While it's her husband who will go down in history as the infamous 'canoe man,' Anne Darwin will see her shocking past brought back into the spotlight once again, thanks to the repeat of ITV drama The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe this week.
Twenty one years have now passed since John went out to sea in a kayak, kicking off one of the most controversial missing person inquiries in British history. His apparent disappearance sparked a huge search of the North East coastline, but the reality was that he was very much alive, hiding away in a bedsit in a property he owned.
His disappearance, which was eventually called off with John presumed dead, was in fact a wicked scheme cooked up to fraudulently claim insurance, benefits and pension, to help with Darwin's escalating debt, which was rumoured to be in excess of £700,000. John and Anne even deceived their own sons Anthony and Mark, with their scam stepping up a notch when John got himself a passport using someone else's name and went to Panama, where Anne later joined him, with John going onto claim that he'd also visited other countries, including America.
