The sentencing of convicted murderer Hazel Stewart has been put back until next week, the Northern Ireland Court service said today.
Stewart (48) was last week convicted of murdering her husband and ex-lover's wife at Coleraine Crown Court and the minimum term she will serve in prison was due to be announced on Friday.
But in a statement today the trial judge, Mr Justice Hart, said he will now hear final submissions at a hearing at Belfast Crown Court this Friday before passing sentence the following Wednesday.
Stewart was jailed for life last week after a jury convicted her of murdering her policeman husband Trevor Buchanan (31) and Lesley Howell (31), whose bodies were found in a car filled with carbon monoxide fumes at Castlerock, Co Derry in May 1991.
Stewart's former lover Colin Howell (52) is serving a 21-year-sentence at Maghaberry Prison, near Lisburn, Co Antrim after he admitted murdering his wife, Ms Howell, who he had four children with, and Mr Buchanan, who was married to Stewart.
He has been in custody since January 2009 when he confessed his guilt, first to his elders at the Barn Fellowship church and later to investigating police officers.
Howell of Glebe Road, Castlerock, Co Derry, gassed both his victims as they slept at their homes in Coleraine and then stage-managed the deaths to make them look as if it was suicide.
Stewart, a mother of two from Ballystrone Road, Macosquin, Coleraine, Co Derry, who later re-married, had been out on bail until she was found guilty last Wednesday at the end of a 15-day trial when it emerged she knew in advance of the plan to carry out the double murder before cutting up and burning the garden hose Howell used to poison his victims with car exhaust fumes.
PA