Original subtitles

- I brought death into the family,

and this has been my punishment.

It's all right.

It means that God and I are all square.

- How can you say that?

- Because I now know that I am forgiven.

- You said before that you'd repented and had been forgiven,

but that's not true.

God is still punishing us.

- But don't you understand? - What?

- You remember in the book of Samuel

how David saw Bathsheba bathing?

He fell in love and just had to possess her.

He engineered to get her husband killed.

He took a life, so God punished him by taking his son.

I sinned and God took my son,

but with David's repentance,

God forgave him and he became a great king.

Now, I have been punished and I too will be forgiven.

- But you still haven't repented, Colin!

- No, God allowed David to become a great king.

God allowed David to prosper, and I will prosper.

- Colin, you're--

- Divine guidance has show me a way to gain great wealth,

anywhere performing good works.

I have new business interests,

through them I will show you that God supports me!

- I want you out of the house.

- No don't, Kyle, don't.

I'll show you I'm forgiven.

He's guiding me now.

- I just don't believe you anymore!

- He's shown me a way to bring us great wealth.

Hello, hello?

Hello, yes, it's Colin Howell here.

That's right, yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, how's Manila?

Colder here now, I have to say.

So, I just wanted to, um,

confirm that the second tranche, the second payment.

That's right, if you can confirm that that has gone through,

then we can start to work on the third tranche, thank you.

Lovely to talk to you.

- I can't believe how tall you've gotten.

- Am I taller than Dad was?

- Easily.

But he used to sleep on boards

to make sure he was tall enough to join the RUC.

- I don't remember him being really tall.

- You want a cup of tea? - No, I'm all right.

Thank you, Dave.

- Andrew's got lectures this afternoon.

- You want me to run you into the station?

- No, I'll take him.

- I'm driving though. - No, you are not!

- I am, give me that! - No, go.

- Please! - No.

- Why not? - Bye!

- Go ahead and take this to the Northern Bank

as soon as it opens tomorrow.

Tell them I am the sender,

and it's going to this overseas account.

The reference is church work.

- Of course, Mr. Howell.

Of course.

- Don't tell anyone.

In 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army left huge quantities

of sequestered gold in the jungles of the Philippines.

No one has located it, until now.

- Good lord.

- A church contact in Manila has a team

which has now pinpointed

the precise location of these assets.

The blue sky potential of the salvage operation

after costs and commission, is north of 10 million pounds.

The objective is to finance

a global Christian charity initiative.

I inherited a considerable sum after I lost Lesley,

and as a man of faith,

it seems more than right to invest in a worthy cause.

So far, I've committed 150,000 pounds,

and I wondered if the fellowship could match that?

- I'm not sure, Colin.

That's a considerable amount of money.

This puts me in a very uncomfortable position.

- This is only open to a very select

and sophisticated investor profile,

like minded Christians on a very discrete basis.

Now, phase four has been completed

on schedule and on budget.

Phase five will be actioned next week

at the excavation site.

We just need the last tranche of operational cash.

I've sold my half of the mining practices

as a show of confidence in the venture.

- Colin, this is all sounding very dodgy.

- Peter, my first recovered assets.

- What do you mean, recovered assets?

- What we already have discovered,

what we have excavated already.

They arrive Monday by courier, if you want to see proof,

and listen, Peter,

your investment would guarantee the final survey.

So listen-- - No, I can't.

- So would you like to come in with 30,000?

- You know I can't.

- 10? - I can't.

- No, okay, listen.

If you can get me by the weekend, I'll take five.

God.

My God.

My God.

- He's on his way.

You need to come now.

- I understand there's something

you'd like to share with us, Colin.

- I fear for my immortal soul.

I have been unfaithful to you, many times,

and I have touched

female patients.

- I touched them sexually.

They were under sedation.

I can't stop this.

I've taken 238,000 pounds from patients

whose treatments I might not be able to complete.

Maybe more.

I owe over 100,000 to the Inland Revenue.

I've emptied our savings account.

I've lost 360,000 pounds.

We'll lose this house.

We'll lose everything,

and all of our Japanese war gold,

the whole thing was a gigantic con.

It was a fraud, and I realize that I...

I realize that I am a fraud.

My whole life has been a fraud.

God finally told me,

I've heard his actual voice.

- If we put all our sins before the cross,

the resurrection of both the just and the unjust

take place on Judgment Day.

- On,

the night of May the 18th,

1991,

I murdered my wife, Lesley, and Trevor Buchanan.

What Hazel and I were doing

was causing so much pain to Lesley and Trevor,

I actually thought I could take that away from them.

We talked about divorce,

but I believed that would cause

the children too much suffering.

In my mind, it was much worse for Lesley and Trevor

to live than to die,

so I made a plan to kill them,

and to make it look like suicide.

It had to be done very, very quickly

to fool the pathologist.

The times of death had to be very close together.

I wanted it to be, um...

Easy and painless.

They'd fall asleep, they wouldn't feel anything,

but in the end, they did.

Lesley woke up, she called out for,

she called out for Matthew, and Trevor woke up.

I'd told Hazel to get 'em

to take something to make them fall asleep.

But he woke up and he fought,

so Lesley and Trevor both knew they were going to die.

After the struggle, when Trevor was dead,

I told Hazel to clear things up.

I never thought I'd get away with it,

but God knew.

He took my son,

and Lesley and Trevor,

they both knew death was coming.

Lesley died

with Matt's name on her lips.

That was God's warning to me.

- Hello.

- How you doing? - Hi.

- These police officers would like to talk to you.

- Why?

What's been said?

- Just tell the truth.

Everything will be fine, okay?

- How've you been?

I'm Detective Sergeant Jeff Ferris.

Can I call you Hazel?

- Yes.

- You're in here because you along with Colin

are suspected of being involved in the murders.

- That's not right.

That's not fair.

Why should I be taken down because of his act?

Why should he drag me down?

I was a victim in my own home because of him.

I accept I am responsible for letting Colin into my house.

- You feel that the only thing that you did wrong

was letting Colin Howell into your house that night?

- Don't you think that's enough?

- When Colin arrived at your house,

you knew he was there to get rid of Trevor?

- No!

No, no.

- Okay, then what action did you take to stop him?

- I couldn't do anything because he controlled me.

He told me to go into the guestroom and not to come out.

I was so scared, I thought if I say something against this,

he's gonna turn around and kill me.

I'm a soft person, but he is a very controlling person.

I was easy prey.

- But you knew why he was coming around.

He rang you.

- He just said, he just said he was coming around.

- Just for a chitchat?

- Well, I didn't think he was coming 'round

with Lesley in the boot, no.

- So, let's go over this once more.

Colin drives right into your garage

with an experienced police officer

and a loaded gun potentially waiting for him.

When Colin was prepared to roll out a hosepipe

right through the house and into the bedroom,

no one found rightly that

this man's not even gonna make it up here?

- Well, he did waken.

He did waken, there was a struggle.

- I'm not surprised he wakened up at that stage of the game.

The fumes could've upset him, woke him up.

But did you give Trevor any drug or tablet,

or whatever that evening?

- Well, Trevor took something because he had some tablets.

- All right, what tablets?

- They were sleeping tablets that Lesley had given him.

- Do you have a problem

with telling the truth in here, Hazel?

You're trying to dig your heels in

to try and distance yourself from it.

How did Trevor get the sedatives in his system?

- I, I didn't actually give it to him.

He took it himself.

I didn't encourage it.

Well, he said he couldn't sleep at night,

so I says, "Well, why don't you take some?"

- Part of the plan was that Colin wished you to do this.

- No, he wanted me to do this, but I wasn't for doing it.

I wasn't doing it.

- So, you're now saying that you were fully aware

that Trevor took a tablet that night?

- He took a tablet.

Yes, I was aware of that.

- You were also aware that maybe as a last resort,

you had to give it to him, which you know,

you didn't want to do, but Colin had asked you to do it.

- Colin had asked me to do it.

- So you were well aware

that Colin would come up that night to carry out his plan?

- He had a plan.

We had a plan, whatever way you want to put it.

- Yes.

- When it came to it, I didn't want to do it.

- And in relation-- - But it's done.

- And in relation to this plan,

do you accept that you went along with it?

- I knew it would happen.

He told me what to do and I did.

- And this plan that you went along with,

do you accept now that you could've stopped it?

- It could've been stopped, yes.

- Your part was to drug Trevor, conceal vital evidence,

and continue the deceit

by fooling police, friends, and family?

- Yes.

- This had to be a joint enterprise between the two of you.

The two of you had to work together

to make this plan come to fruition.

Do you accept that?

- Yes.

- And your relationship continued?

- Yes.

- Your children have grown over the years accepting

what you have told them about the death of their father,

but there's nobody else to blame here, Hazel,

except for you and Colin.

Would you agree?

- The biggest mistake I made in my life

was ever meeting Colin Howell,

and I paid the price for the past 18 years.

I've lost my life.

It was like living with a black hole every day I woke up.

Every night I went to bed, it was there.

I thought about it 24/7,

but I...

I had to be strong for my children.

My guilt was horrendous.

My shame, and I've wrecked my wonderful Dave's life,

and my children's.

They need me, they need me and I can't be there for them.

I can't have them now because of this.

- I phoned the kids.

They know you got bail.

- Will you not look at me?

- Of course.

Sorry.

- It wasn't me back then.

- Hazel,

I know you.

God knows you.

You are the most loving, good, pure person

that I have ever met.

- What am I gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

- Howell?

- Hello again, Colin.

D.C. Devine, how are you?

I'd like to speak with you.

Your lawyer here will confirm

you're under no obligation to talk to me.

No interview being conducted.

- It's up to you, Colin.

- It's fine.

- Hazel Stewart,

as you know, she's been released on bail.

She's pleading not guilty on grounds that you coerced her.

She says it was all down to you.

- Is that true, Colin?

It won't affect your sentence,

but would you be willing to come to court,

and give an account of what took place?

- That's Hazel Stewart.

- Ready?

- I'm frightened.

- Lord, we ask that you watch over our beloved Hazel,

and grant her justice in her time of trial.

Let the jury understand

that she is his victim too, an innocent victim.

- Hazel, are you still confident you'll be found not guilty?

- How has it affected your relationship?

- There she is, bitch! - She'll get hers.

- Come this way, please.

- Is that your client?

- My Lord, the crown wishes to call its next witness.

- Mr. Howell, you made a full confession to the police

in relation to the murders

of your wife Lesley and Trevor Buchanan.

Last year, did you plead guilty

and have now been sentenced in respect of these offenses?

- Yes, that's correct.

- Why did you go to the police?

- I have no other motivation than to tell the truth,

and to allow proper healing to the victims to happen.

- Let's go back to 1991.

I want to ask you about the 14th of May.

Did you meet with Hazel Buchanan?

- Yes.

- Did you tell her a plan? - In the car, yes, yes.

Basically, I said to her,

"I have a plan for Trevor and Lesley.

"It can look as if they've committed suicide,

"but I need your help."

- Did she object to you doing it?

- Not to the principle of killing Trevor,

killing Lesley, no.

- Did you give her anything that night?

- I gave her tablets.

I needed Hazel to cooperate with giving Trevor medication,

so that he would be asleep when I would arrive at the house.

She understood by this stage, before I gave her the tablets,

that that was to be her role,

that one of the first steps of her role

was that Trevor would be asleep when I arrived.

- Had you any particular concern about Trevor?

- Yes, he had a gun, so if I,

if he woke up, he could get up and shoot me,

as simple as that.

- Did you discuss anything else?

- Yes, after she took the tablets,

I felt it was the moment when the plan

was accepted and agreed upon.

It was almost like the contract was signed,

and so I explained to her

the four roles she would have to undertake

for this to be successful.

To give the tablets, step one.

Earlier in the evening,

step two was to leave the car out of the garage.

Step three was to leave the clothes out.

Step four was to cut up the hosepipe and burn it afterwards.

- So, after that meeting in the car,

as far as you were concerned,

how much of the plan had been discussed with Hazel?

- Not all of the detail, but 100% of the plan.

- All rise.

- No, no, no, no, what he's saying is not true!

- There's nothing he said we didn't expect.

- I got away from him.

He's never forgiven me,

yet he controlled everything,

you have to make them believe that!

- Trust me, Mrs. Stewart,

we know what we're trying to achieve.

- Maybe I should speak.

I need to go on the witness stand.

- Mrs. Stewart, as your husband has observed,

the prosecution's first question is likely to be,

"What was it like having sex

"with your husband's killer for four years?"

- We've agreed the way to do this is to expose Colin.

The jury will see him for the liar that he is.

- He's a double murderer.

- He'll make the jury see that.

- You don't know him.

You don't know what he's capable of.

- I suggest you're a man who will simply do

and say anything for your own selfish ends.

You've lied.

You lied to Lesley, didn't you?

- I did, yes.

- You lied to the police.

- In 1991, yes.

- And I suggest you lied about what the accused did,

and you've elevated what she did

to a joint enterprise as an accomplice to you.

- That's not right.

- At your tariff hearing, Mr. Howell,

your defense counsel in an eloquent plea on your behalf,

said that you weren't a monster.

Do you remember that?

- He said what I did was monstrous,

but I was not a monster, yes.

- Yes.

You are a monster Mr. Howell, aren't you?

- I was a monster.

I was a killer, but I'm not any longer.

That's part of my confession.

- Mr. Howell, you've been described as manipulative.

- Absolutely.

I was very manipulative, yes, I was.

- Evil?

- Yes, I was evil.

- Can I use another adjective to describe you, Mr. Howell?

Would you think that you are a controlling person?

- I don't believe that I am.

- Your relationships with women

were not controlling type relationships?

- Actually I was so out of control,

ultimately the women in the life controlled me,

because of the adultery I'd had.

- Did your financial position

improve immeasurably with your wife's death?

- After about a year, yes.

- The net benefit you obtained

from her estate was 212,466 pounds.

Is that right?

- Yes.

- And there were other benefits,

such as life insurance of 120,000 pounds.

Your murderous intent was all about the money, was it not?

- That was not the motive behind it.

That wasn't discussed by me or by Hazel,

because if I had a financial motive,

you'd have to suggest that perhaps Hazel did as well.

- Nothing to do with Hazel at all,

all to do with you, Mr. Howell.

- But this trial is about Hazel.

- Isn't the fact of the matter that you are and have been

for most of your adult life, Mr. Howell, a sexual predator?

- No.

When I went to Hazel's house,

I knew I was not there for guitar lessons.

I walked into the spider's web.

Flies go into a spider's web

because they might think there is some food for them there,

so I willingly went after the bait,

and we got caught together in a trap.

- Isn't your view of Hazel

that she was someone who was fairly simplistic,

and was easy to control?

- We have this wrong perception

of people who are easily led,

people who have the disguise and guile to appear innocent.

A word Hazel used about herself is, "I'm just soft."

But that's part of the huge deception

that I was under about Hazel.

- Are you saying therefore,

that no, you didn't control this?

- The last thing I want to do

is make things worse for Hazel than she deserves,

but control is a very complex thing.

So if I was controlling in one area,

Hazel was controlling in another.

It was a dance between control and manipulation.

Two people waltzing together in time.

I may have been the lead partner,

but she was not dragging her feet.

She was in step and in harmony.

- Is it not that everybody dances to your tune?

What's best for Colin Howell is best for everybody,

isn't that right?

Basically, you just do what you want, really.

- No, this was a completely mutual decision,

as was the abortion.

Like a blood contract that Hazel and I had secretly,

a big secret, a strong bond,

which meant that when it came to my idea

of a joint venture to kill Trevor and Lesley,

we had already signed a contract in blood

that it is okay to kill a human.

Hazel wanted it and I facilitated it.

If you look at the murders,

I wanted it and Hazel facilitated it,

so we were both waltzing in time.

She was my full partner.

- You must weigh carefully

what Mrs. Stewart said in her police interviews.

The legal definition of joint enterprise

does not mean that Mrs. Stewart

had physically to commit the murders herself,

and the word plan does not mean

that there had to be a formal agreement,

worked out in fine detail.

Put simply, the question for you is,

were they in it together?

Did she do everything she could to prevent the murders?

Why did she not wake her husband, keep the door closed,

scream the house down,

or run to a neighbor to raise the alarm and get help?

Will the defendant please stand?

Have you reached a verdict for the murder of Lesley Howell?

- Yes, your Honor. - What is the verdict?

Guilty or not guilty?

- Guilty, Your Honor.

- No, no, that's not fair!

It's not fair, no!

Mommy!

- Put your clothes here.

- Hello?

Yeah, we're coming down about three o'clock.

Yeah, they'll be here later.

All right, see you then.

- You know, I'm quite all right with taking my punishment.

I've repented my sins,

and when I walk back out of here,

I'll have atoned for my crimes and paid my debt.

The slate will be wiped clean,

and I'll have another 20 years of life to enjoy.

My family is known for its longevity.