Colin Howell

Colin Howell (born 14 March 1959) is a Northern Irish convicted double murderer. The murders and surrounding story were the subject of an ITV drama series The Secret, broadcast in April and May 2016.

Colin Howell
Born	Colin Howell (1959-03-14) 14 March 1959 (age 66) Portadown, Northern Ireland
Spouse(s)	Lesley Clarke (1983–1991) Hazel Elkin (partner, 1990–1996) Kyle Jorgensen (1997–2011)
Convictions	Murder, sexual assault
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment for murder (minimum 21 years), 51⁄2 years for sexual assault
Accomplices	Hazel Elkin (life imprisonment for murder, minimum 18 years)
Details
Victims	2 (murder)
Span of crimes	18 – 19 May 1991
Country	Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Date apprehended	18 November 2010

Background

Howell, a native of Portadown and a dentist by occupation, was a deeply religious father of nine and a former lay preacher.^[1] He married his first wife Lesley (née Clarke) in July 1983 and together they had four children. Howell eventually set up his own dental practice in Ballymoney. The Howells were members of the local Baptist church in Coleraine, and through this they met Trevor Buchanan (who was an RUC officer) and his wife Hazel. In 1990, Howell and Hazel Buchanan began an extra-marital affair, which eventually discovered by their spouses and members of their church congregation. Although they apparently ended their affair after it became public, Howell and Hazel Buchanan later rekindled it in early-1991.^[2] Howell decided to murder the lover's spouses and stage it to appear like a suicide pact.^[3]

Murder of wife

Howell first murdered his own wife at their home, while their young children slept, on the night of the 18 May 1991 by first attaching a garden hose to the exhaust of his Renault Savanna car, feeding the hose into the house and then holding it close to his sleeping wife's face while the car's engine was running. Lesley Howell woke up and cried out for her eldest son Matthew, at which point Howell restrained her until she finally died from carbon monoxide poisoning. After placing her dead body in the boot of the car, and placing a bicycle on top, Howell then drove to Buchanan's house and repeated the process. After depositing his dead body in the car, Howell drove towards his father-in-law's house, stopping half way to leave the bicycle at a nature reserve. On arriving at the house in Castlerock, Howell backed the car into the garage and positioned the dead bodies in the vehicle, before running the garden hose into the car and turning on the ignition. Howell then ran along Castlerock beach to avoid being spotted, before burning the clothes he had been wearing and cycling back home.^[4]

After murdering his wife, Howell received a payout of £400,000. Howell later married Kyle Jorgensen, a native of New York, with whom he had five children. ^[5] Howell's ex-brother-in-law has since accused him of murdering Harry Clarke, Howell's then-father-in-law, who died only 11 days before Lesley.^[6][7]

In May 2007, Howell's eldest son, 22-year-old Matthew Howell, died in Russia after he fell four floors from an apartment block in St Petersburg.^[8]

Scammed in the Philippines

In 2008, Howell lost £350,000 in a get-rich-quick scheme which had claimed to find Yamashita's gold in the Philippines.^[9] Howell had been led to believe he would make £20 million; however he only acquired a few brass ammunition boxes, containing silver coins, worth about £30.^[10] Howell initially invested £100,000 but, over six months, steadily invested more after being told that the gold was buried under booby-trapped tunnels. He sold his shares in two dental practices and attempted to persuade friends to invest.^[11]

He believed that this, and the death of his son, were punishments from God.^[12]

Murder confession

In 2009, Howell confessed his role in the murders to elders in his church, who urged him to inform police.^[13] He pleaded guilty to the murders on 18 November 2010 and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum 21-year jail term before possibility of release.^[14]

His former lover Hazel (née Elkin, formerly married to Trevor Buchanan, married David Stewart after seven-year relationship with Howell) claimed in court that she acted under duress, but was found guilty of the murders of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan in March 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.^[15][16] The trial judge stated that Hazel Stewart could have prevented Buchanan's death.^[17]

Police investigators were later criticised for having overlooked some facts, most notably that the driver's window was open and that Buchanan's leg was hanging out of the open car door; in addition, a witness had told police that Howell had previously tried to murder his wife.^[18]

On 17 May 2011 Howell pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting nine female patients in his surgery over a period of several years.^[19] He was consequently stripped of his National Health Service pension.^[20]

See also

• Let This Be Our Secret (2011 novel)
• The Secret (2016 miniseries)