Killer dentist ‘injected his lover with drugs’

Killer dentist Colin Howell injected his lover with drugs to knock her out while they had sex and once feared he had overdosed her, a UK court heard yesterday.

Hazel Stewart wanted to be unconscious during intercourse so she would not experience any Christian guilt, another former boyfriend of the mother-of-two told her double murder trial.

Trevor McAuley said Ms Stewart had also warned him to steer clear of Mr Howell, then her ex, because he had no idea “what he is capable of”.

Ms Stewart is accused of killing her husband Trevor Buchanan and Mr Howell’s wife Lesley in May 1991 and making police believe it was a suicide pact. Her then lover Howell has already pleaded guilty to poisoning their spouses and leaving their bodies in a fume-filled garage in Castlerock to make it appear they had taken their own lives.

The third day of the trial in Coleraine Crown Court also heard that in the period before the murders, Mr Howell gave his wife sleeping tablets to knock her out so he could meet Ms Stewart to carry on their affair.

Mr McAuley, who started seeing Ms Stewart five years after the deaths and as her relationship with Mr Howell was ending, told the jury she had told him that when she was involved with Mr Howell he would come round to her house with drugs in a “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.”

Asked by Crown lawyer Neil Connor why Mr Howell gave her the sedatives, Mr McAuley replied: “So he could enjoy sexual gratification with her without her feeling guilt of it while he was able to have pleasure.”

Under cross examination, Mr McAuley indicated the guilt Ms Stewart claimed to have experienced was in relation to her Christianity.

Mr McAuley, who said Ms Stewart had “expensive tastes” and was “difficult to keep”, also alleged that Mr Howell stalked them in the early part of their relationship.

He said he would be often sitting in a car outside Ms Stewart’s home and would speed off, sometimes in reverse gear, when he saw them arriving home together.