Retired British miner David Hunter said he couldn’t find the words to describe his feelings as he stood outside a Cypriot court as a free man for the first time in 19 months.
Hunter, 76, was released from prison on Monday shortly after being sentenced for the manslaughter of his seriously ill wife Janice.
The pensioner was jailed for two years, but allowed to walk free almost immediately, having already served 19 months in custody.
Hunter’s daughter Lesley Cawthorne said she “felt like my heart has been put back together” after speaking to him on a Facetime call shortly after his release, in which he told her he loved her.
Speaking through tears, Ms Cawthorne said: “I thought I’d lost him forever. I cannot believe it. It’s amazing.
“I don’t know what to say. When I see him I’m going to hug him and never, ever let him go.
“I’m going to feed him and make sure he’s eating and I’m going to just hug him so tightly.
“I just didn’t think, after the way the case has gone, that this was possible.”
I can’t describe it. I’m sorry. I wish I could, I wish I could find words to describe it but I can’t— David Hunter
Sentencing Hunter, judge Michalis Droussiotis refused the defence team’s application to suspend Hunter’s prison sentence and said an immediate jail term was “unavoidable”.
But after passing the two-year sentence, he said that Hunter would “soon be in a position to leave jail and live his life” due to time already served.
He was told he could leave custody minutes later after Cypriot prison authorities officially calculated his release date.
Asked by reporters outside how he was feeling, a visibly emotional Hunter said: “I can’t describe it. I’m sorry. I wish I could, I wish I could find words to describe it but I can’t.
“When you’re under pressure for two years, not knowing which way it’s going to go, you don’t know.”
Hunter, from Ashington, Northumberland, told his trial, which lasted for more than a year, that his wife “cried and begged” him to end her life as she suffered from blood cancer.
He broke down in tears as he said he would “never in a million years” have taken Mrs Hunter’s life unless she had asked him to.
He showed the court how he held his hands over his wife’s mouth and nose and said he eventually decided to grant her wish after she became “hysterical”.
The court heard he then tried to kill himself by taking an overdose, but medics arrived in time to save him.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Droussiotis said: “We are not facing a typical case. This is not a case acting out of animosity or differences between two people that led to someone taking another’s life.
“Before us is a unique case of taking human life on the basis of feelings of love, with the aim of relieving the person of their suffering that came due to their illness.”
Judge Droussiotis said there may never have been a case like this in Cyprus and that the message for any future similar cases had to be that “taking away human life, even with the intention of relieving suffering, is a crime”.
Outside the Paphos Assize Court, Michael Polak, the director of Justice Abroad, an organisation that has been assisting David Hunter’s case, said: “We’re very very pleased with the decision today. This is what we’ve been fighting for for over 12 months, for him to be released.
“We’re very pleased with the court’s decision. We think it was a fair decision and one in line with the interests of justice.
“It’s a pity he spent so long in prison but he’s really looking forward to getting out and now this allows for him and his family to properly grieve.”
Ms Cawthorne previously said she believes her father will initially choose to stay in Cyprus to be near Mrs Hunter’s grave and “say his goodbyes properly”.
