A BBC doc reveals Colin Howell’s confessions to murdering his wife and her lover, leading to renewed charges and life sentences.

A two-part BBC documentary, *Confessions of a Killer*, premiered on January 20, 2026, featuring previously unreleased confession tapes from Colin Howell, the former dentist convicted in the 2005 deaths of his wife Lesley Howell and her lover Trevor Buchanan. In the recordings, Howell, then 50, admitted to murdering the couple and staging their deaths as a suicide pact, citing a crisis of faith and personal turmoil. He also confessed to inappropriate relationships with patients and using drugs from his dental practice on his partner, Hazel Stewart. The revelations led to renewed investigation and life sentences for both Howell and Stewart, who remain imprisoned. The documentary, available on BBC iPlayer and broadcast on BBC One NI and BBC Two, includes interviews with victims’ acquaintances, journalists, and Stewart. Howell, sentenced in 2011 to five and a half years for indecent assault, cannot appeal.