Colin Howell Confession Tapes Broadcast for First Time in Shocking BBC Documentary
Introduction: A Case That Shocked Northern Ireland
The confessions of one of Northern Ireland’s most notorious killers are to be broadcast for the first time. In 2009, Colin Howell walked into the police station in Coleraine, Co Derry, and confessed to the double murder of his wife and his lover’s husband. The new BBC documentary, ‘Confessions of a Killer’, marks a significant moment in one of the region’s most disturbing criminal cases, offering unprecedented insight into the mind of a murderer who maintained his deadly secret for nearly two decades.
The Crimes and the Cover-Up
On 18 May 1991, Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan were murdered in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in a staged double killing carried out by Lesley’s husband, Colin Howell, who sought to disguise their deaths as a suicide pact. The deaths of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan almost 20 years previously had been treated as suicides. In the documentary, Howell is described as a “pillar of the community”. A dentist, he was prominent in Coleraine Baptist Church where he and Stewart, a Sunday school teacher, had met.
The Confession Tapes
Confessions Of A Killer, a new two-part documentary series, features original audio recordings of what Colin Howell told police in 2009. Broadcast for the first time, these recordings provide a revealing insight into his actions and his decision to make a confession about them near two decades later. Explaining his decision to confess, he said: “I know that I have lived in an unreal world, a fantasy world almost, being one thing deep down and not even knowing that I’m a fake…”
Justice and Significance
Howell and Stewart were convicted in 2011 of the murders of their spouses and sentenced to a minimum of 21 years and 18 years in prison, respectively. Last year, Stewart failed in a legal bid to secure a reduction in her jail sentence for her part in the murders, claiming she had been under Howell’s coercive control at the time. From Below The Radar Television with support from Northern Ireland Screen, both episodes will be available on Tuesday 20 January at 6am on BBC iPlayer. The first episode will be on that evening on BBC One NI at 9pm. For those affected by this tragedy and the wider public, the documentary serves as a sobering reminder of how evil can hide behind respectability, and the importance of justice, even when delayed by decades.