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Hazel Stewart arriving at court on Tuesday Paul Faith/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Hazel Stewart

Hazel Stewart found guilty of murdering husband and former lover's wife

The 47-year-old has been found guilty on both counts of murder at a court in Coleraine today.

HAZEL STEWART HAS been found guilty of the double murder of her husband and her former lover’s wife at a court in Northern Ireland this afternoon.

Stewart, a mother-of-two from Coleraine, had been on trial for the murder of Trevor Buchanan and Lesley Howell in May 1991. She denied the charges.

Her former lover Colin Howell is already serving 21 years for the killings which he admitted to in 2009.

The bodies of Lesley Howell and Buchanan were found in a fume filled car in 1991 with initial reports that it was a suicide.

The jury at Coleraine Crown Court found Stewart guilty after a 15-day trial.

During the course of the trial, in which Hazel Stewart did not testify and at one point broke down in court after hearing a taped recording of a confession, the prosecution alleged that the 47-year-old had no innocent explanation for her role in the murders.

The defence had claimed that Colin Howell acted alone in the murders and that Stewart feared for her life if she said anything to police.