The son of killer dentist Colin Howell tells his story

On the night of his second birthday in May 1991, Seamus Daniel Howell’s mother Lesley was murdered by his father, Colin Howell, and his father’s lover, Hazel Stewart.

The pair also killed Stewart’s husband Trevor Buchanan.

They left the two bodies in a garage in Castlerock, Co Derry, staging the scene to make it look as if they had taken their own lives.

The pair had committed the perfect murder so they could be together. And they had got away with it.

That is until 2009 when Colin Howell, a respected dentist and devout evangelical Christian, walked into a police station out of the blue and confessed to the killings. He and Stewart were convicted of the murders and jailed for a minimum of 21 years and 18 years respectively.

Seamus grew up being told that his mother had killed herself, until the truth came out. By then he was a medical student in England. Now a doctor in New York he tells In the News what it was like growing up in the Howell house and how his discovered that his father was a murderer. He explains how it impacted on his life, and how it has made him acutely aware of injustice which now for him includes advocating for Palestine.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan and Suzanne Brennan.

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