A retired coal miner told his daughter that he would kill himself at the first opportunity after failing in a suicide pact with his terminally ill partner in Cyprus.
David Hunter, 74, has been charged with murdering his wife of 52 years, Janice Hunter, in December 2021. However, he insists that it was her wish to die.
In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, it was told how David is alleged to have suffocated Janice, who had leukaemia, before taking an overdose of prescription pills, but he was found and survived.
His daughter Lesley Cawthorne, 49, who is supporting her father, has revealed his turmoil as he faces a life sentence behind bars unless the charge is reduced to assisted dying.
Speaking to her from prison in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia, he told her last week: “I do not know how to live without her.
“I’m Janice’s husband, and without her, I don’t really know who I am.”
David, a miner for 40 years in his native Northumberland before the pair moved to retire in Cyprus, says he acted out of love for 75-year-old Janice.
Janice had “begged” David for him to end her pain, Lesley says.
When Lesley first spoke to him after events in December – in a tearful call as he lay in a Paphos hospital – he told her: “I’m so sorry, I love you, but I want to be with your mum. I’m so sorry but as soon as I get a chance, I will kill myself.”
Lesley begged him not to, saying she could not lose them both. “There are people out there doing bad things,” she says. “All my dad did was love someone.”
Janice was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2016, and both she and David had endured heartbreak in the late 1980s that influenced their decision more than 30 years later, Lesley said.
Janice’s sister Kath died of leukaemia and Janice had vowed not to endure the same pain should she face a similar fate.
While David’s mum Rachel died of ovarian cancer, and Lesley recalls how Rachel had asked her son: “Just make it stop David, I’m so tired.”
Lesley told the Mirror how her dad “talks to mum every night” from his cell, which he shares with nine other men.
He dreams of his wife’s screams of pain as her blood cancer took hold.
“He adored her,” a tearful Lesley tells us. “The only thing he really cared about was giving his family a nice life. Now it’s ended like this there’s a real possibility he will die alone in a foreign prison.
“I cannot bear the thought of anyone thinking badly of my dad, because my dad really is the loveliest of men.”
Lesley calls David every day and every time she is relieved to hear his voice. Lesley, a compliance consultant, said. “He’s sad and very lonely.”
In his better moments, David tells how he longs to be back in Ashington, Northumberland, and to walk along the beach.
“He talks about mum all the time. He tries to remember the good times and looks back on family holidays.”
Janice’s side of the family fully supports David, Lesley said. “They just want him home – they love him.
“Mum begged him for a long time (to assist her death) and was very clear about what she wanted. She was very much of the opinion that we have autonomy over our bodies.”
David had told Lesley that Janice asked him to help her to die but she says: “My dad was very good at reassuring me. They never really let on how bad she was.”
She says her parents suffered with Covid lockdowns, which she claims made it harder to get medical support.
David will face a life sentence in Cyprus for a murder charge, while assisted suicide carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
He pleaded not guilty to murder in a February court hearing in Cyprus.
Lesley is raising funds for legal fees via the Crowd Justice website with the total at £14,000 so far.
But time is running out, as David’s trial in Paphos begins on April 18.
Michael Polak, of UK-based Justice Abroad, is representing David. The group has written to the island’s attorney general to ask for the charge to be downgraded. “We will be doing everything we can to get David home,” he said. “It is in the public interest that he does not spend the rest of his life in prison. Nobody I’ve spoken to in Cyprus believes David Hunter should be on trial for murder.”
Police turned up at Lesley’s door in Norwich on December 18 to explain the situation in Cyprus. David had called his brother after taking an overdose and asked him to “look after Lesley”. His brother contacted UK police, who contacted Interpol and David was soon found.
It is unclear if a note was left as items taken from the home have not yet been given to the defence.
The next day David explained to Lesley that her mum had been in constant agony, and felt she had lost all her dignity – she had continual diarrhoea, was suffering horrific nosebleeds and her sight was going.
She was unable to eat, drink or sleep, despite being exhausted. Lesley said David was unable to get her upstairs so they lay in reclining chairs downstairs, holding hands. Lesley, who has a pathological fear of flying, was unable to attend the funeral in Cyprus but helped to organise it.
Janice would have turned 76 on March 30, and the day after marked the 57th anniversary of when they first met in a pub in Ashington.
“He thought she was the most beautiful girl in the town,” Lesley recalls.
“She came over and said: ‘You can buy me a drink if you want’. He bought her a Bacardi and Coke, and that was it. They adored each other.”
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
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