23-05-2025
Killer Hazel Stewart appealing double murder conviction for the third time
Stewart and her lover Colin Howell were jailed for killing their spouses in a staged suicide pact
Hazel Stewart, who was convicted for the double murder of her husband and her lover's wife, is appealing her sentence for a third time.
Stewart and her lover Colin Howell were sentenced to life behind bars for the May 1991 deaths of Trevor Buchanan (32) and Lesley Howell (31).
Lawyers for Stewart have said she will launch her third appeal to the Belfast Court of Appeal today.
Centre: Hazel Stewart. Inset: Colin Howell (left), Trevor Buchanan (top right), Lesley Howell (bottom right).
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They are filing an 'Out of Time' application to extend time to hear the appeal against her sentence.
'This latest application is grounded on the basis that at the time of the commission of the index offences she was under the 'coercive control' of Colin Howell,' a statement from KRW Law firm said.
'We in turn say coercive control wasn't known about at the time of her trial in 2011 when she was convicted and sentenced. Nor had it evolved sufficiently as an issue to be raised at the time of her subsequent appeals.
Trevor Buchanan
'The court will adjudicate on a preliminary issue as to whether or not there was any
delay in the applicant raising coercive control as an appeal issue before now,' the statement continued.
'The outworkings of that request will determine whether or not any fresh evidence from an
expert on coercive control can be adduced.'
In 2010, Colin Howell pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 21-years.
Howell implicated Stewart in the plot and gave evidence against her at her trial.
She pleaded not guilty and said she acted under duress.
However, the mother-of-two was unanimously convicted of both killings at Coleraine Crown Court in 2011.
She was given a life sentence, with a minimum term of 18 years.
The murder of Lesley and Trevor was staged to look like a suicide.
Their bodies were discovered in a fume-filled car at a property in Castlerock, Derry.
To police, it appeared as though the pair died as part of a pact after they found out their partners were having an affair.
A 2016 ITV series serialised the crimes in a drama titled 'The Secret' starring James Nesbitt and Genevieve O'Reilly as Howell and Stewart.
The show was based on Let This Be Our Secret, a book about the crimes by Belfast journalist Deric Henderson.
