:00:08. > :00:11.Next week, the Police Ombudsman will deliver a report on the police
:00:11. > :00:16.investigation into the double murder of Lesley Howell and Trevor
:00:16. > :00:21.Buchanan. The report is expected to be highly critical of the original
:00:21. > :00:26.police investigation. Tonight, we examine the role of two A former
:00:26. > :00:31.detectives, the key investigators were of Detective Inspector Jack
:00:31. > :00:36.Hodgkinson and his boss, retired superintendent Hamilton Histon, and
:00:36. > :00:39.discovered evidence of a flawed and compromise investigation. We have
:00:39. > :00:43.followed this case since Colin Howell convinced that he and his
:00:43. > :00:48.lover, these are Buchanan, had murdered his wife and her husband
:00:48. > :00:53.in 1991. Colin Howell would like people to believe he committed the
:00:53. > :00:58.perfect crime, a double murder that filled the authorities and those
:00:58. > :01:01.closest to him. But tonight, we turn the spotlight on the original
:01:01. > :01:11.police investigators to unveil a shocking catalogue of failings at
:01:11. > :01:36.
:01:36. > :01:40.Over the past two years, we have spoken to scores of people close to
:01:40. > :01:45.this case, and we have amassed a large body of Pibroch work, and
:01:45. > :01:49.what is now clear is that, from the very moment officers arrived at the
:01:49. > :01:53.scene in Castlerock, they failed to carry out basic procedures that
:01:53. > :01:57.would have alerted them to foul play. Tonight, we are the words of
:01:58. > :02:02.a former policeman, who said he told police of his suspicions at
:02:02. > :02:08.the time. I spoke to the investigators on more than one
:02:08. > :02:11.occasion and expressed the fact that I was very suspicious. A bit,
:02:11. > :02:16.area this year at Hazel Stewart's murder trial, Jack Richardson said
:02:16. > :02:21.under oath, I have no recollection of any concerns. People felt bad
:02:21. > :02:25.but nobody raised any concerns. And we hear from a leading expert on
:02:25. > :02:29.crime scenes who exposed significant flaws in the original
:02:29. > :02:36.investigation. There were so many loose ends and discrepancies that
:02:36. > :02:46.deal only way to get to the bottom of this is to do a formal criminal
:02:46. > :02:52.
:02:52. > :02:56.investigation or have a public On the morning of the murders in
:02:56. > :03:00.May 1991, the bodies of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan were
:03:00. > :03:04.found in a garage behind a row of cottages at Castlerock. Those
:03:04. > :03:07.called to the scene assumed it was suicide. Even the most basic
:03:07. > :03:13.inquiries would have revealed to police that all was not as it
:03:13. > :03:17.seemed. In spring 1991, Colin Howell was playing the role of the
:03:17. > :03:21.repentant sinner. He had been caught out, having an affair with
:03:21. > :03:31.his will Buchanan, Trevor's wife. To have it was absolutely
:03:31. > :03:36.devastated. He gave the impression to me of loving his will, and the
:03:37. > :03:40.absolute devastation he felt was etched on his face. The couple
:03:40. > :03:45.promise to end the relationship and the two couples, Trevor and his
:03:45. > :03:49.will, Colin and Lesley, were receiving Christian counselling for
:03:49. > :03:55.her pasta at call rain batters just. Unbeknown to the passing and their
:03:55. > :04:01.spouses, : and Hazel were continuing their affair. Colin told
:04:01. > :04:08.a continuous beam of lies from the beginning. Lesley told her best
:04:08. > :04:12.friend, Beth Middleton, about the decline of her marriage, how her
:04:12. > :04:19.husband Doctor replied so that he could stick -- slip out there to
:04:19. > :04:24.see Hazel, for sex. He had been giving her extra tablets, so that
:04:24. > :04:30.she could not wake up, so that he could sneak out at night. She was
:04:30. > :04:35.very upset about that. She said I am not annoyed about him leaving at
:04:35. > :04:41.night, but I was unconscious, I was slipping, and if there had been a
:04:41. > :04:44.fire or anything, the children, they would have perished. Lesley
:04:44. > :04:50.confided to a small group of friends about Colin hill's has
:04:50. > :04:56.increasingly suspicious behaviour. -- Colin Howell. She said, a couple
:04:56. > :05:00.of times, that Colin is not all that he seems. Look back night she
:05:00. > :05:04.received a phone call from Wisley. She wanted to talk about an
:05:04. > :05:09.incident that had frightened her. She told me that she had been in
:05:09. > :05:16.the bath, and she was listening to a two recorder which was at the
:05:16. > :05:22.side of the bath. : with the data recorder and a live cable DUP into
:05:22. > :05:25.the bath, sending an electric pulse shooting up harmed. She said, how
:05:25. > :05:34.could it have fallen into the bath, when he was coming away from the
:05:34. > :05:40.baton? -- from the bathroom? She said I wanted to tell you in case
:05:40. > :05:44.anything happens to me. Just six week later, Colin Howell rang to
:05:44. > :05:47.say that the bodies have been discovered, and she said that her
:05:47. > :05:57.first instinctive reaction was to lash out, assuming that he was
:05:57. > :06:01.
:06:01. > :06:09.somehow to blame. I heard that she was dead, and I shouted out, what
:06:09. > :06:14.have you done, what have you done? And he said, no, it was suicide.
:06:14. > :06:19.The fact, Colin Howell had staged an apparent double suicide at the
:06:19. > :06:24.Castle Rock Cottage. He had Pashtun the love that plan to poison Lesley
:06:24. > :06:33.and Trevor with gas, and with his or Buchanan, he put the plan into
:06:33. > :06:38.action. -- Hazel Buchanan. Colin Howell directed into look at the
:06:38. > :06:44.apostles cottages, the places where he had left the bodies. A I went
:06:44. > :06:48.round the back of the house, went to the garage, and it was a
:06:48. > :06:55.beautiful morning. I shaded my eyes, and I looked down. So you nothing
:06:55. > :06:58.in the garage, he drove back to Colin Howell's house. Undeterred,
:06:58. > :07:02.Colin Howell sent Jim Flanagan, another judge member, to the
:07:02. > :07:07.cottage. Then, Colin Howell showed him a supposed suicide note from
:07:07. > :07:12.Lesley. Colin Howell also explained a bruise on his head, saying he had
:07:12. > :07:15.bought with Trevor, the previous evening. Two years later, Jim
:07:15. > :07:20.Flanagan was sitting in church, when a call came through from Colin
:07:20. > :07:27.Howell, directing him to the Twelve Apostles cottages again. This time,
:07:28. > :07:31.he took off-duty policeman, David green, with him. I think I froze.
:07:31. > :07:37.The cost to see Trevor in the front seat, he had been dead for some
:07:37. > :07:42.time. -- because two Celsius Gerber. I looked at the back of the car,
:07:42. > :07:49.the boot, and Lesley was lying there. I will never forget what I
:07:49. > :07:55.thought was a smile on her face. Adding, obviously, we decided we
:07:55. > :08:00.had to go and contact the police. Which we did, from inside the house.
:08:00. > :08:05.Minutes later, a police car was dispatched to the scene. Spotlight
:08:05. > :08:12.understands that the incident had been reported as a double suicide.
:08:12. > :08:15.The fact that police had assumed they were dealing with suicide,
:08:16. > :08:20.Vincent they arrived at the scene is crucial to understanding why a
:08:20. > :08:24.murder investigation was never launched. But the state pathologist
:08:24. > :08:27.has worked on hundreds of homicide cases. She has looked at
:08:27. > :08:31.photographs of the scene, and says there are many reasons, including
:08:32. > :08:38.the position of the bodies, to have regarded the death as suspicious
:08:38. > :08:43.from the outset. It is a suicide pact, and the intent to go together,
:08:43. > :08:46.and that means being physically close. Usually the bodies are side
:08:46. > :08:53.by side. The first thing I would have thought would have been
:08:53. > :08:58.unusual. The female who is in the book of the car, how she is lying,
:08:59. > :09:03.it would be difficult to know how she had got into that posture. That
:09:04. > :09:07.would immediately concern me. I would be wondering if that could be
:09:07. > :09:12.explained by her body being actually pulled into the position
:09:12. > :09:18.in which she was found. He is sitting in the front driver's seat.
:09:18. > :09:24.He doesn't particularly look as if he was sitting there in a relaxed,
:09:24. > :09:29.seated position and was overcome by fumes. A former assistant head of
:09:29. > :09:33.CID who has led over 20 murder inquiries, has studied our findings
:09:33. > :09:37.at various stages. He says it is hard to believe, given the highly
:09:37. > :09:43.unusual position of the bodies, that a pathologist was not called
:09:43. > :09:47.to the scene. A I would want a pathologist at the scene. I would
:09:47. > :09:52.want to do just taking every 15 minutes to get a cooling pattern,
:09:52. > :09:55.and of the evidence comes out that they were killed at different times,
:09:55. > :09:59.then the cooling pattern would be different for old, which would show
:09:59. > :10:03.that the deaths did not happen at the same time. Trevor Buchanan was
:10:03. > :10:09.the scenes of crime officer. He would have known exactly how to
:10:09. > :10:13.kill himself, if that have been his intention. Yet the supposed suicide
:10:13. > :10:16.was shoddy to stop Trevor's leg was sticking out of the door. There was
:10:16. > :10:21.carrying fumes into the car was loose, and it had been partly
:10:21. > :10:26.crushed by the lid of the Brit. Add the gap under the door of the
:10:26. > :10:31.garage would have allowed the exhaust fumes to escape. You should
:10:31. > :10:35.reconstruct it with the loose pipe, the carbon monoxide fumes, and then
:10:35. > :10:39.test how long it takes for enough fumes to get into the garage, to
:10:39. > :10:44.cause loss of life. In this case there was no be construction. The
:10:44. > :10:50.car was not seeking a way for further examination. Police arrived
:10:50. > :10:54.at the garage at 1:45pm. By late afternoon, the scene was clear.
:10:54. > :10:58.have got 24 hours, before you remove anything from the scene.
:10:58. > :11:03.Once you move the scene, you can never reconstruct it in the same
:11:03. > :11:07.way. Not only did the police clear the scene too quickly, it was not
:11:08. > :11:11.properly investigated. Only one item was taken away to be
:11:11. > :11:16.investigated. Colin Howell was allowed to return to the scene,
:11:16. > :11:20.days later, to retrieve the car, and sell it. We have seen a
:11:20. > :11:25.statement that the cream of St -- scene-of-crime officer told the
:11:25. > :11:35.police that when the deaths were investigated as murder, in 2009.
:11:35. > :11:38.
:11:38. > :11:44.So, how could the police have got it so wrong? Why did they not carry
:11:44. > :11:47.out basic tests at the scene? Did they really think that two people
:11:47. > :11:54.not in a relationship would forge a bizarre suicide pact, or could it
:11:54. > :11:58.be that they were wrongly assuming that Lesley and Trevor was like
:11:58. > :12:03.having an affair? That is given support by former detective, David
:12:03. > :12:07.Green. We have spoken to David green many times in the course of
:12:07. > :12:12.this investigation and examined his nose in detail. He did not wish to
:12:12. > :12:18.appear on camera, but we have reconstructed his interviews with
:12:18. > :12:23.police in 2009 in which he explains his original notes. We had been
:12:23. > :12:33.thinking that they were the people that had been having the affair.
:12:33. > :12:38.
:12:38. > :12:43.The scenes of crime officer If there was a belief that Trevor
:12:43. > :12:51.and Lesley were having an affair, routine forensic tests could have
:12:51. > :12:58.dismissed it. Why had the police not fingerprinted the wine glass?
:12:58. > :13:02.If there had been no fingerprints on it then it was off, because they
:13:02. > :13:05.were not wearing gloves. Derek Macaulay said he sat in on a police
:13:05. > :13:12.interview. He said that Jack Richardson seemed to have made his
:13:12. > :13:17.mind up about the cause of death. When I spoke to Jack Hutchison, he
:13:17. > :13:22.seemed convinced it was suicide. I found it strange that Trevor was an
:13:22. > :13:32.affront and Lesley was in the back. And I put that to Jack, and Jack
:13:32. > :13:33.
:13:33. > :13:37.Hutchings and said, he felt that the trigger change his mind. He
:13:37. > :13:41.believed they got disorientated with the carbon monoxide poisoning.
:13:41. > :13:45.Jack Hutchison's belief in the suicide theory was not shaking
:13:45. > :13:50.evening he would believe it was Colin and his will who were having
:13:50. > :13:53.a sexual affair, and not Lesley and Trevor. He said in his nose that
:13:53. > :13:58.Lesley and Cheddar were definitely not in a relationship. Police
:13:58. > :14:03.should now have been trying to ask difficult questions, but Colin
:14:03. > :14:05.Powell and diesel Buchanan were never murder suspects, were never
:14:05. > :14:12.fingerprinted and applauds and holds were not examine. The police
:14:12. > :14:22.did not even check their Alawites for the night of the murder. Pass
:14:22. > :14:30.
:14:30. > :14:34.Had alarm bells been or bringing and detectives had searched for the
:14:34. > :14:41.homes of Lesley Ann Trevor, they would have found that the hosepipe
:14:41. > :14:45.used in the murder had been burned. One of the detectives was uneasy
:14:45. > :14:48.from the outset. He was not stationed in Coleraine, but he
:14:48. > :14:53.would spend the next two years trying to crack the case in his
:14:53. > :15:03.spare time. I had a strong gut feeling that there was something
:15:03. > :15:05.
:15:05. > :15:12.that was not right. I have to say, through the years, the thought that
:15:12. > :15:17.this guy was involved never left me. Howell told the ombudsman that he
:15:17. > :15:22.panicked that he would be caught out by forensics. As well as
:15:22. > :15:26.concerns about DNA and forensics, he was particularly worried about
:15:26. > :15:30.the bomb on his head he got during this final struggle with Trevor. He
:15:30. > :15:36.said in the immediate period after the murders, I was in a state of
:15:36. > :15:41.shock and considered myself to be vulnerable. As such, had I thought
:15:41. > :15:46.of being given any indication police suspected me, I may have
:15:46. > :15:51.admitted the murders then. He need not have worried. Colin and Hazel
:15:51. > :15:59.were never interviewed under caution. The man who discovered the
:15:59. > :16:04.bodies was not interviewed until along time afterwards. It was 4th
:16:04. > :16:12.May 1992 when I was asked to go to the police station. A year later?
:16:12. > :16:16.Yes, more or less. If the right questions were not been asked from
:16:16. > :16:26.the start, concerns are also being raised about the autopsies carried
:16:26. > :16:29.
:16:30. > :16:37.out when the bodies were discovered. The autopsy of Trevett took place
:16:37. > :16:43.at 815 -- the autopsy of Trevor took place at 8:15am. The one on
:16:43. > :16:47.the woman followed shortly afterwards. They work quite short
:16:47. > :16:51.autopsies. More disturbingly, there are
:16:51. > :16:56.allegations that Trevor had injuries on his face that were not
:16:56. > :17:03.recorded in the autopsy. His family say they remember seeing injuries
:17:03. > :17:10.on his face and the Police Ombudsman has photographs showing
:17:10. > :17:18.injuries around the mouth and nose. We asked the pathologist had such
:17:18. > :17:24.injuries been present, would foul play had been success -- have been
:17:24. > :17:30.suspected? It is always suggestible a potentially, there had been an
:17:30. > :17:36.assault. And in the case of what we are assuming, a double suicide,
:17:37. > :17:41.that would raise some concerns. pathologist in question insists
:17:41. > :17:51.that had there been injuries to trap her's hair and face, he would
:17:51. > :17:51.
:17:51. > :17:57.have noted then in his report. -- Trevor's hair and face. But when he
:17:57. > :18:02.saw the photographs, he did see an area of darkness to the right of
:18:02. > :18:09.Trevor's mouth. However, he said he did not see bruising and the
:18:09. > :18:13.photograph was taken from a distance. But the apparent
:18:13. > :18:18.discrepancies have been latched onto by the police. The senior
:18:18. > :18:22.investigating officer on duty that weekend says he was not informed of
:18:22. > :18:28.their injuries and lays the blame for any oversight firmly with the
:18:28. > :18:34.pathologist. If the alleged injuries have been put to the
:18:34. > :18:43.notice of the police on 19th May 1991, this would have added a new
:18:43. > :18:53.dimension to the investigation. Jack Hutchison likewise puts the
:18:53. > :18:53.
:18:53. > :18:57.blame on the pathologist. So when explaining bet failure to
:18:57. > :19:02.investigate the deaths properly, police criticised the pathologist,
:19:02. > :19:06.but they reserve some of their greatest criticism for a man they
:19:06. > :19:10.believe withheld a vital piece of evidence. A piece of evidence had
:19:10. > :19:15.they known about it at the time they say would have changed the
:19:15. > :19:20.course of the investigation. On 21st May 1991, Lesley Ann Trevor
:19:20. > :19:28.were buried on the same day and from the same church. I remember
:19:28. > :19:33.the ceremony. I remember watching Colin brink in the children. He
:19:33. > :19:37.lifted Matthew up to kiss the coffin. It was heartbreaking.
:19:37. > :19:45.earlier that day, Colin Howell have written a long letter to Hazel
:19:45. > :19:49.Buchanan and asked Derek McAuley to pass it to hedging the service. 20
:19:49. > :19:55.years later the letter has become one of the most controversial
:19:56. > :20:05.pieces of evidence in this case. Police claimed it was deliberately
:20:05. > :20:10.withheld from them by some members of Coleraine Baptist Church. Derek
:20:10. > :20:19.McAuley steamed open the letter and kept a copy. He also passed a copy
:20:19. > :20:24.to be passed up. -- to the pastor. In the last paragraph he appears to
:20:24. > :20:32.confess. He says I have taken a mother from her children, but God
:20:32. > :20:37.will provide for them. But at the time, it was interpreted that those
:20:37. > :20:42.were the words of a man who had driven his wife took suicide.
:20:42. > :20:52.just took it that he drove Les League Two committing suicide
:20:52. > :20:54.
:20:55. > :21:01.because of the way he treated her. -- he drove Lesley to committing
:21:01. > :21:11.suicide. But why did he keep a copy? I don't know why I did. Maybe
:21:11. > :21:14.
:21:14. > :21:23.I thought it was because I thought if the other copy was mislaid,
:21:23. > :21:27.there would be another one. I put it away and it wasn't the same
:21:27. > :21:31.place for 18 years. But John Hansford deny seen the letter and
:21:31. > :21:38.Scylla couple of years ago. A I was aware that the letter was passed
:21:38. > :21:43.from Colin to Hazel at the funeral service. -- I was. At his own
:21:44. > :21:53.wife's funeral. I was not aware of the content what the weather.
:21:54. > :21:56.
:21:56. > :22:02.sad that letter was not revealed at the time. -- what so were there.
:22:02. > :22:09.put the letter in his hand. He sat in his front room and read it.
:22:09. > :22:15.watched him read it? I sat beside him. 150 %. But Pastor John
:22:15. > :22:25.Hansford says that Derek McAuley is mistaken. He says he was shown the
:22:25. > :22:33.
:22:33. > :22:38.So it is now a matter of dispute between John Hansford and Derek
:22:38. > :22:43.McAuley over whether the past to read the letter at that time. But
:22:43. > :22:47.why didn't Derek McAuley give the letter to the police? He says it is
:22:47. > :22:51.because he gave it to the pastor and also he thought it referred to
:22:52. > :22:59.suicide and not murder. If the police have done their job properly
:22:59. > :23:06.and interviewed us 18 years ago, they would have got him. From what
:23:06. > :23:16.we hear now, and there was enough evidence for them to be suspicious,
:23:16. > :23:36.
:23:37. > :23:41.they knew it was not suicide. But why would a letter whose
:23:41. > :23:45.meaning at the time was less than clear have altered the course of
:23:45. > :23:48.the investigation when in 1991 the police disregarded this series of
:23:48. > :23:53.specific allegations that the deaths were suspicious. One of
:23:53. > :23:59.those who told the police of her suspicions was one of Lesley's
:23:59. > :24:05.friends. She has testified under oath that she told detectives, whom
:24:05. > :24:12.she later named as Hutchison and Houston, about the Bath incident
:24:12. > :24:20.and fears that Colin was drugging Lesley. He tried to put a cable
:24:20. > :24:28.into the bath. If he got the letter, he would have investigated it as a
:24:28. > :24:32.murder case. But he had a witness which is more important than a
:24:32. > :24:35.letter. It is beyond belief. A what is clear is that a number of people
:24:35. > :24:42.did a police at the time they were worried about the nature of the
:24:42. > :24:46.deaths. We note that Pastor John Hansford relayed his concerns to
:24:46. > :24:56.police at the time because his handwritten notes were found in
:24:56. > :24:58.
:24:58. > :25:05.Jack Hutchison's own paperwork. Consistencies will also been
:25:05. > :25:11.outlined. There was fake Grieve, clearing out Lesley's effects.
:25:11. > :25:15.Helping to push out the car in Castlerock when it was been
:25:15. > :25:22.collected. I can't imagine I would want to do that if my wife had been
:25:22. > :25:29.found dead. Also, how did you get the injury to his head? Did you
:25:29. > :25:33.tell detectives Hutchison this? did. But the nose go further. They
:25:33. > :25:41.actually detail times and dates of several meetings he had with
:25:41. > :25:44.Hutchison and Houston. On 20th May he asked them to look again at an
:25:44. > :25:49.injury on Colin Howell and the possibility that he was trucking
:25:49. > :25:54.Lesley. Mr Houston has no recollection of this request. Green
:25:55. > :25:59.also notes another meeting with senior detectives about the suicide
:25:59. > :26:05.note and its contents. David Green's version of events seemed to
:26:05. > :26:10.be supported by Jack Hutchison's and paperwork, which we have seen.
:26:10. > :26:17.If we place the notes side-by-side with green's action plan, there are
:26:17. > :26:22.obvious parallels. Green says, Lesley asked reverent if he thought
:26:22. > :26:28.Colin was tried to kill her? Hutchison rights, do you think
:26:28. > :26:38.Colin is tried to kill me? Green says, or phone call from Colin to
:26:38. > :26:42.
:26:42. > :26:45.Hazel before police a right. -- are rife -- arrive. Hamilton Houston
:26:45. > :26:51.has told Spotlight that if David Green had genuine concerns, he
:26:51. > :26:55.should have put them forward in writing to his superiors in 1991.
:26:55. > :26:59.But the detectives investigating the deaths seem to have had their
:26:59. > :27:04.own suspicions. We know they went back to Hazel Buchanan to ask it
:27:04. > :27:09.Colin had been violent towards her. Colin claims that Jack Hutchison
:27:09. > :27:19.came to his house, showed him the hosepipe and raised the prospect of
:27:19. > :27:20.
:27:20. > :27:26.murder St, Colin, you would need to be clever to get away with murder.
:27:26. > :27:31.The alleged suicide note was sent for further tests in 1993, more
:27:31. > :27:36.than a year after be inquest report to the deaths and suicides. So did
:27:36. > :27:40.police have nagging doubts? Witnesses came to them with
:27:40. > :27:45.alarming allegations about Colin how well and David Green says he
:27:45. > :27:48.was alerting them to holes in the suicide story. It is possible that
:27:48. > :27:52.any suspicions they may have had came too late after crucial
:27:52. > :27:57.forensic evidence had been cleared from the scene. But if that was the
:27:57. > :28:01.case, why did they not collect the evidence they had an take
:28:01. > :28:06.statements from those people who suspected foul play? And ultimately,
:28:06. > :28:11.why did Jack Hutchison say he had no recollection of people raising
:28:11. > :28:15.concerns? Sometimes investigating officers get into an entrance
:28:15. > :28:20.position where they have made a decision on a case and everything
:28:20. > :28:29.else does not fit, so they ignore it. It is clever later on when they
:28:29. > :28:32.are interviewed to say they have no recollection. For the families of
:28:32. > :28:38.Trevor Buchanan and Lesley how well, these latest revelations mean they
:28:38. > :28:44.have had to relive the grief and horror of their loved ones's deaths
:28:44. > :28:49.for a second time. We knew Trevor was not the sort to take his own
:28:50. > :28:59.life. He was absolutely besotted with his wife and his children and
:29:00. > :29:01.
:29:01. > :29:05.he was also a man of very deep faith. We never accepted that
:29:05. > :29:14.Trevor took his own life, and certainly not with the other person
:29:14. > :29:20.present. There was nowhere to go with it. We fully accepted what we
:29:20. > :29:25.were told because we believed that a thorough investigation had been
:29:25. > :29:30.made by the police. A police family themselves, it was the Buchanan's
:29:30. > :29:37.who lodged the complaint with the ombudsman, prompting the inquiry.