HAZEL STEWART was yesterday convicted of the double murder of her first husband, Trevor Buchanan and of Lesley Howell, wife of her former lover and accomplice Colin Howell.
There were emotional scenes at Coleraine court as the jury of nine men and three women unanimously found 48-year-old Stewart guilty of engaging in a joint conspiracy to murder Howell and Buchanan in May 1991.
Stewart’s daughter and son, Lisa and Andrew, broke down when the verdict was announced. “It’s not fair, no, it’s not fair, it’s not fair!” Lisa cried.
She sought to reach out to her mother who was standing behind the glass-covered dock.
Andrew Buchanan let out a loud cry of anguish while their stepfather, and Stewart’s second husband, David Stewart also broke down in tears.
The three were allowed some brief time in an anteroom of the court to be with Stewart before she was taken away in a prison van to begin a life sentence at 3.18 in the afternoon.
Howell and Stewart, who had been conducting an on-off affair for a year, carried out their joint murder of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan on the night of May 18th and into May 19th, 1991.
Colin Howell poisoned the couple with carbon monoxide, piped from his car, as they slept in their homes. He then contrived a scene to look as though they had taken their own lives because they could not cope with the affair between himself and Stewart.
It took the jury two hours and 29 minutes to reach its decision.
Mr Justice Anthony Hart sentenced her to life in prison and said he would decide in Belfast on Friday week what minimum sentence Stewart should serve.
Howell, who was convicted of the double murder in a separate case in December and who agreed he was the “mastermind” behind the plot, received a minimum tariff of 21 years in prison.
Howell, a former lay-preacher pleaded guilty to the murders after first confessing to church elders to the killings in January 2009.
Stewart pleaded not guilty but did not give evidence during the 15-day trial. In taped interviews with police played in court, Stewart admitted she engaged in a joint conspiracy.
At one sitting, the jury heard Det Sgt Geoff Ferris putting it to her: “Colin Howell could not have done this on his own and you could not have done it on your own. This had to be a joint enterprise between the two of you. The two of you had to work together to make this plan come to fruition. Do you accept that?”
“Yes,” she replied.
The officer also asked: “Sorry, just for the benefit of the tape?”
“Yes, yes,” she said.
Howell over four days of evidence also directly implicated Stewart in the double murder.
Mr Justice Hart told Stewart as she was convicted of murder the only sentence open to him to impose was life in prison.
Among the family members also in court was Lauren Howell, now Bradford, who during the case had heard her convicted father Colin give evidence against Stewart. Alice Berry, Lesley Howell’s elderly aunt, and many others struggled to maintain the dignified composure they had shown throughout the trial.
Speaking to the media afterwards, Gordon Buchanan, brother of Trevor, lamented his loss and that of Lesley Howell, and “a prolonged conspiracy to cover up what had happened to two young people who were caring and loving”.
The Buchanan family’s obvious grief had been accentuated, he said, by the stunning confession two years ago from killer Colin Howell and “by the shock of knowing how they died”.
He said his family would “strive to get through this”.
Lauren Bradford, clearly shaken and accompanied by her uncle Chris Clarke, then confirmed they were “comforted” that the two who planned to kill Trevor Buchanan and her mother had received justice.
“We know her to have been a loving and devoted mother,” she said, “and we bitterly regret the horrible way in which she has been taken from us”.
She made common cause with the Buchanans “who share our loss”.