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| Helen Bailey murderer Ian Stewart jailed for 34 years | Helen Bailey murderer Ian Stewart jailed for 34 years |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The "wicked" fiance of children's author Helen Bailey, who murdered her and dumped her body in a cesspit, has been jailed for 34 years. | |
| Ian Stewart, 56, secretly drugged and suffocated Ms Bailey in a plot to inherit her near-£4m fortune. Her body was found under the home they shared in Royston, Hertfordshire, last July. | |
| Stewart was found guilty of murder at St Albans Crown Court on Wednesday. | |
| During sentencing, Judge Andrew Bright QC described the murder as "heinous". | |
| "I am firmly of the view that you currently pose a real danger to women with whom you form a relationship," he told Stewart. | |
| Live: Reaction to Ian Stewart sentencing | Live: Reaction to Ian Stewart sentencing |
| Helen Bailey: A life shaped by death | Helen Bailey: A life shaped by death |
| Stewart had denied murder, claiming two men called Nick and Joe had kidnapped Ms Bailey, who wrote the Electra Brown series of teen novels, in April last year and blackmailed him for £500,000. | |
| But the jury did not believe him, taking just over six hours of deliberating to convict him. | But the jury did not believe him, taking just over six hours of deliberating to convict him. |
| 'Callous lies' | |
| He refused to return to the dock for sentencing. | |
| Judge Bright QC said there had been a "significant degree of planning and premeditation" put into the murder. | |
| The court heard Stewart had secretly plied Ms Bailey with sleeping drug zopiclone in the weeks leading up to her death to render her more vulnerable. | |
| Stewart had then deceived police and Ms Bailey's friends and relatives with "a calculated and callous series of lies" while she was thought to be missing, the judge said. | |
| "You persisted in that callous lie for three months, repeating it to anyone and everyone who enquired about the circumstances of her disappearance," he said. | |
| During his trial, the prosecution said Stewart had played "the long game" in order to inherit Ms Bailey's fortune, made from the publication of more than 20 books. | |
| The court heard he launched a "love-bombing" campaign in a bid to woo the author after meeting her in an online bereavement group following the death of her husband in 2011. | |
| Detectives are now re-examining the death of Stewart's wife Diane, who died after an epileptic seizure at the couple's home in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, in 2010. |