THE TRIAL OF A WOMAN accused of murdering her husband and her alleged lover’s wife has heard that she had no moral objection to the murders, but did not want to get caught.

Hazel Stewart denies murdering her husband Trevor Buchanan and Howell’s wife, Lesley Howell, in May 1991.

During his first day in the witness stand, convicted murderer Colin Howell claimed his former lover and co-accused Hazel Stewart was in on the plan to kill their spouses 20 years ago, the Irish News reports.

He said when he told Stewart of his plan to kill Buchanan and Howell, she was concerned about getting caught, “not about the concept”.

He also claimed that he gave Stewart sedatives to drug her husband with before he came to their house to kill him.

Howell, who has been sentenced to a minimum of 21 years for the two murders, claimed he and Stewart resumed their affair six weeks after the killings.

Howell’s trial heard his wife awoke as he was poisoning her with carbon monoxide fumes, using piping from his car exhaust, and called out for their six-year-old son. Howell then went to Buchanan’s home and poisoned him, before putting the two bodies into a car and setting it up as a suicide.

The Guardian reports that he told Stewart’s trial yesterday that on the day of the murders, he divided his time between making a birthday present for his son and setting up the killings. He and his wife held a party for their two-year-old son’s birthday that day.

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