A BAPTIST minister will be among key witnesses to testify at the trial of Hazel Stewart, a former play school assistant accused of the murders of her policeman husband and ex-lover’s wife in Co Derry nearly 20 years ago, a court heard yesterday.
John Hansford was the pastor in Coleraine, Co Derry, at the time of the deaths of Constable Trevor Buchanan (32) and Lesley Howell (31), who, along with their immediate families, were members of his church.
Mr Justice Anthony Hart told a jury of nine men and three women after it was sworn in at the start of the trial, which is expected to last four weeks, that the minister’s wife, Elizabeth, is also to be called to give evidence.
Ms Stewart (47) – she later remarried – of Ballystrone Road, Coleraine, has pleaded not guilty to the murders in May 1991 when the bodies of her husband and Mrs Howell were discovered in a car filled with carbon-monoxide fumes in a garage behind houses in the seaside town of Castlerock, Co Derry.
At the time it was thought they had died as a result of a suicide pact because of their distress over the affair, but police reopened the investigation in January 2009 when Mrs Howell’s husband, dentist Colin Howell (52), was questioned again by detectives.
He was jailed for 21 years last November after he admitted gassing his wife – the mother of their four children – and Constable Buchanan.
Details of the people to be called to give evidence emerged as Mr Justice Hart addressed the jury at Coleraine Crown Court, warning it not to discuss the case with anyone, including other jurors.