Who did Colin Howell kill and where is he now?
COLIN HOWELL and his then lover Hazel Stewart murdered two people in 1991, and got away with it for years before he confessed.
But who did he kill and where is he now? Here’s all you need to know.
Who is Colin Howell?
Colin Howell is a former dentist who is serving 21 years for murdering two people in 1991 with Hazel Stewart, with whom he was having an affair.
In addition to the double murders, Howell, who’s now in his early 60s, was also convicted of the indecent assault of five women.
All had been drugged and abused while they were patients at his dental surgery.
He said in police interviews that he had drugged his lover for sex sessions but insisted it had been consensual.
Stewart, who is a former Sunday school teacher said she didn’t consent and had been caught up in a horrifically coercive relationship.
Howell has never been charged over his behaviour towards her.
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Who did he kill?
Howell murdered his wife Lesley, 31, and Trevor, 32, who was his lover and accomplice Hazel Stewart’s husband.
His wife was killed at her home before he arrived at the Stewart house to kill his lover’s spouse.
He made the two deaths look like a suicide pact by moving the bodies into an idling car with a pipe running from the exhaust to the car, before reporting his wife missing the following day.
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Howell and Stewart’s relationship had ended by 1996.
They both remarried and Howell had five more children to add to the four he already had, the Mail reported.
In 2009, Howell came forward and confessed to the killings.
He pleaded guilty to the murders in 2010, and was handed a 21-year sentence before turning evidence on Stewart.
According to the Mail, he told the jury: “I may have been the lead partner in the waltz but Hazel was dancing in cooperation.”
What happened to Hazel Stewart?
Stewart was sentenced to 18 years in 2011.
After she was convicted, trial judge Mr Justice Hart said she could have saved her husband’s life if she had wanted.
The court had heard she’d played a part in planning the murders and disposed of evidence.
Speaking from Hydebank Prison in 2021, she told the Belfast Telegraph that Howell held “all the power” during their affair, and that he would gas her at his surgery in what she’s sure were practice runs for the assaults he carried out on patients.
She said: “Even when he was taking me to the surgery and gassing me, he was experimenting on me and I knew that. How could I stop it?
“My self-worth was on the ground, I was holding a secret that no one knew about.
“Most of the time I just wanted to die, I wanted it over.
“I didn’t care if he gassed me, I didn’t care because my life was not my own life.
“I couldn’t go anywhere, I couldn’t do anything.”
The Public Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute Howell for the alleged rape and sexual assault of Stewart during their time together.
In June 2021, it was reported that her lawyers were planning to challenge that decision, saying she is being discriminated against because she is in jail.
Where is Colin Howell now?
Howell is currently in prison serving a 21-year sentence.
On May 25, 2016, the Belfast Telegraph reported that he had been rushed to hospital with stomach problems and dehydration.
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It’s believed the killer dentist had gone on hunger strike after being told he wouldn’t get his £587,526.27 NHS pension because of the sexual assaults at his surgery.
In 2016, the murders were dramatised in controversial ITV series The Secret, in which Howell was played by James Nesbitt.