Cambridgeshire double killer Ian Stewart stripped of money he inherited from wife he murdered

A double murderer who inherited hundreds of thousands of pounds from the wife he killed has been stripped of £185,000, which will now go to her sons.

Ian Stewart, 61, is serving a whole life term, having been convicted in February this year of killing Diane Stewart, 47, at their home in Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire in 2010.

That case followed his conviction for the murder of his fiancée, the well-known children’s author Helen Bailey, 51, at the home they shared in Royston, Hertfordshire in 2016.

At Luton Crown Court on Wednesday, prosecutor Neil King said the benefit figure Stewart obtained from the death of Diane Stewart was £398,761.08.

He said the amount of money available was £185,173 and asked for a confiscation order to be made.

The £185,173 will be shared between Diane and Ian Stewart’s sons Jamie and Oliver.

For Stewart, Amjad Malik QC said: “We have express instructions to accept the confiscation order and we have no challenge to the benefit figure or the realisable assets.”

Judge David Farrell QC granted the compensation order with six months to pay.

Mrs Stewart was found collapsed in the garden in 2010 and her death was recorded as a condition known as "sudden death in epilepsy".

After the 2017 conviction for the murder of Ms Bailey, a neuropathologist examined preserved parts of Mrs Stewart's brain, which had been donated to medical science.

Professor Sara Al-Sarraj found that there was evidence she had suffered a lack of oxygen prior to her death, which the prosecution said showed she had been suffocated.

After his conviction for the second murder, Stewart was given a whole-life sentence, meaning he will never be eligible for parole.

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