Royston murderer Ian Stewart was today sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of 34 years after being found guilty of killing his fiancée, author Helen Bailey.

Stewart, who is 56 and originally from Letchworth, drugged 51-year-old Helen for months before murdering her and dumping her in a cesspit beneath their £1.5 million home in Baldock Road along with her beloved dachshund Boris.

A jury of seven men and five women yesterday convicted Stewart of murder, fraud, preventing lawful burial and three counts of perverting the course of justice.

DCI Jerome Kent, who led the investigation, has said that he will now also head a probe into the death of Stewart’s wife Diane in 2010.

Diane’s death, from an epileptic fit, was found to have been of natural causes by a coroner.

DCI Kent said it was not a murder investigation, but that it ‘would be quite right’ for him to look again.