‘There are monstrous parts of him, but he was really just pathetic’: son on discovering his father killed his mother and another man

Jonathan Clarke describes shellshock on hearing his father Colin Howell was a double murderer

Colin Howell. Photo: Mohammad Husban

Jonathan Clarke was in his final year at school when he learned that his religious, authoritarian father was in fact a murderer who had killed his mother.

“Someone from the church picked me up from school, which was not normal,” he said.