Tears of Briton on trial in Cyprus over ‘mercy killing’ of cancer-stricken wife
A British pensioner has gone on trial accused of murdering his terminally ill wife in Cyprus.
David hunter, 76, broke into tears as he was forced to tell how cancer victim Janice died in his arms.
he has admitted smothering the 75-year-old but insists he did so out of love and then tried to take his own life.
speaking to reporters after being driven to court from jail, he said: ‘she wasn’t just my wife, she was my best friend. it’s like a black hole. Janice’s sister had died from leukaemia and she saw what was coming.
‘she made me promise her if she ever got it to help her. she said “i don’t want to go through that”. she knew the symptoms and saw them coming.’
hunter has been incarcerated in Nicosia’s overcrowded central prison since January and if convicted of murder faces spending the rest of his life behind bars. he tried to take his own life moments after informing his brother, who lives in the UK, about what had happened. When police turned up at the villa he was slumped in a chair next to the body of his wife.
hunter’s lawyers told the court it was an assisted suicide under the laws of all European Union countries except Cyprus. But police officer theodoros Christoforou insisted in Monday’s hearing that ‘ all the evidence pointed’ to premeditated murder. he cited as evidence a whisky bottle discovered in the sitting room, close to the armchair where
Janice had taken her last breath, and a fingernail found beneath the victim’s lips.
But ritsa Pekri, for hunter, asked why the defendant was questioned immediately after he was arrested without the help of a lawyer or an interpreter.
the Briton, who has lost a dramatic amount of weight, was described as being ‘beside himself’ with grief and stress as he took in the court proceedings.
Michael Polak, a British barrister who runs the legal network Justice Abroad, said: ‘ he knows that he is facing a potential life sentence but he is very adamant that what he did was not premeditated murder.’
the trial lasted several hours before judges broke off proceedings and ordered hunter to be returned to the prison where his diet is said to consist of little more than olives and beans.
the couple’s daughter, Lesley, who has rallied to her father’s defence, says she fears he will die in a foreign prison ‘all alone’ if he is not allowed to walk free.
‘he is very depressed,’ she added. ‘his mental health is probably the worst it has been.’
the trial in Paphos, western Cyprus, was adjourned by the assize court until tomorrow when other prosecution witnesses are expected to give evidence.
the couple had moved to the Mediterranean island from Northumberland where hunter had
spent 40 years working as a miner.