Ian Stewart: Sons granted £185k confiscation order

The sons of a double murderer are to share £185,000 from their mother's estate, a court has ruled.

Ian Stewart, 61, was convicted in February of killing his wife Diane Stewart, 47, from Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, in 2010.

It followed his 2017 conviction for killing his partner Helen Bailey, 51, at their Hertfordshire home in 2016.

Stewart's sons Jamie and Oliver were granted the compensation award at Luton Crown Court.

Mrs Stewart's death had been treated as epilepsy-related until her husband was later found guilty of murdering his fiancee Ms Bailey, whose body he had dumped in a cesspit at their Royston home.

Evidence from Mrs Stewart's brain, which was donated to medical science, was used to help convict her husband.

Stewart was sentenced to a whole-life order, meaning he will never be released from prison.

He had been jailed for life with a minimum 34-year term for secretly drugging and suffocating Ms Bailey, in a plot to inherit her fortune of some £4m.

Luton Crown Court heard Stewart obtained £398,761.08 as a result of his wife's death.

Prosecutor Neil King said £185,173 was now available, when he asked for a confiscation order to be made.

Amjad Malik QC, representing Stewart, said he was instructed 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.

There is a two year sentence in default.

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