DENTIST COLIN Howell has denied a claim he killed his wife and the husband of his former lover so he could gain hundreds of thousands of pounds from his wife’s financial estate at a time when he was in danger of going bankrupt.
In his third day of giving evidence at Coleraine Court, Howell rejected a claim by defence counsel Paul Ramsey that in killing his wife Lesley Howell (31) and Trevor Buchanan (32), the policeman husband of his then lover Hazel Buchanan (now Stewart), he was motivated by financial pressures. Ms Stewart (47), Ballystrone Road, Coleraine, Co Derry, denies she was part of a joint enterprise with Howell to murder their spouses in May 1991 and make it look like a suicide pact.
Howell agreed “money was tight” at the time and that he had told his wife, whom he had accused of huge overspending, that they were in danger of going bankrupt. He insisted that, while he was under financial pressure, he did not face insolvency.
Mr Ramsey said Howell benefited by more than £400,000 from his wife’s estate, although Howell said the actual figure was £212,000.“Your murderous intent was all about the money,” said Mr Ramsey.“That’s wrong, totally wrong,” replied Howell.
“She was worth more to you dead than alive, basically, wasn’t that right?” added Mr Ramsey.
“That was not the motive behind it, it was not considered,” said Howell.
Howell is serving a 21-year sentence for the murders. He poisoned the couple with carbon monoxide piped from his car as they slept in their homes. He then set up a scene to look as though they had taken their own lives because they could not cope with the affair between himself and Ms Stewart.
Howell said the three abortions Ms Howell had in the year before they were married in 1983 put a strain on their marriage, even though outwardly their subsequent family of four children and their place in the community gave the impression of a normal, happy marriage.
There was “a heaviness that never lifted”, he said. “Inside we were crumbling.” He also referred to a resultant power struggle within the marriage where in many arguments Ms Howell got the upper hand, and how she used sarcasm and her quicker wit against him. She demonstrated “hatred and contempt” that wounded him.
Howell also referred to Solomon in the Bible, saying a man who commits adultery gives up his strength to “one who is cruel”, adding, “I would not want to argue with the wisest man in the world”.
The court heard Howell told psychiatrist Dr Helen Harbinson he needed to be released from Ms Howell’s control. He denied dropping an electric cable into her bath to try to electrocute her even though she had told a friend, Margaret Topping, about the incident and suffering an electric shock.
Howell said that incident happened in April 1991, weeks before the double-murder, when they were having a row in the bathroom while she was having a bath. He showed his wife the cable, flicked it across her shoulder, and then dropped it to the floor.
He insisted she did not suffer a shock but said it was at this stage that the balance of power shifted from Ms Howell to him, and when he also realised he could do something about his situation.
“Lesley saw something in me that could kill her. She was right about that.”
Howell described as a “eureka moment” when he decided the couple would be murdered. The court was told this was on May 15th, 1991, four days before the bodies of Ms Howell and Mr Buchanan were discovered in a fume-filled garage in Castlerock, near Coleraine. The court heard how Howell had an affair with a woman from Queen’s University a year before his affair with Ms Stewart. His wife was not aware of this affair.
Howell also elaborated on how after first deciding to admit the murders to police in 1998 he then changed his mind after meeting a woman called Sandra at a church service in Co Antrim.
The woman, who worked as a cleaner and also cleaned his house, referred to Corinthians 4:5, which opens: “Do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes”.
This, he felt, indicated he should not then confess to the murders. The trial continues.
