Expat Briton held in Cyprus cell for the ‘mercy killing’ of his cancer-stricken wife
A DAUGHTER is fighting to bring her father home from Cyprus where he is being held in a cell accused of the mercy killing of his wife.
Lesley Hunter has pleaded with Cypriot authorities to ‘show some compassion’ after they charged 74-year-old David Hunter with the pre-meditated murder of Janice, 75.
She had been suffering from leukaemia since 2016 and her health had deteriorated rapidly in the months before her death.
Mr Hunter allegedly suffocated his wife of 51 years before trying to take his own life by overdosing at the home they shared in Paphos on December 18.
Yesterday he pleaded not guilty to murder and must remain in custody until his trial on April 18.
UK-based law firm Justice Abroad is working with his daughter to get the charge changed to assisting suicide.
‘Justice won’t be served to me by my dad going to prison, it won’t make me feel better. The only thing that will help me is getting my dad back,’ said Lesley, 49, from her home in Norwich.
‘He loved my mum. He never lifted a hand to her. He cherished her and he cared for her – he did everything for her.’
Mrs Hunter had refused to have chemotherapy after seeing what it did to her sister, Kathleen, who died from leukaemia in 1987.
The Cypriot parliament is currently discussing whether to legalise euthanasia, a taboo subject among the majority Greek Orthodox community of the Mediterranean island.
Mr Hunter, a former miner from Ashington, Northumberland, and his wife, who used to work in a corner shop, used their savings to fund their move to Cyprus in 2002. But shortly after arriving on the Greek island, they were struck by illness.
Mrs Hunter developed cataracts, rheumatoid arthritis and had to have her appendix and ovaries removed as well as a cancerous growth on her face.
Mr Hunter suffered a stroke a few months before his wife was diagnosed with leukaemia and the couple feared he would never walk or talk again. Although he made a good recovery, his wife’s condition steadily deteriorated.
Their ordeal was made more difficult as only child Lesley could not visit due to a heart condition which is triggered by panic attacks while flying, meaning they had not seen each other in person for over ten years.
It also means neither she nor her father could be there to bury Mrs Hunter at her funeral in Cyprus. Lesley spoke to her father two days after her mother’s death. ‘He just kept saying, “I love you, I want to die, I want to be with your mum, I don’t want to be here”,’ Lesley said. ‘It was heartbreaking – my big strong dad, my hero – to hear him so broken.
‘People ask, “Do you forgive him?” There’s nothing to forgive. My dad was a good man, a strong man, a gentleman. He would never hurt my mum – he loved her.
‘When I was young, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t sort. Now I want to be able to do the same for him.’
She has launched a Crowd Justice campaign to fund her father’s defence. If you want to donate, visit: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-bring-david-home
‘There’s nothing to forgive’