Killer dentist Colin Howell won’t receive a penny of his half-a-million-pound pension due to the sick sex acts he carried out on drugged patients, Belfast Live can reveal.
Howell - who is currently serving a life sentence for the double murder of his wife Lesley and his lover’s husband Trevor Buchanan - has been denied a total of £587,526.27.
The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety forfeited Howell’s pension on the basis that his convictions for indecently assaulting drugged patients were “liable to lead to serious loss of confidence in the public service".
A spokeswoman for the department told Belfast Live: “The Department is unable to comment on personal data."
In May 2011, Howell was sentenced to five and a half years for sexually assaulting five female patients. He admitted sedating the women then abusing them in the dentist’s chair of his surgery in Ballymoney between 1998 and 2008.
Howell is due to be released no earlier that 2030. And while he may have believed he was due to receive his NHS pension at retirement age, instead he won’t receive a thing.
Details of the forfeiture emerged after Howell’s estranged wife Kyle Jorgensen - mother to five of his children - instructed her legal team to enquire whether or not she was entitled to any of the pension.
Ms Jorgensen, 50, a New York native who now lives in Florida with her children, made the enquiry in a bid to seek financial security for her family.
Following “careful consideration” by the Department, it was decided that all of Howell’s HSC Pension Scheme benefits would no longer be paid.
Howell, now 57, had murdered first wife Lesley, 31, and Trevor Buchanan, 32, in nearby Coleraine in 1991.
His deceitful life finally unravelled after he lost £350,000 in a “get-rich quick” scam in the Philippines.
He had netted £212,446 from Lesley’s will, £27,000 from the estate of her father, a £120,000 life insurance payout and a £54,635 endowment policy.
But his greed led to his downfall and he was declared bankrupt owing £250,000 tax.
His former lover Stewart, 53, who remarried after their split, got 18 years for her part in the murders.
Stewart is currently embroiled in a legal battle over police pension benefits inherited from her murdered first husband.
The National Crime Agency was due to go before the High Court to seek an order for her to repay funds she gained following the death of Mr Buchanan.
But the civil action was put on hold due to ongoing difficulties in securing legal aid for the former Sunday school teacher to defend the action.
The shocking story of the double murder will be portrayed in a television drama starring Jimmy Nesbitt as Howell.
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