DENTIST COLIN Howell has admitted he was the “mastermind” behind the double-murder of his wife Lesley and Trevor Buchanan, husband of his former lover Hazel Stewart, but said Ms Stewart had made her own choices for which she must take responsibility.
Ms Stewart (47), Ballystrone Road, Coleraine, denies she was part of a joint enterprise with Howell to kill their spouses and make it look like a suicide pact.
The bodies of Ms Howell (31) and Mr Buchanan (32) were found in a fume-filled garage in the seaside town of Castlerock, near Coleraine, in May 1991.
Howell, who is serving a 21-year sentence after belatedly admitting the murders, poisoned them 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 his and Ms Stewart’s affair.
Howell conceded at Coleraine Crown Court yesterday on his second day giving evidence that he had been manipulative, merciless, cold-blooded and callous.
“I believe any human being has potential to do what I did, but I did it – that’s what sets me apart from most of humanity,” he said.
He denied he controlled Ms Stewart. “Hazel and I were waltzing together, in time . . . I may have been the lead partner in that dance, but she was doing it in perfect harmony and willingly.” He said he was the “mastermind” behind the plot. “I was the one who had intelligence to put the plan together. There is no doubt about it that proportionally I am the major person in the crime. I have never doubted that. At that time, if I had been able to take all the blame, I would have done that.
“But in the last two years it has dawned on me Hazel is not my responsibility. There is a bigger picture. She based herself as an innocent victim.”
He said he was in control in one area, with Ms Stewart being controlling in another. He said: “Hazel made her own choices and has to take responsibility for that.”
Howell confirmed he had drugged Ms Stewart to have sex on occasions, but said she was a willing participant. “It was something Hazel had fun with. She did it voluntarily. It is not control. Hazel liked it, wanted it.”
He said he used the drugs on Ms Stewart to help her assuage the guilt she felt on having sex with him after the double murder.
He said his murdered wife had three abortions in the year before they were married, and that during their affair Ms Stewart had an abortion.
Howell was asked about a psychiatric report prepared by Dr Helen Harbinson in which he described himself as a “small god who needed to be worshipped by women”. Dr Harbinson, he claimed, had misunderstood what he said, and despite his objections had refused to change the report.
Howell, who disclosed he had a nine-month sexual relationship with an unnamed staff member at his practice in 2005, pleaded guilty at Antrim Crown Court last year to indecently assaulting three unnamed female patients.
Howell claimed he had been within hours of admitting the murders to police in 1998 after first revealing his guilt to his second wife Kyle, two years after they married. He claimed he changed his mind over a “religious conviction” after meeting a girl at a church service who told him: “Colin, all your sins have been forgiven and forgotten by God.” Howell said he spoke with Kyle and talked about the disruption it would cause to the family if he confessed. They agreed it would be best if the matter was left in the past.
The case continues.