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PUBLISHED IN LONDON A dentist who is standing trial for murdering his wife and his lover’s hus- band, has now also been charged with assaulting six of his female patients. Colin Howell and his ex-lover Hazel Stewart were charged ear- lier this year with murdering his wife Lesley, 31, and Stewart’s husband, 31. The victims’ bodies were found in a car filled with exhaust fumes at a garage behind a row of houses in Castlerock, Co Lon- donderry in May 1991. A coroner originally ruled that Mrs Howell and RUC consta- ble Trevor Buchanan had taken their own lives, but the case was reopened after new information was given to the police. Howell, from Sea Road, Cas- tlerock and Stewart, from Bal- lystrone Road, Coleraine, were having an affair at the time of the alleged murders. Howell will now undergo a second criminal trial for the 17 indecent assault charges which are alleged to have taken place over a 10-year period on six wom- en at his dental practice. He is ac- cused of assaulting one of them six times, and another four times. The 17 indecent assault charges were put to him at a brief preliminary inquiry hearing at North Antrim Magistrates’ Court in Coleraine, Co Londonderry. The identities of the six women have been banned from publication after district judge Richard Wilson agreed to a request by a representative from the Public Prosecution Serv- ice for reporting restrictions to be applied in respect of the names. Howell, who once ran a dental implant clinic in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, has been in custody since his arrest. Stewart was granted continu- ing bail but she must report daily to police in Coleraine. She has al- ready handed over her passport. Howell was known as a top implant specialist. He did a lot of lecturing in the Middle East and was hired by King Abdullah II to teach his own team of dentists the latest techniques. He had two dental practices in Ballymoney and Bangor and charged more than £2,000 for each dental implant. The next hearing in the case will be in September. DT Dentist Colin Howell faces a second trial for alledgedly assaulting female patients July 19-25, 2010 VOL. 4 NO. 19 Dental access improves Access to NHS dental services has improved in the last six months, according to a recent patient survey. The GP Patient Survey is a quarterly survey of GP adult patients, which is managed by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Department of Health. This is the first time that dental questions have been included in the survey. The survey car- ried out between January and March 2010 revealed that 92 per cent of people had been able to access NHS dental services in the last two years. The results also found that ac- cess to services has improved in recent months, with 95 per cent claiming they were able to arrange an appointment in the last three to six months. Forty-one per cent of people had not tried to get an ap- pointment with an NHS den- tist in the last two years. The most frequent reason for not trying for an NHS dental appointment in the previous two years was ‘I stayed with my dentist when they moved from NHS to private’ which was mentioned by 21 per cent of adults. Eighteen per cent of people said: ‘I didn’t think I could get an NHS den- tal appointment’. For 78 per cent of adults the last NHS appointment sought was for routine dentistry; 18 per cent were seeking an ur- gent appointment and two per cent didn’t remember the type of appointment. Eighty- one per cent of the most re- cent appointments sought were with the dental practice previously attended. North East Strategic Health Author- ity (SHA) had the largest per- centage of the adult popula- tion seeking an NHS dental appointment in the last two years, at 66 per cent, whilst South Central SHA had the smallest, where 52 per cent sought an NHS appointment. Employee wellbeing Three quarters of organisa- tions believe a dental plan enhances employee well- being, according to the 2010 Dental Benefits Survey by Denplan. The survey also found 34 per cent of respond- ents that are considering adding or removing benefits in 2010 were considering adding a dental plan. More than half (62 per cent) of the companies said that regular- ity of use is an important fac- tor when choosing employee- paid benefits. www.dental-tribune.co.uk Licking a cricket bat A look at Professor Lewis’ ISDH 2010 lecture Useful tool Dr Paul Jones discusses CBCT in Endodontic treatment Get involved Share your skills with Bridge2Aid News in Brief Endo Tribune EventsEvent ReviewNews Oral Health Month Colgate launches month-long public campaign page 2 pages 6-7 pages 11-22 page30 Murder trial dentist charged with assaulting female patients Murder case takes bizarre twist as six patients now complain of indecent assault charges against dentist