Fiance of successful children’s author Helen Bailey ‘drugged her with sleeping tablets before suffocating her and dumping body in cesspit in bid to get hold of her £4m fortune’

Ian Stewart, 56, has been accused of the “cynically executed murder”, with the court hearing he had administered an increasingly strong dose of sleeping drugs to his partner, who was worth more than £4million. Prosecutors have alleged the man then suffocated
sleeping Ms Bailey on April 11 2016 – telling police that the mother-of-two and his wife to be had gone missing.
Opening the trial at St Albans Crown Court, prosecutor Stuart Trimmer QC said: “The crown say this was simply a long-planned, deliberate killing, a cynically executed murder that had money as its driving motive.”
Mr Trimmer said: “(The couple) had made financial arrangements that meant, in the event of the death of Helen Bailey before the wedding, Ian Stewart would obtain the house and a very substantial financial advantage.”
The popular author lay undiscovered for three months at the Royston home in Hertfordshire before investigators found her body in July 2016.
Ian Stewart, 56, is on trial accused of murder, fraud, preventing a lawful burial and three counts of perverting the course of justice after he told police Ms Bailey had gone missing.
He has denied all charges.