Hazel Stewart has been found guilty of murdering her husband Trevor Buchanan and her lover’s wife Lesley Howell in May 1991.
Ms Stewart (48) stood accused at Coleraine Crown Court of plotting with her then-lover - dentist Colin Howell - to poison Mr Buchanan and Ms Howell in May 1991 so they could be together.
Their spouses were found dead in a fume-filled car in the seaside town of Castlerock, Co Derry, in what police believed was a suicide pact. The crimes came to light only when Howell confessed to elders in his church two years ago.
She was given a mandatory life sentence. Stewart is due in court in Belfast on March 11th when she will learn the minimum jail term she must serve.
After Mr Justice Anthony Hart concluded his direction at Coleraine Crown Court this morning, the jury of nine men and three women retired to begin their deliberations. “The prosecution say that when you consider not just what Howell says but what Stewart admitted to the police during those interviews there can be no doubt they were in it together,” he said.
But he outlined the defence’s case that they were not in a joint enterprise and it was not a plan. “The defendant has not given evidence at this trial to undermine, contradict or explain the evidence put before you by the prosecution. You may draw such inferences as appear proper from her failure to do so.”
After an hour of deliberations, the jury sent a request to Judge Hart asking for transcripts of interviews Ms Stewart had with police after her arrest in 2009. Fifteen tapes were played to the court last week, at the end of which Ms Stewart admitted knowing about elements of the murder plot in advance.
The jury asked for transcripts of interviews 10 to 15, amounting to 170 pages. Crown lawyer Ciaran Murphy said he would facilitate the request.
The jury returned its verdict after two and a half hours.
Howell has admitted killing both victims by poisoning them in their own homes with carbon monoxide fumes before taking their bodies to the home of his late father-in-law in Castlerock, Co Derry, and making their deaths look like suicide. He is serving a life sentence with a 21-year minimum tariff and has claimed Ms Stewart was his willing accomplice.
Additional reporting: PA