New BBC documentary reveals chilling police tapes in one of NI’s most shocking murder cases

Colin Howell

A new BBC documentary series will bring to light chilling, never-before-broadcast police recordings from one of Northern Ireland’s most disturbing murder cases, shedding fresh insight into crimes that remained hidden for almost two decades.

Confessions Of A Killer tells the story of dentist Colin Howell, who on 29 January 2009 walked into a police station in Coleraine, County Londonderry, and confessed to murdering his wife, Lesley Howell, and his former lover Hazel Stewart’s husband, Trevor Buchanan, 18 years earlier.

The two-part series features original audio recordings of Howell’s confession to police in 2009. Broadcast publicly for the first time, the recordings offer a rare and unsettling insight into Howell’s actions and the mindset that led him to finally admit the truth after years of deception.

In May 1991, the deaths of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan were initially believed to be the result of a tragic “suicide pact”.

That version of events was accepted at the time, allowing those responsible to evade justice for nearly two decades. The documentary reveals how the reality behind the deaths was “shockingly different”.

While examining Howell’s detailed account of the murders, the series also centres the lives of the victims themselves.

Confessions Of A Killer remembers Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan, exploring who they were beyond the headlines and the devastating impact their deaths had on family members and those closest to them.

The programme also revisits the role of Hazel Stewart, Howell’s lover at the time of the killings. It examines her involvement in the case, her recent unsuccessful appeal against her sentence, and her claim that she acted while under Howell’s coercive control — a claim that continues to generate debate and legal scrutiny.

Adding depth and context, the documentary includes interviews with people who knew the victims, as well as investigators, journalists and legal experts who followed the case closely. Those most directly affected by the events also reflect on the long shadow cast by the murders and the eventual unravelling of the truth.

Produced by Below The Radar Television with support from Northern Ireland Screen, Confessions Of A Killer arrives as a powerful and sobering examination of manipulation, betrayal and delayed justice — and as a reminder of the human cost at the heart of one of Northern Ireland’s most notorious crimes.

Both episodes will be available on Tuesday 20 January from 6am on BBC iPlayer.

The first episode will also air that evening on BBC One Northern Ireland at 9pm, and will be shown again on Sunday 25 January on BBC Two at 9pm.