A desperate daughter begged her father to stay alive during a video call moments after he killed his terminally ill wife.
David Hunter, a former miner from Ashington in Northumberland, claims he killed his wife of 52 years Janice at their home in Cyprus at her request due to her incurable blood cancer. Harrowing video footage was shown today in Paphos assize court of the minutes after David suffocated his wife, the Mirror reports.
An emotional David watched the video in court showing his and Janice's daughter Lesley Cawthorne, 49, screaming for him to survive. She said: "You cannot leave me. Daddy, just concentrate on me, forget about everybody else and concentrate on me.
"Daddy you love me, you know you do, I’m your girl. I’m your little girl daddy. I remember how you walked me down the aisle and you said I was beautiful. You cannot leave me daddy. I beg you. We really love you - we do not care what you have done. We just want you safe."
In the video, a police officer with Lesley can be heard asking if David had taken something, but he did not respond. Mr Hunter is accused of the pre-meditated murder of his wife Janice, 74, who was suffering from terminal leukaemia at their retirement home in Cyprus, with his murder trial expected to last until Easter 2023.
Mr Hunter called his brother William in the UK to confess to killing his wife before saying he was going to take his own life with a drug and alcohol overdose. William alerted the police who dashed to Lesley's home in Norfolk and advised her to make a video call to her father for evidence on December 18, 2021.
It is unclear from the footage whether Mr Hunter had taken the concoction or was in shock. David claims to have suffocated his wife of 52 years as she no longer wanted to live due to the agony caused by her leukaemia.
Michael Polak of Justice Abroad is David's lawyer. He said afterwards: "The reason we played the video in court is because it shows David is in a state of shock and doesn’t understand what’s going on around him.
"We say that when the statements were taken from him by police he was in no state to be interviewed. It’s remarkable that the police interviewed him without any psychiatric assessment of him.
"There’s no way that if this case had been in the UK he would have been interviewed in those circumstances because police would have got a psychiatric assessment to make sure he’s OK and to make sure the evidence is reliable. This, along with the fact he didn’t have a lawyer or interpretation, mean that those statements should be excluded from the case."
During his pre-trial hearing today (Wednesday January 18), 75-year-old David spoke in court for the first time since he was remanded in custody more than a year ago. He broke down in tears when the prosecution showed him a picture of his wife's lifeless body in their home - which he had not seen before.
He rejected claims that Janice had struggled when he suffocated her after prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou read a statement from David where he said he had. The statement, which was taken down by a Cypriot detective in the immediate aftermath of Janice's death, read: "I went back from the sofa she was sitting on and closed her nose and mouth with both my hands for about 10-15 minutes until Janice died.
"I was trying to save her by killing her. Janice was resisting and was holding my hands."
David insisted at the hearing: "My wife was just lying there. Later on I was told she struggled but I know I would never hurt my wife. My hands had no scratches on them."
Speaking outside the court afterwards, David said: "I never would have killed her in a million years. She didn’t ask me, she begged me. The last five weeks she was begging me. She didn’t resist. Because of the cancer she couldn’t even lift her hands."
Andreas Hadjikyrou, prosecuting, said that David had told police officers on the evening of Janice's death what he had done. He said: "You told (an officer) ‘my wife has leukaemia and she had too much pain and she asked me to help her not to suffer any more. Afterwards I killed her with my hands.’.”
Mr Hadjikyrou also said that David had told a nurse he "couldn't stand to see (Janice) suffer" and that he told police in hospital that he had killed her to save her. David said he could not remember saying any of those things.
Mr Hadjikyrou said David made a confession whereby the Brit said Janice had told him: "Dave, I do not want to live anymore."
The same statement, which was taken in the immediate aftermath, read: "As soon as killed her I kissed her goodbye. I know what I did to Janice was wrong but now Janice does not suffer and she can rest in peace."
David said he could not remember making any of these statements. He told the court when the police came to the couple's retirement home in the village of Tremithousa, he recalls everything looking "like a dream" after taking "all the drugs in the house".
He said: "When (the police officer) was asking questions all I could see was his face - like a tunnel. I wasn’t listening because my mind was elsewhere."
David added that he did not know anything in relation to his rights as a suspect and that he remembered "very little" from the evening. His defence argues statements taken between December 18 and 21, when he was psychologically assessed, should be thrown out.
David and Janice's daughter Lesley has set up a CrowdJustice campaign to pay for Mr Hunter's legal costs. It has now raised more than £28,000 of a £40,000, and you can find out more or donate here.
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