21 years for dentist after double murder

A ruthless dentist who murdered his wife and ex-lover's policeman husband as they slept and then covered it up as a double suicide has been jailed for at least 21 years.

Colin Howell, 51, from Glebe Road, Castlerock, Co Londonderry, was told by Mr Justice Anthony Hart at Belfast Crown Court yesterday that he had committed heinous crimes and showed no mercy to two defenceless victims.

Last month Howell was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to poisoning his wife, Lesley, 31, the mother of their four children, and Pc Trevor Buchanan, 32, who was the husband of the woman with whom Howell had been having an affair at the time, in May 1991.

The dentist killed both in their respective homes in Coleraine using carbon monoxide fumes.