DENTIST COLIN Howell used drugs to sedate his wife so he could continue his affair with Hazel Stewart, her murder trial has heard.
Jurors were also told that Howell, currently serving a 21-year sentence for the murders of his wife and his lover’s former husband, also gave drugs to Ms Stewart (formerly Buchanan) so that she could avoid “Christian guilt” when they had sex.
Ms Stewart (47) denies the murders of her husband Trevor Buchanan and Lesley Howell but has admitted she knew of Howell’s plot to carry out the murders.
The prosecution claims both Stewart and Howell were involved in a plot to murder their spouses so that they could be together and to cover up their deaths to make it look as if they died as a result of a suicide pact. Howell confessed to the 1991 murders two years ago.
Trevor McAuley, who began seeing the defendant after her affair with Howell ended, yesterday told the jury of three women and nine men that Howell used to visit Stewart with the drugs in the “floppy needle”.
“He would administer this drug to her and she would pass out and she would really know nothing about it until the morning when she woke,” he said. “On one occasion he almost overdid it and gave her too much and he was actually concerned if he was going to get her to come round.”
He explained this was so that Howell “could enjoy sexual gratification with her without her feeling guilt of it while he was able to have pleasure”.
Mr McAuley told the court that Howell continued to visit Ms Stewart’s house after their affair had ended and, on one occasion, that he saw Howell sitting in a car parked outside her house when they returned home before he drove off at speed.
He once saw Howell standing “like a statue” at the bottom of the garden late at night. He said he wanted to go out to confront Howell but Ms Stewart warned him not to “because I didn’t know what he was capable of”.
In other evidence, one witness spoke of the reaction of Stewart to the discovery of the bodies.
Elizabeth Hansford, wife of Pastor John Hansford from Coleraine Baptist church where the Howells and the Buchanans worshipped, said she had told Ms Stewart of the discovery.
“There was no shock expressed, she didn’t seem to give any emotional response at all,” she said.
Pastor Hansford, who was involved in months of marriage counselling involving the Buchanans and Howells, told the court that Howell had at one stage sought forgiveness from Trevor Buchanan over his affair.
“He offered his sincere apologies . . . and sought his forgiveness. They then embraced,” he said.