A double killer who suffocated his wife and six year later his fiance was effectively handed a “licence to kill” after police missed his first murder.
Loved-ones said “devious” Ian Stewart would not have been free to murder children’s author Helen Bailey if investigators did their job properly after he suffocated his first wife Diane Stewart, in 2010.
Stewart was finally convicted of killing his wife this week after a trial, some 12 years after the crime.
He would go on to kill 51-year-old Ms Bailey in 2016 and dumped her body in the cesspit of the £1.5 million home they shared in Royston in Hertfordshire.
Stewart was found guilty of her murder in 2017, after a trial at St Albans Crown Court heard it was most likely she was suffocated while sedated by drugs.
After his conviction, police were promoted to reopen their investigation into Diane’s death, which was recorded at the time as Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).
The killer managed to convince friends, family and neighbours she had collapsed and suffered an epileptic fit at their £500,000 family home in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire.
A jury of five men and seven women at Huntingdon Crown Court found Stewart guilty of murder, taking less than two days to deliberate.
But grieving relatives of Ms Bailey say her death need not have happened had he been caught the first time.
Ms Bailey’s cousin Judith Ireland, 72, of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, told The Sun: “He was given a licence to kill. Thankfully, he was caught the second time. We had no idea what he was like.
“Questions should be asked why the police did not catch him the first time.
“He must have known Helen had money. How could she hide something like that when she was famous? I think he was looking for victims - like a serial killer. He clearly wanted her dead for her money.”
Ms Ireland said she first encountered Stewart when Helen revealed she was dating him in a Christmas card - describing him as “wonderful”.
However, she added that there was no idea he would turn out to be a murderer, adding that Ms Bailey was very trusting.
“Helen referred to him as ‘the gorgeous grey haired widower’,” Ms Ireland said adding: “I did not think he looked gorgeous at all. He had a great big pot belly and a scraggly beard but she was always very trusting - which is probably what drew him to her.”
Ms Ireland lamented the damage the “monster” Stewart has done to their family.
Questioned by Mr Trimmer, Stewart insisted during his trial that the two women’s deaths were a ‘coincidence’.
The prosecutor told Stewart: “You’re a devious man.”
Stewart was sentenced to a whole life order yesterday meaning he will never be considered for parole.
Detective Superintendent Jerome Kent, who investigated both murders, said the police did not probe the initial murder of Diane Stewart as there were no concerning or suspicious factors in her death.
“The vast majority of people die of natural causes so the vast majority of deaths in the UK are not subject to criminal investigation,” Mr Kent told The Independent.
“It is the coroner and the coroner’s service who are responsible for establishing how someone dies and recording that cause of death.
“The narrative around how Diane died had originally come from Ian Stewart but both trials demonstrated Ian’s ability to plan and stage and manipulate the truth.
“There were no concerns raised by the family or by friends at the time of Diane’s death and we must also remember a post mortem took place, there were pathology tests carried out, there were samples taken - ultimately it was some of those samples that we were able to recover and we were able to put a different view or light on how she died.”
