The man accused of killing best-selling author Helen Bailey tried to force himself to cry in front of a psychiatrist, a jury heard yesterday.

Accused Ian Stewart, 56, spoke of his fiancee in the past tense and appeared “emotionless” in meetings with a psychiatric nurse.

The 56-year-old computer expert is accused of drugging and killing Helen, 51, to get his hands on her multimillion-pound fortune. The couple had a holiday home in Broadstairs.

Her body was found in a cesspit beneath the home she shared with Stewart in Royston, Hertfordshire, three months after she disappeared.

St Albans Crown Court heard evidence from community psychiatric nurse Gill Currey, who had meetings with Stewart after Helen was reported missing.

She said: “I found him to be very matter-of-fact when talking about Helen going missing. There was no emotion and at one point he put his head down in, what appeared to me and my colleague, an effort to make himself cry.

"I spoke to my colleague about this afterwards. Overall we were with Stewart for about an hour.”

The nurse was also asked about pet dachshund Boris, who was found alongside Helen on July 15 last year.

She said: “He spoke just about the dog, that he was Helen’s pride and joy – in other words talking in the past tense. He said Helen was always a worrier. Him referring to Helen and Boris in the past tense struck me as quite odd, given someone had gone missing.”

The court also heard from jeweller Sophia Hersh, who said the couple had decided to spend £14,500 on Helen’s engagement ring and wedding band. They were due to marry in September.

She said Stewart did not appear to be excited about the ring during a meeting months before Helen was allegedly murdered.

'Him referring to Helen and Boris in the past tense struck me as quite odd' - Community psychiatric nurse, Gill Currey

The court has previously been told about a note Helen left, saying she needed space and was going to the home in Broadstairs.

DC Matt Whalley said the internet router at the Broadstairs property was examined twice.

He said on the first examination data was found, but on a second examination “things had changed”. The prosecution previously claimed Stewart had taken Helen’s phone and it picked up the wifi at her Broadstairs home after she had been allegedly killed.

DC Whalley told the court: “In the second examination, once the wireless router had been recovered from the Royston address, there were no logs present at all, and the two wifi names had been reset to factory defaults. There’s a very small hole at the back of the device to reset it, resetting it doesn’t happen by accident.”

Stewart denies murder, preventing a lawful burial, fraud and three counts of perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.