much
shocked to their core. And they were sickened. And a lot of people
were very, very upset
00:24:47
and shaken that somebody who
could commit such a heinous act had been living
among them and had
00:24:52
been part of their community. NARRATOR: The trial
began in January 2017 at St Albans Crown Court, where
Stewart pleaded not guilty.
00:25:04
GEOFFREY WANSELL:
The jury believes that this man who likes to
present as being rather offhand
00:25:11
and a bit fuzzy
and a bit unsure is actually a callous and
calculated premeditated killer.
00:25:20
NARRATOR: On February
the 23rd, 2017, Ian Stewart was found guilty
of murder, fraud, preventing
00:25:28
legal burial, and three
counts of perverting the course of justice. He was sentenced to
34 years in prison.
00:25:37
In the wake of Stewart's
conviction for Helen's killing, her brother pays tribute to
the fact the world has lost
00:25:44
a gifted author and also
to the dramatic impact her death has had on the family,
her friends, her parents.
00:25:55
It's difficult not
to feel the most intense sympathy for the
family, as so often is the case.
00:26:02
PARM SANDHU: The judge described
Ian Stewart as being callous, being there for the money,
planning it, deceiving not just
00:26:10
Helen's family, but
also the police, that he was a cold, calculated,
callous killer
00:26:16
who had set out with a plan. And he viewed women as being
commodities, as a meal ticket.
00:26:23
And all he wanted to do was
to sustain his lifestyle. GEOFFREY WANSELL: There's
something infinitely poignant
00:26:32
about the fact that
Helen trusted Stewart, and he repaid her
trust by killing her.
00:26:40
NARRATOR: It wasn't
over for Ian Stewart. Unbeknownst to him,
detectives were re-examining the sudden
death of his wife, Diane.
00:26:50
FIONA LEISHMAN: Given
what he had just been convicted of and the fact
that he had lost his first wife
00:26:59
seven years prior,
it really started to raise some suspicions
over that case, over the circumstances
of her death.
00:27:08
NARRATOR: Detectives would
face significant challenges in their search for proof.
00:27:13
Diane had been cremated,
according to Stewart's wishes. Advanced toxicology
tests have not
00:27:20
been carried out,
as her death hadn't been considered suspicious. PARM SANDHU: They would have
started to look at the case.
00:27:27
But they have to
be really careful because they can't
reignite a case if they haven't got the evidence.
00:27:35
There's a family
involved, and it's not just the person who dies. It's also the sons
that were left behind.
00:27:41
BRETT LOCKYER: If
there is no body, it's very difficult to be
able to come to a conclusion
00:27:46
as to how someone may have died. NARRATOR: On the 21st of August,
2018, while serving a life
00:27:54
sentence for the
murder of Helen Bailey, Ian Stewart was arrested
in prison on suspicion
00:28:00
of murdering his wife, Diane. POLICE OFFICER 1:
Mr. Stewart, I'm arresting you on suspicion of
the murder of your late wife,
00:28:07
Diane Stewart-- You're joking. POLICE OFFICER 1: --on Friday-- [bleep] You're digging desp--
00:28:11
POLICE OFFICER 1: --Friday
the 25th of June 2-- [bleep] What a
load of [bleep]..
00:28:15
POLICE OFFICER 1: Say anything,
but it may harm your defense if you do not mention,
when questioned,
00:28:18
something which you
later rely on in court. What [bleep]. POLICE OFFICER 1: You do say
may be given in evidence.
00:28:25
Have you got nothing better
to do than make things up? POLICE OFFICER 1: We can discuss
this at Thorpe Wood Police
00:28:29
Station, which is where we're-- Oh my god. POLICE OFFICER 1: --going today. His reaction was
dismissive, you know.
00:28:36
You're joking. And surprised that anyone could
think that this had happened. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
Two words spring
00:28:43
to mind when I look
at his reaction here, annoyed and inconvenienced. Because these police officers
have disrupted his day.
00:28:52
SAM RUSSELL: After answering
an initial few questions with a sort of cockiness and
arrogance that, you know,
00:28:58
he was getting away with this,
he then just basically doesn't engage with the officers there.
00:29:03
He thinks that they won't
be able to solve this case and that he's going
to get away with it.
00:29:11
I just remember hearing about
it and thinking, oh my gosh. Here we go again because
Helen Bailey's case was
00:29:19
so horrific and the coverage and
all the details that came out, they really were very shocking.
00:29:26
And to think that
seven years prior, he had caused the death of another
woman who he professed to love.
00:29:37
PARM SANDHU: He thought
he was above it all. He thought he could get away
with the perfect murder.
00:29:42
NARRATOR: But Stewart
had overlooked Diane's last selfless
act, which would uncover the selfish
actions of an evil killer.
00:29:51
FIONA LEISHMAN: Diane's
body had been cremated, but samples of her brain tissue
had been left to research.
00:29:57
She was an epileptic,
so she wanted to leave parts of her brain to
research so that more could be
00:30:02
done to look into the disease. BRETT LOCKYER: I think the fact
that the brain had been donated
00:30:07
is the saving grace in this
case because that's the reason why the brain still existed.
00:30:11
Otherwise, the material
wouldn't be available. SAM RUSSELL: It just didn't
cross Ian Stewart's mind
00:30:18
that all these years
on, you know, there could be a significant
finding from the items that
00:30:24
had been taken. NARRATOR: This exceptional turn
of events allowed pathologists to perform tests
on the brain tissue
00:30:31
seven years after Diane's death. The original cause
of death was given as SUDEP, or sudden
Unexpected Death in Epilepsy.
00:30:41
But the new results showed the
presence of a protein known as beta APP, which
is formed when
00:30:48
the body has been
starved of oxygen for a longer period of time. Now, someone who's died
from epilepsy or SUDEP
00:30:59
wouldn't usually survive. They would usually die within
the throes of a seizure because
00:31:04
of the disturbances within
the normal electrical activity in the brain. She was suggesting,
of course, that she
00:31:11
collapsed suddenly and died. But the postmortem
doesn't support that. NARRATOR: The
findings would lead
00:31:18
pathologists to conclude
that Diane had likely been killed by suffocation. BRETT LOCKYER: When someone
has an epileptic seizure,
00:31:26
we know that they hold their
breath for a period of time. But that wouldn't be
sufficient to cause
00:31:32
the changes in the brain
that I've seen in this case. PARM SANDHU: So
that straightaway
00:31:37
led to only one person being
present at that address. Only one person
could have done that.
00:31:42
And there was only one
person who was really evasive in relation to making
that phone call,
00:31:47
that initial phone call when he
said he found her on the patio. And that was Ian Stewart.
00:31:53
NARRATOR: Stewart
denied the charge. And in January
2022, he once again found himself in court, charged
with murdering his partner.
00:32:04
FIONA LEISHMAN:
So when this case went to trial for Diane's
death, Ian Stewart initially pleaded not guilty.
00:32:11
And his defense team thought
they had a very strong case. SAM RUSSELL: He says
he didn't do it.
00:32:18
You know, she died of epilepsy. And on the stand,
he said he actually tried to save his wife's life.
00:32:25
NARRATOR: But as the prosecution
looked more closely at the 999 audio from that
day, holes started
00:32:32
to appear in Stewart's story. FIONA LEISHMAN: The call to 999
has been described as chilling,
00:32:38
the way in which he spoke,
his inability to really answer some basic facts about his wife,
who he had been with for quite
00:32:45
a number of years. DISPATCHER: How
old is she, please? IAN STEWART: She's 45--
47.
00:32:51
47. 47. Even when you're
stressed, if you've been with somebody for that
long, you do know the basics,
00:32:57
and you do remember. DISPATCHER: Is she breathing?
IAN STEWART: No. I don't think so.
No.
00:33:01
DISPATCHER: Right. You need to go and check on
her, sir, for me, please. IAN STEWART: I'm
right beside her now.
00:33:05
DISPATCHER: All right.
Is she breathing? IAN STEWART: No, sir.
No. No. DISPATCHER: She's not breathing.
IAN STEWART: Don't think so.
00:33:10
DISPATCHER: Right. Well, check her for me. IAN STEWART: Oh, right. Yeah. That would not
have been sufficient
00:33:17
time for him to actually
assess whether she was still breathing. So it's clear that he
is not doing the things
00:33:23
that the operator tells him to. PARM SANDHU: He doesn't
appear to be distressed.
00:33:27
He doesn't appear to be shocked. And it's almost like
he's playing for time. DISPATCHER: Is she breathing?
00:33:33
IAN STEWART: I don't think so. I've trie-- I've turned her to
try and put her in the recovery
00:33:36
position, but I can't do it. She's just flopped back. I think she's had a fit. DISPATCHER: You think
she's had a fit?
00:33:43
IAN STEWART: Well, I think so. She does have epilepsy. That was just beyond
belief because you wouldn't
00:33:50
necessarily revert
back to something that happened 18
years ago and link it to what's happening today.
00:33:57
ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
Stewart is essentially shaping the narrative. He's creating a story
around Diane's death.
00:34:03
And in doing that,
he is preventing any awkward questions, essentially. This story is a credible one.
00:34:09
And unfortunately, it's
one that people believe. PARM SANDHU: And because there
were no obvious signs of, you
00:34:15
know, strangulation or
stabbing or, you know, any sort of trauma to
the body, had he not
00:34:22
introduced that conversation
at that early stage, it may have been investigated
a little bit more intensively.
00:34:29
NARRATOR: There were
more red flags presented in court from the 999 call. DISPATCHER: Right.
00:34:35
Kneel next to her, and look in
her mouth for food or vomit. IAN STEWART: Well, I've wiped
some of that away already.
00:34:40
There was vomit, yes. DISPATCHER: Just do
what I'm telling you-- IAN STEWART: Yeah, OK.
I am.
00:34:44
DISPATCHER: --sir, OK?
IAN STEWART: Yes. Yeah.
I am. DISPATCHER: Is there
anything in the mouth?
00:34:48
IAN STEWART: Well, there looks
like a lot of sick, yeah. DISPATCHER: Pardon? IAN STEWART: Yeah.
00:34:51
Maybe look quite a
bit of sick, yes. DISPATCHER: Right. You need to calm yourself
down so we can help her.
00:34:55
Is there anything in the mouth? IAN STEWART: I don't think so. I don't think so.
00:35:00
When the operator
asks him to look in Diane's mouth to check
that her airway is clear,
00:35:05
he changes the story. And that suggests
to me that he's not actually looking in her mouth.
00:35:10
DISPATCHER: OK. Listen carefully, and I'll tell
you how to do resuscitation. Place the heel of your
hand on the breastbone
00:35:17
in the center of her chest-- IAN STEWART: Right. DISPATCHER: --right
between the nipples.
00:35:21
Put your other hand
on top of that hand. IAN STEWART: Yes. DISPATCHER: Push down
firmly two inches
00:35:26
with only the heel of your
lower hand touching the chest. IAN STEWART: Yeah. DISPATCHER: Now
listen carefully.
00:35:31
You need to pump the chest
hard and fast at least twice per second. We're going to do this 600 times
or until help can take over.
00:35:39
Let the chest come all
the way up between pumps. IAN STEWART: Can I
just say something?
00:35:43
They can't get in at the moment. All the doors are locked. DISPATCHER: Right. You need-- you need
to start this sir, OK?
00:35:48
IAN STEWART: OK.
Yeah. I'm doing it. DISPATCHER: Count out loud
so that I can count with you.
00:35:52
IAN STEWART: So I press
and-- press twice and then release, press twice, release.
That right?
00:35:55
DISPATCHER: Right. Pump the chest hard and fast
at least twice per second. IAN STEWART: Right.
Yeah.
00:35:59
DISPATCHER: We'll
do this 600 times or until help can take over. IAN STEWART: OK.
00:36:03
Doing it. He's saying that
he's performing CPR on his wife, the woman he's
been married to for many years.
00:36:12
And he's sort of sounding
like he's tired of it. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: You
really can tell that all
00:36:17
is not well on this call. What seems to be going on is
not what's going on at all.
00:36:23
Diane was dead at this point. He knew that she was dead
because he had killed her.
00:36:30
SAM RUSSELL: He looked very
uncomfortable at points when the 999 call--
audio of the 999 call
00:36:36
was played out in court. He'd sometimes sort of slump
forwards a bit with his head
00:36:41
in his hands, sort of
look up at the ceiling. He just didn't look very
comfortable hearing this.
00:36:49
NARRATOR: During the trial,
one of the paramedics who attended the scene that
day gave vital evidence.
00:36:56
SAM RUSSELL: He
said that, you know, you'd expect that if
someone had been giving CPR
00:37:00
and for the length of time
that it would have been for that phone call and for
him having said that he'd, you
00:37:05
know, made attempts
before that as well, that he'd expect to see
broken ribs and all sorts.
00:37:11
But there was no sign of
any external injury to Diane Stewart, which was unusual.
00:37:16
NARRATOR: The prosecutor's case
was further strengthened when evidence from the
Helen Bailey conviction
00:37:22
was presented to the jury. It brought back a lot
of quite horrific memories for a lot of people.
00:37:30
It really brought
everything flooding back from Helen Bailey's case. SAM RUSSELL: The
Helen Bailey case
00:37:36
was absolutely central
to the prosecution case as part of this. They were able to put the
two cases side by side,
00:37:43
you know, a woman who he's
in a close relationship with at home, where
no one else is there,
00:37:50
and using a similar
mechanism of killing. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The
method of suffocation
00:37:56
tells us a lot about how driven
Stewart was to kill Diane because the medical expert
afterwards said that her brain
00:38:04
would have been starved
of oxygen for between 35 minutes and an hour. So this wasn't a quick death.
00:38:09
It took quite a long
time to come about. And at any point during this,
Stewart could have stopped.
00:38:16
NARRATOR: In court, it was
clear that Stewart's family had been duped by the
master manipulator,
00:38:21
just as his two victims had. FIONA LEISHMAN: When Ian
Stewart's dad took the stand,
00:38:28
he gave evidence at court
saying that his son was a loving and caring and kind husband.
00:38:34
There were a lot of good
words spoken about Ian Stewart by friends, family members,
loved ones during that trial,
00:38:42
a lot of people saying that
he would never hurt a fly. And so to then have him charged
with the death of another woman
00:38:51
that he had supposedly
loved, it really stood out as quite an
intense moment and quite
00:38:58
a juxtaposition between
what he had done and the man that he
was perceived to be.
00:39:03
NARRATOR: Shockingly, it
transpired during the trial that Stewart had used the funds
he'd inherited from Diane's
00:39:10
life insurance to make some
lavish purchases in the weeks after her death. FIONA LEISHMAN: He was
adamant that this money would
00:39:19
be for their sons, and this
money would be used to help build their sons' future.
00:39:24
In fact, what he did
after Diane's death, he went out and bought
a red two-seater MG.
00:39:32
GEOFFREY WANSELL:
He says to give him something to remember her by. It is ludicrous.
00:39:40
If he had been genuinely
grieving for Diane, would he have done that? My answer to that
is absolutely not.
00:39:54
NARRATOR: On the 9th
of February 2022, Ian Stewart was found guilty of
the murder of his wife, Diane
00:40:00
Stewart, 12 years earlier. SAM RUSSELL: It was
a unanimous verdict. But police had
said afterwards, he
00:40:09
thought that he was cleverer
than the officers who were investigating this case.
00:40:14
The arrogance of
the man to think that he can kill not
once, but twice, and get away with it both times.
00:40:20
But he's been found out. NARRATOR: Although initially
sentenced to a whole life term,
00:40:27
in July 2022, following
a successful appeal, that whole life order was
reduced to life imprisonment
00:40:35
with a minimum of 35 years. It means that unless there
are exceptional compassionate
00:40:41
grounds, he will
die behind bars. NARRATOR: The verdict
came as a shock to the family and
friends who thought
00:40:50
Diane had died of epilepsy. SAM RUSSELL: Can you imagine? You've just been told that not
only did your father murder
00:40:58
his fiancee, but he murdered
his wife, their mother. PARM SANDHU: They've been
having a normal relationship
00:41:05
with their father, thinking
that he was a tragic widower. For them to have to come
to terms with the fact
00:41:10
that their father killed
their mother and also Diane's sister,
that this man has
00:41:16
lied to them for so many years. And he was sort of
trying to look and catch the eyeline of his
two boys, and they
00:41:25
just weren't meeting his gaze. And that was sort
of the last thing before he was led down to--
00:41:32
led down to the cells
and back to prison, that he was trying
to look at them, and they just wouldn't
look back at him.
00:41:40
I believe that Stewart is
an incredibly dangerous man. And I think had he not been
caught for Helen's murder,
00:41:46
he would have gone
on to kill again. FIONA LEISHMAN: What
makes Ian Stewart so evil
00:41:51
is he looks like any
man that you would find walking down the road. He looks like any
dad that you would
00:41:58
see at the school gates
at 3:30 in the afternoon picking their kids up. It isn't until you start to
learn about the details of what
00:42:06
he had done, and you start
to delve into his motivations and delve into the nitty-gritty
facts of these cases,
00:42:14
that you realize that underneath
this facade of the kind, caring father and the
next door neighbor,
00:42:20
there is somebody that is
capable of some true evil and committing some
heinous and horrific things
00:42:27
against other living people. NARRATOR: Ian Stewart
was a narcissist who used people for
his own ends, a wolf
00:42:38
in sheep's clothing. The dad next door
deceived not one, but two romantic partners
before ending their lives
00:42:46
and stealing their money. That undoubtedly makes
him one of the world's most evil killers.
00:42:54
[music playing]