My dying wife begged me to kill her, says OAP held for Cyprus ‘murder’
THE British pensioner accused of murdering his terminally ill wife in Cyprus broke down in tears as he told yesterday of the moment he killed her.
David Hunter, 75, was overcome as he detailed his agonising final minutes with Janice, 74, as he took the decision to end her suffering.
He described how they had met at a miners’ hall dance in 1966 and said ‘never in a million years’ would he have killed his ‘ best friend’ had she not asked.
But his teenage sweetheart had been reduced to wearing nappies, was covered in skin lesions and could no longer stand as a result of her devastating blood cancer.
The retired Northumberland miner had to treat her at home with injections due to Covid rules as she deteriorated in front of him.
In her last days, she was crying out in agony 24 hours a day, unable to move from their sofa or take painkillers as she pleaded with him to kill her.
Hunter was testifying for the first time after over 20 court appearances in 18 months. ‘I would never have helped her end her life if she had not begged me,’ he said.‘For six weeks she asked if I could help her. For six weeks I refused.’
But he said he finally relented and took her life on December 18, 2021. Hunter went on: ‘I don’t
remember a lot of the last day. I went to make a cup of coffee and she started crying.’ He told how he went to the kettle and gripped the bench for support as his wife sat sobbing next door.
‘The next thing I knew I put my hands on her,’ Hunter said, wiping tears from his eyes. ‘When it was finished, she was a grey colour.
‘She didn’t look like my wife and it was the first time I cried in
years.’ He told how he had stood by her side and put his left hand on her nose and right hand over her mouth to smother her. Afterwards, he kissed Janice on the forehead and said he loved her.
Hunter then took an overdose of drugs and alcohol before calling his brother to confess what he had done. Police were alerted but the pensioner, who had retired to the Mediterranean island with his
wife, said he cannot remember being arrested or interviewed.
Pressed by prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou on why he did not give his wife a drugs overdose, he said she was too weak to swallow.
Telling how sick she had become, Hunter added: ‘The last two or three weeks she could not move her arms and had trouble with her legs, she couldn’t balance.
‘She was only eating soup, she couldn’t hold anything down. She lost so much weight that there was no flesh to put injections in.’
He said she was ‘stuck in the house’ because of her diarrhoea, a side- effect of her medication which meant she had to wear nappies for her last three years.
‘I felt so helpless and hopeless,’ Hunter said. ‘For five or six weeks before she died, she was asking me to help her, asking more each day. In the last week, she was crying and begging.
‘I didn’t want to do it after 57 years together. I really didn’t.’
When Mr Hadjikyrou suggested Hunter had planned to kill Janice, he said: ‘I would never in a million years take my wife’s life if she had not asked me. She wasn’t just my wife, she was my best friend.’
After the hearing, Hunter told the press that he was happy to finally give his account.
‘The last six months [of my wife’s life], I wouldn’t like anyone to go through that,’ he said. ‘Prison is nothing compared to what we went though.’ The trial continues at Paphos District Court.
‘I felt so helpless and hopeless’