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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Author Helen Bailey’s Partner Jailed for 34 Years for Murder

The partner of children's author Helen Bailey has been sentenced to at least 34 years in prison for murdering her and dumping her body in a cesspool at their home.

LONDON (AP) — The partner of children's author Helen Bailey has been sentenced to at least 34 years in prison for murdering her and dumping her body in a cesspool at their home.

Judge Andrew Bright told Ian Stewart it was "difficult to imagine a more heinous crime." The judge said Thursday that Stewart posed a "real danger" to women.

Stewart, 56, was convicted Wednesday of murdering Bailey, hiding her body in a cesspool and then reporting her missing.

Prosecutors say Stewart poisoned the 51-year-old writer with prescription sedatives then smothered her to gain her 3.3 million-pound ($4.1 million) estate.

Bailey created the Electra Brown and Daisy Davenport series of novels for teenagers, and wrote a blog called Planet Grief after her husband of 22 years drowned during a Caribbean holiday in 2011.

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Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Categories / Criminal, International

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