Children’s author made quip in earshot of accused Ian Stewart three years before her body was found there, says brother

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The children’s author Helen Bailey joked with her brother that a cesspit at her home was a good place to hide a body almost three years before being found dead there, a court has heard.

The body of the 51-year-old was discovered alongside that of her dog at the home she shared with her fiance, Ian Stewart, in Royston, Hertfordshire, last July.



The 56-year-old is accused of drugging and killing Bailey before dumping her body in the septic tank.

Children's author Helen Bailey may have been alive in cesspit, jury told Read more

Bailey’s brother, John, told St Albans crown court that the quip had been made in full earshot of the defendant, during a visit to the property in August 2013.



After going into the garage – the location of the septic tank – he was told by the couple it was based in a well, but joked it was not a wishing well.

“Then there was some banter, almost certainly instigated by Helen, that it was a good place to hide a body,” he said.



Stuart Trimmer QC, prosecuting, asked if both the defendant and Helen Bailey were present at the time.



“Yes, they were,” he told the court.

Stewart denies charges of murder, preventing a lawful burial, fraud and three counts of perverting the cause of justice.

John Bailey told the court he and the couple had gone into the garage because the previous owner had left his car there and was coming to collect it. Then they struck up a conversation about the well.

He said: “I asked had they looked in it and I was told no, it was not that kind of a well, by which I mean the wishing well kind of a well.”



He told jurors he did not remember the exchange until a police officer told him his sister’s body had been discovered in it.



Asked about his sister, Bailey told the court she was a “highly intelligent” and “strong-willed” woman, who was “extremely funny”.



He added: “She was very much somebody who would come to someone’s aid as a friend, she would always put herself out there.”

His sister would also worry incessantly about her family and Stewart’s health, and had turned to writing again to cope with the grief of the death of her husband, John Sinfield, in 2011, he told the court.



She had then met Stewart on a dating website for people who had been widowed and, when the pair were engaged, she told her brother to keep it secret. Their wedding plans were continually pushed back because of Stewart’s cancer, the court heard.

On 13 April 2016, John Bailey heard his sister had disappeared after the alarm was raised by her close friend Tracey Stratton, who could not get hold of her, he said.

After also failing to contact her, he rang Stewart, who allegedly told him he had received a note saying she had gone to her home in Broadstairs, Kent, and asked not to be contacted.

“When I told him I didn’t know [where she was], he said, ‘Oh, now you have got me worried,’” Bailey told the court. “He had a slight tone of concern, slightly mild panic.”

Pressed on the exact details of what had happened on the day his sister was last seen, Bailey said Stewart had told him she had had an incident on the road and claimed she did not want to drive again.

He also allegedly said he had been given papers to take to the solicitors on the way to a doctor’s appointment, concerning the sale of her flat in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

The next day, James Bailey went to the address in Broadstairs, the trial heard. He found no sign of life and said he would have expected barking because his sister would have been with her dog – on whom she “doted”.

He then posted a note through the letterbox. “I think the note said please could she get in contact with me without fail, there is nothing to worry about, but I did need to talk to her as soon as possible,” he said.

Helen Bailey had been missing for three months when police officers opened the hatch to the cesspit beneath her garage and saw an arm protruding from the waste.

It is alleged that the killing had “money as its driving motive”, with Stewart in line to be a “substantial” benefactor of the author’s £4m fortune in the event of her death.

He is also accused of acting out a “charade” in the three months after her disappearance, helping with the search effort and sending her bogus text messages to mask his involvement.

The author was known by younger readers for her characters Electra Brown and Daisy Davenport, but found a new audience with her blog, Planet Grief, about becoming a widow.



The trial continues.