The 51-year-old from Glebe Road, Killorglin dressed in a gray suit and striped tie, given thoughtful and troubled since Mr Justice Heart detailed his heinous crimes that years of severe distress and heartache caused and troubled lives.
The Antrim Crown Court judge, sitting in Belfast, but for the Howell guilty pleas and a willingness to testify during the trial in February of next year Stewart, he would have imposed a minimum period of 28 years for him to serve before being considered for release from prison.
Mr. Justice Hart said that the double murders were really heinous crimes, as they did the cold blooded, planned and carried out carefully brutal double murder of two people that Howell saw as standing in the way his adulterous desire to with Hazel Buchanan.
Each murder was carried out when the victim asleep and was therefore completely defenseless. Even if they moved in their sleep Howell did not pull back and save their lives, but physically restrained their weak signs of approaching of consciousness, so that their deaths. Mr. Justice Hart
The dentist, who was ￡ 414000 richer on murder of his wife, dropped his head as Mr. Justice Hart detailing how he openly admitted implementation of the murders on May 18, 1991.
Howell, said the judge, "conceived, planned and implemented the double murder, and did so in as fashion designed to make it appear that his wife and Trevor Buchanan their own lives in a suicide pact".
In both cases, gassed Howell his sleep victims with deadly carbon monoxide fumes that an approved snake out of his car.
He initially murdered his wife and drove to the Buchanan House where he repeated the operation.
In both cases, as each made a last-ditch effort to cling to life, Howell, cold bloodedly pressed them until they fell back, lifeless.
He then drove to the House of his former father-in-law, and placed the organs in the car and ran another pipe from the exhaust, and to the left of the engine is running.
Mr. Justice Hart said that as a result of the murder of two innocent people, "six children were deprived of the love of their father or their mother.
"The reputation of their innocent parents, who had already been damaged by Howell, were further stigmatized by the false implication that they have their own life in a suicide pact."
The Court added that their close knit families were "obviously devastated by these deaths" and also suffered on the mistaken belief that they had taken their own lives.
Mr. Justice Hart said the many poignant, deeply moving and worthy stories by the families had shown "that many people seriously affected for many years by his there killings".
The judge said that he is also a letter from the family of the of the dentist in which they recognize "he has been guilty of a terrible crime, but the judge to take into account that he was known to the police questions" reads.
However, Mr. Justice Hart said that the "premeditated and brutal way the murders were planned and executed, the grave impact on the lives of so many others, the financial benefits of Howell, pain and sadness that he allowed others to experience for so many years before he confessed his guilty are all aggravating factors and should be reflected in the minimum period that he serve before he can be considered for release".
The Court added that Howell itself, in a letter to the judge, also accepted he was "an intelligent man who knew exactly what he did ... and explicitly power every attempt to rely on a psychiatric explanation for his behavior".
But Mr. Justice Hart acknowledged that while Howell are to blame for nearly two decades hidden "driven by his conscience to confess" to his new wife and the elders of the Church, he also "expressed his remorse for what he described as" the horrific crime I acted and for which up to 18 years "".
But, he added that "unpalatable though it seems too many" who pleaded guilty and accept their "public debt" and are willing to testify, "must receive a lesser penalty".
Mr. Justice Hart said it also tragic that such murders, carried out at "lustful desires are not uncommon" here or elsewhere.
But in his conclusion, Mr. Justice Hart noted that two, not only a murder on this occasion were done.
They were "two separate murders," he added, "and although they were closely related both in time and the manner in which they were carried out, they were nevertheless distinct and separate offences".
In his judgment, Mr. Justice Hart pointed to the fact that 47-year-old Mer Ballystrone Road, Coleraine, still facing trial for the murders.
While he did not go to her alleged role in them refer did, Mr. Justice Hart also stated that "nothing I say or do is taken reflect on her innocence or guilty of the charges against her".
Hazel Stewart is to go on trial on 7 February next year.
c UTV news
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