Bizarre Double Murder Trial Continues

Defence counsel for a Co Londonderry woman accused of freely taking part in the plot to kill her own husband and her then lover's wife, have claimed that dentist Colin Howell was forcing the accused, Hazel Stewart against her will to be complicit in the deadly plot.

The self-confessed killer dentist (pictured) has already told Coleraine Crown Court he had been "an evil man" having admitted killing his wife, Lesley Howell and the husband of Mrs Stewart - policeman, Trevor Buchanan in May 1991.

RUC Constable Buchanan was married to Howell's former lover Hazel Stewart who is now accused of the same two murders.

On day six of her murder trial Howell said he had volunteered to give evidence because he wanted the truth of the murders to be known.

The former dentist admits he gassed his victims with car exhaust fumes and then staged their bodies to look like a double suicide.

But, under cross-examination he denied he had exerted a controlling influence over Stewart who, a defence barrister claimed "wanted no part in the murder plot".

But Howell dismissed suggestions he had acted as a "puppet master" who exerted a domineering influence on Stewart.

The bodies of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan were found gassed by fumes in a car behind a row of houses in Castlerock, Co Londonderry more than 18 years ago.

Howell and his co-accused, as well as their partners, were all members of Coleraine Baptist Church at the time of the deaths.

A year after the police launched the original investigation, a Coroner's court inquest said the deaths were suicides, both victims having been poisoned by carbon monoxide fumes.

But, Howell revealed the true story many years later and pleaded his guilt when he appeared at Belfast Crown Court last November with his ex-lover Hazel Stewart now also standing trial for the murders.

See: Life Sentences For 'Suicide' Murders