Murder trial for dentist and ex-lover

Colin Howell, 51, and Hazel Stewart, 47, who stood in the dock for a preliminary inquiry at North Antrim Magistrates' Court in Coleraine, were told they had a case to answer by deputy District Judge Jim McFarland.

They are due to appear again at Antrim Crown Court on May 11, but it is expected to be later this year - may be September at the earliest - before the trial goes ahead.

The pair were charged again on Monday with murdering Howell's wife Lesley, 31, and Stewart's husband, police scenes of crime officer Constable Trevor Buchanan, 31, in May 1991.

Their bodies were found in a car filled with exhaust fumes at a garage behind a row of houses known as The Apostles in Castlerock, Co Londonderry.

Both replied "No" when they were asked if they had anything to say in reply to the charges or if they wanted to call witnesses.

It was the second time they had been in the dock together since they were first charged in January last year when police re-opened their investigation into the deaths, which at the time were thought to have been suicides. Mrs Howell was the mother of four young children, one of them just months old.

Stewart - she later remarried - from Ballystrone Road, Coleraine, wearing a dark coat and trousers, stood with her hands clasped and her head to the one side, eyes down, when the charges were put to her again today.

With a prison officer in between, Howell stood to her left, pale-faced with his hands behind his back, wearing denim jeans and a white fleece. At no stage during the eight-minute hearing was there any eye contact.

Relatives of Constable Buchanan looked on from the public gallery, on opposite side of the courtroom where four of Stewart's sisters sat. Her husband, ex-police Chief Superintendent David Stewart, stood by the exit door.

Howell, who once ran his dental implant clinic in Ballymoney has been in custody since his arrest and he was sent back to Maghaberry Prison, near Lisburn.

Stewart was granted continuing bail but she must report daily to police in Coleraine. She has already handed over her passport.

She was represented at Monday's hearing by lawyer Peter Sefton and solicitor Stephen Hastings. Howell's lawyer Francis Rafferty and solicitor Adrian Harvey were also present.

Howell is also facing separate charges of drugging and indecently assaulting four of his women patients on various dates over a 10-year period up until December 2008.

A preliminary inquiry is due to go head in Coleraine on May 10.