Colin Howell murdered his wife Lesley and his lover Hazel Stewart’s husband Trevor in 1991 before covering it up as a suicide, letting his children believe their mother took her own life for 18 years
Lauren Bradford-Clarke’s father murdered her mother and kept it a secret(Image: ITV)
Colin Howell’s children have recalled the devastating moment they realised their father killed their mum. The dental surgeon also murdered his lover Hazel Buchanan’s spouse in 1991.
Howell, of Castlerock, is said to have “carefully planned and ruthlessly executed” the murder of his wife Lesley and Buchanan’s husband Trevor. Both Lesley and Trevor were asleep when Howell killed them.
He then concealed the murders by placing the bodies in a car filled with exhaust fumes, causing police to conclude that the pair had taken their own lives. However, 18 years later, Howell walked into a police station and confessed to the crimes.
On ITV’s Killer in the House, Howell’s daughter Lauren Bradford-Clarke recalled the moment she discovered her father had murdered her mother. She said: “I physically fell on the floor. Cold blood ran through my body and I was so angry.”
Her brother Jonathan expressed: “It felt like chaos inside. I will just never understand.”
Jonathan went on to label his father’s actions as “twisted”. He stated that he no longer views Howell as his father, a sentiment shared by his siblings.
He said: “At what point do you suggest to your lover, maybe we kill them? That’s an answer that I’ll never get.
“The motive behind their decision to murder is unfathomable. Rather than have his own reputation tarnished by leaving his wife for another woman, he would rather violently murder two people and hide it in a twisted world.”
Jonathan added: “I don’t consider him my father, I never should have been raised by him. I should have been raised by my mother.”
Jonathan’s brother Daniel decided to trade life in London for New York to “have my own identity” away from being known as the “crazy dentist killer’s” son.
He continued: “I tend to refer to him as Colin, I don’t know what it means to forgive him. When he chose to murder my mother, in my opinion, he chose to abdicate from his role as a father. My whole identity got caught up being the killer’s son.
“I was working as a local doctor in London and someone heard my accent and was like, ‘Oh my god, you’re Colin’s son, the crazy dentist killer’. It was too much and I felt like I want to be my own person and have my own identity.”
In December 2010, Howell received a minimum sentence of 21 years in prison after admitting to two counts of murder. In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Hart characterised the crime as a “cold blooded, carefully planned and ruthlessly executed double murder of two people who Howell saw as standing in the way of his adulterous desire to be with Hazel Buchanan.”
The judge informed the court that Hazel had called out for their son Matthew as her husband gassed him. Matthew tragically passed away years after her death due to a fall in Russia.
Buchanan, who later became known as Hazel Stewart following her remarriage, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of murder.
