Hazel Stewart has the “full backing and support of her family” including her two children with Trevor Buchanan, her lawyers said today. In a statement issued after the double killer lost her appeal, KRW Law said that Stewart is considering a “final application to the CCRC” or the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Stewart, 62, is serving a minimum 18 years behind bars for the killing of Constable Trevor Buchanan, 32, and 31-year-old Lesley Howell, the wife of her former lover Colin Howell. Both were found in a fume-filled garage in Castlerock, Co Derry , in May 1991. In its statement on Wednesday, Stewart’s lawyer, Kevin Winters of KRW Law, said: “It shouldn’t be lost on any one that Hazel Stewart has the full backing and support of her family which includes Trevor Buchanan’s two children. That support has been with her ever since her conviction for her role in the double killing of her husband and Colin Howell’s wife over 20 years ago.” Stewart’s appeal against her sentence was based on the grounds that she was a victim of coercive control by her co-accused Colin Howell. The KRW statement also referred to how Stewart “engaged with the criminal justice agencies in an open and transparent manner to present as a victim of criminality”. It added: “She made her case to a specialist abuse unit of the PSNI to allege that she was drugged, sexually and mentally abused and raped by Colin Howell. For that she is to be commended in taking the decision to come forward. It wasn’t taken lightly. “She wants to thank the investigators for pushing her case as best they could before a direction was eventually taken by the PPS to decline a prosecution. After a lengthy review process that direction was affirmed. It was against this background that a decision was then taken to mount an application to reopen her sentence.” In the Lady Chief Justice’s ruling she referenced this facet of the appeal. She said an affidavit by Stewart’s solicitor “made extensive reference to a drama series regarding the murders broadcast in 2016 which resulted in complaints being lodged about the content with the Office of Communications (Ofcom)”. The ruling added: “The court noted that what appears to result from that is an instruction from the applicant to her solicitor to contact the authorities with a view to commencing a criminal investigation into the applicant’s allegations of drugging and assault against Howell. “Allegations were first made during police interviews in 2009, when the applicant was being questioned as a suspect in the murders. The applicant declined to make a criminal complaint against Howell at that time and a decision was made not to prosecute him in November 2020 and affirmed following review in May 2021.” KRW said that to support the assertion that she was a victim of coercive control “new medical evidence” was established after “world renowned expert in coercive control, Dr Duncan Harding” examined the case. They added that Wednesday’s ruling “doesn’t end the quest for Hazel Stewart to highlight that she was a victim of coercive control”. The statement said: “It’s also important to note that the substance of Dr Harding’s findings hasn’t been challenged in any way. He prepared three reports based on detailed consultation with our client and significantly having access to detailed medical and other records none of which were seen by all other previously commissioned experts.” For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our politics newsletter here.