Killer dentist Colin Howell was trapped in a spider’s web woven by his lover Hazel Stewart which would eventually lead to them murdering his wife and her husband, he told his former mistress’s trial.
The disgraced one-time Christian preacher denied he had controlled Stewart, even though he drugged her prior to sex, and insisted she had seduced him at the outset of their torrid affair.
“Flies go into spiders’ webs because they think there is some food for them there and I willingly went after the bait and we got caught together in the trap,” he said during a dramatic second day in the witness box.
Assured and measured throughout, Howell delivered a series of elaborate and detailed answers under cross examination which held a packed Coleraine Crown Court captivated.
The 51-year-old father of 11 has already confessed to poisoning his wife Lesley and Stewart’s policeman husband Trevor Buchanan in May 1991 and staging it to look like a suicide pact.
Having broke down a number of times when giving evidence as a Crown witness yesterday, today he was composed and confident throughout, his voice never wavering as he described in sometime flamboyant terms her role in the plot to kill their partners.
“Hazel and I were waltzing together, in time,” he claimed.
“All the side-stepping was done together. I was not dragging her around the floor. I may have been the lead partner in that dance, but she was doing it in perfect harmony and willingly.”
Double murder accused Stewart (47) from Ballystrone Road, Coleraine, denies she was part of a joint enterprise with Howell to kill their spouses.
Dressed in a plum coat and white shirt, she sat with her head down as her one-time lover, whose marriage proposal she turned down four years after the murders, delivered his testimony.
The dentist’s dull grey suit, which has marked all his appearances in court, stood in vivid contrast to his often florid responses.
Members of the public arrived at the courthouse two hours ahead of the start of proceedings hoping to see the cross examination — most were disappointed as the gallery was filled to capacity with relatives.
The bodies of Mrs Howell (31) and Mr Buchanan (32) were found in a fume-filled garage in the seaside town of Castlerock near Coleraine.
Howell, who is serving a 21-year sentence, had poisoned them with carbon monoxide piped from his car as they slept in their own homes then set up a scene to look as though they had taken their own lives, because they could not cope with his and Stewart’s affair.
Claiming that Stewart had seduced him in 1990, Howell referred back to his first sexual encounter with her when he said she invited him round to teach her the guitar.
“She was wearing a short denim mini skirt, a sleeveless low cut blouse and perfume and I knew I was not there for guitar lessons,” he said.
But her defence lawyer Paul Ramsey QC had very different interpretation: “You are and have been for most of your adult life a sexual predator,” he declared.
At the opening of the cross examination, the double killer said he hoped the victims of his crimes can forgive him.
He said it would be selfish to seek forgiveness from all those hurt when he poisoned Mrs Howell and Mr Buchanan.
But with bereaved relatives sitting only feet away from him in the witness box, he claimed it would help their own healing process to forgive him.
“I would not ask for their forgiveness as that would be selfish,” he said quietly.
“If anyone chooses to forgive me then that would be a good thing.” He added: “I don’t think people can truly be healed until they forgive.” Howell, a professed devout Christian who admitted to the double murder to his church elders two years ago, was explaining to the lawyer why he had chosen to give evidence against her.
In response to Mr Ramsey’s first question, Howell, who was transported from Maghaberry high security prison in
Co Antrim, said he decided to take the stand to help the victims obtain closure.
“I set myself up to be a punch bag today for all I did,” he said.
“I am here under great personal shame, I brought disgrace on myself and many other people.” Howell said his confession had opened a wound that needed to be healed.
“I dealt with myself first (by confessing) and I then knew I had opened a wound that other people thought was closed,” he said.
“That was opened by me telling the truth. When a wound is opened a lot of people bleed.” He added: “Two years after my admission to police and arrest we have come to a point when I believe there are still obstacles in the way of the most important people healing, that’s the victims.” Mr Ramsey asked Howell whether he agreed with a series of adjectives other witnesses had chosen to describe him by.
He agreed that he was outgoing, ambitious, a leader and arrogant.
“My arrogance grew and became a huge problem toward the end, especially before my confession,” he said.
In response to whether he was a ladies’ man and was aware of his attractiveness to the opposite sex he said: “Only in part because behind it all with most beautiful females and handsome men there’s often a great insecurity and low self esteem.”
Howell conceded he had been manipulative, merciless, cold blooded and callous.
“What I did 20 years ago was the pinnacle of being callous and that has been hard to live with. My conscience became so crushed and all the things I had built around that, including my image, couldn’t cope with that.” But he denied he was psychotic — the assessment of specialist psychiatrist Dr Helen Harbinson who examined him in prison.
“I don’t agree with the conclusion of Helen Harbinson or any of the other psychiatrists,” he said. “I believe any human being has potential to do what I did, but I did it — that’s what sets me apart from most of humanity.” The trial continues.
PA