‘Mercy killing’ Briton is a good man – daughter
A BRITISH man facing life in prison over the “mercy killing” of his terminally ill wife in Cyprus is a “good and kind” man and was a devoted husband, his daughter insists.
David Hunter, 74, is accused of murdering his wife, Janice, 75, in December last year at their retirement home in Tremithousa.
The couple had been together for 56 years but recently she had been suffering from leukaemia, had arthritis and failing eyesight.
Her family say she was in “dreadful” pain and had repeatedly asked her husband to end her life. It is alleged he eventually agreed and suffocated her before trying to take his own life with an overdose.
Lawyers for Mr Hunter petitioned the attorney-general of Cyprus with a 14-page letter, requesting that the charge of murder be downgraded to one of assisted suicide. But their request was turned down. Mr Hunter faces a charge of premeditated murder, meaning the former miner from Northumberland will receive a mandatory life sentence if he is convicted.
After his arrest, Mr Hunter spent 10 days in a psychiatric hospital before he was transferred to a prison in Nicosia, where he has been held since.
His daughter, Lesley Cawthorne, described him as a good man, who did not deserve to spend the rest of his life in jail.
She said: “He’s not going to hurt anyone else and I don’t think justice is best served by him spending the rest of his life in prison. I know if he gets a life sentence it will be a death sentence – he will die in prison. He wouldn’t be around for long as he’s struggling in there already, or I think he’ll take his own life.”
Michael Polak, Mr Hunter’s lawyer, told The Daily Telegraph: “We will submit that this case does not fit within the bounds of murder. This is the first case of its kind in Cyprus. The Cypriot parliament has been debating legalising euthanasia so it seems particularly unfair that he is charged with murder.”
In a recent poll of 750 Cypriots, 61 per cent agreed with a person’s right to choose euthanasia while 79 per cent said it should be an option for people suffering painful conditions. Mr Hunter’s family are raising money online for his defence through a crowdfunding page, crowdjustice.com.