A DENTIST awaiting trial for the murder of his wife and a police officer was accused yesterday of drugging and indecently assaulting women.
Dr Colin Howell (49), Ballymoney, Co Antrim, faced eight new charges when he appeared in the dock at court in Coleraine, Co Derry.
The assaults are alleged to have happened over a 10-year period between March 1998 and last December.
Dr Howell has already been charged with murdering his wife Lesley (31) and RUC scenes of crime officer Trevor Buchanan (32), whose bodies were discovered in a fume-filled car in the seaside town of Castlerock, Co Derry, almost 18 years ago.
At the time it was believed they were the victims of a suicide pact.
However, after detectives reopened the investigation late last month, the dentist and Const Buchanan’s wife Hazel (45), were charged with murdering their ex-partners in May 1991.
Yesterday, Dr Howell faced an additional eight charges relating to four incidents when he allegedly indecently assaulted women and also allegedly administered stupefying or overpowering drugs to enable him to commit indecent assault.
None of the women was identified during the brief three-minute hearing during which Dr Howell sat pale-faced in the dock in North Antrim Magistrates Court.
Neither was the location where its alleged they happened, but according to Chief Insp Gary Shaw, the detective heading the inquiry and who formally charged Dr Howell, it is claimed they took place between 1998 and 2008.
Dr Howell, a father of 10, was living at Sea Road, Castlerock, at the time of his arrest almost a fortnight ago. He did not speak during yesterday’s hearing in front of Judge Richard Wilson, who remanded him in custody until March 6th. Hazel Stewart – she remarried a senior police officer – was granted £15,000 bail. – (PA)