A DOUBLE murderer who killed his wife, and six years later his fiancée, has had his whole-life sentence reduced.
Ian Stewart, 61, was in jail for murdering Helen Bailey, 51, when police looked into the death of his wife Diane in 2010.
Diane was found collapsed in the garden in 2010[/caption]
Appeal Court judges ruled that the full-life order imposed on him for 47-year-old Diane’s death was not justified.
In a judgment, they stated: “Grave though the first murder was, it could not — viewed in isolation from the later second murder — be regarded as an offence of exceptionally high seriousness.
“There is no suggestion that at the time when he committed the first murder, Stewart was already planning that it would be the first in a series.”
Sentence on dad Stewart, of Royston, Herts, was reduced to life with at least 35 years in jail.
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Stewart dumped children’s author Ms Bailey’s body in a cesspit.
He had claimed his wife died after suffering an epileptic fit.
