Video: No remorse from killer teacher Andrew Lindo and his cruel life of lies

As her family vowed that 30-year-old Marie would “live on in our hearts as a fabulous daughter, sister and loving mum” her killer was sent to begin his life sentence with the comments of Mr Justice Andrew Smith ringing in his ears.

Ordering him to serve a minimum of 22 years in jail the judge told him: “For some eight weeks while Marie Stewart’s remains were in the garage you convinced her family and friends that she had deserted you and the children for another man.

“You won sympathy for yourself and blackened Marie’s name. You sent cruel text messages from her telephone to convince those desperately worried about her that she was alive and had betrayed you and wanted nothing to do with them.

“There could hardly be a more heartless device for concealing your crime and Marie’s body, and if anything could add to the tragedy of the loss of a daughter, sister and friend, that was calculated to do so.”

Lindo, 29, was unanimously found guilty by a jury at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday of murdering Miss Stewart on December 18 last year. Her body was only discovered in the garage of their home in Perseverance Place, Holmfirth on February 13.

The judge told Lindo the jury had rejected his defence of loss of control. “The murder was not planned, but the attack on her was vicious and sustained.”

After assaulting her in bed, he tried to throttle her and then used a suitcase to haul her down to the living room still alive.

He then battered her face with a child’s solid wooden chair and tried to strangle her with a belt before taking her down to the garage, covering her face in bubble wrap and stabbing her at least eight times.

Within minutes of the killing he was “cool and calculating enough” to send his lover Angela Rylance a text assuring her he would collect her and bring her to his home for the night, which he did.

The judge said Lindo had convinced Miss Rylance he was a single father deserted by his partner and that evening “faced a crisis in the double life” he was leading having committed himself to let her stay the night.

“You might have been driven to do what you did because you could not face losing Angela Rylance.

“It was not the first time that you had seduced other women with such deceit, cunningly trapping them and betraying Marie and your family.”

It was a further aggravating feature of the case that his two children were in the house at the time of the killing.

“There is no evidence that they woke before or during the fatal attack, we can only hope that mercifully, they did not,” he said.

Allegations by Lindo accusing Miss Stewart of mistreating her own daughter had reached “new depths” and were without truth.

After the case Miss Stewart’s father Robert thanked the jury for reaching their verdict quickly, saying “it took away a lot of the pain for us.”

He said Lindo had failed in his attempt to portray Marie to police as a lazy, feckless mother and his not giving evidence revealed him as a coward.

Detective Superintendent Dick Nuttall said Lindo’s behaviour and selfishness had inspired revulsion among even the most experienced officers in the inquiry team.

“Marie Stewart died after a series of sustained assaults that began in a bedroom a few feet from where their young children lay asleep and which continued through three floors of the family home before ending with her body being callously consigned to a flight bag in the garage.”

“Within a few hours of her death he brought his unsuspecting new girlfriend into his home before embarking on an elaborate charade designed to convince others she was still alive.”

He said over the weeks that followed Lindo cruelly used text messages and Facebook to sustain that account and then when he was arrested tried to blacken Miss Stewart’s character in the worst possible way crying “crocodile tears” in interview.

Samantha Davidson from CPS Yorkshire and Humberside said the jury had seen through Lindo‘s inexcusable attack on Miss Stewart’s character forcing her family to endure a trial.

“He is an accomplished liar who led a double life culminating tragically in murder. Our thoughts are with Marie’s family and friends at this terrible time and we hope that today’s verdict can bring them some measure of closure.”

Womaniser with great cunning

THE judge who jailed callous murderer Andrew Lindo for life told him those who eventually consider whether it is safe to release him will be wary of his “extraordinary cunning and facility for deceit.”

Mr Justice Andrew Smith warned the womanising music teacher: “Those faced with the decision will weigh it carefully.

“They will also reflect upon how someone could be as calm and calculating as you were so soon after such a murder, and consider all the texts that you sent that evening, and they will ask themselves whether your mental state can sufficiently be comprehended for it to be safe to release you.”

He said Lindo had shown no remorse.