Plans for TV drama on Howell murder case
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- Published: Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:58
- Written by News Editor
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The case of Northern Ireland dentist, Colin Howell, and the murders he committed are set to be be turned into major TV drama. Talks are in hand with ITV over the film, with James Nesbitt cast as the Ballmoney dentist, it is rumoured. Film and television director, Stuart Urban, who won a Bafta for his 1993 dramatisation of the Falklands War has been in negotiations with Belfast journalist Deric Henderson, who wrote a bestselling book about the murders called Let This Be Our Secret.
The murders were carried out by Colin Howell and his lover, Hazel Stewart, over 20 years ago. Howell and 51-year-old Stewart are serving life sentences for the murders of their respective spouses Lesley Howell (31) and Trevor Buchanan (32) in May 1991. The Ballymoney dentist and lay preacher gassed his wife and the RUC husband of his mistress and made it look like they died in a suicide pact in Castlerock after they discovered their partners were having an affair.
Police never suspected the truth, and it was only 19 years later that they reopened their investigation after Howell coolly walked into a police station and confessed to the murders, naming Stewart as his accomplice. In May 2011, Howell, who was ordered to serve at least 21 years behind bars for the murders, was sentenced to another five-and-a half-years' imprisonment for indecently assaulting a number of women while they were under sedation.
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